Gary Moeller, a unique figure in the greatest rivalry in all of sport passed away on Monday. Moeller was from Ohio and played linebacker at Ohio State in the early 1960s. His time includes 1961, a year Woody Hayes and Bob Ferguson lead the Buckeyes to a national championship. That was the start of the controversy Moeller would encounter in his decades in college football. In 1961, Ohio State won the Big Ten and presumably a trip to the Rose Bowl but the Ohio State faculty voted not to allow the team to go (The faculty thought football was becoming bigger than the school and wanted to stop that and failed).
During His Time At Ohio State:
In his time at Ohio State, Moeller would meet a figure that would become iconic in the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. Bo Schembechler was an assistant at Ohio State when Moeller played there. Moeller joined Schembechler as an assistant coach himself at Michigan in 1969. Schembechler would be infamous in The Game as a Woody Hayes assistant and native Ohioan who had gone to that hated team up north.
In 1990 Moeller would succeed Schembechler and become the only Buckeye player to ever become the head coach at Michigan. If that wasn’t enough to make Buckeye fans hate him, his 3-1-1 record against Ohio State at that school up north sealed that.
During His Time At Michigan:
To Michigan faithful, the good memories of Moeller include three Big Ten Championships, a Rose Bowl win, and a Heisman Trophy winner, as well as a good record against their hated foe in Columbus.
Private services will be held this weekend in Lima, Oho. The hometown where Moeller was born and died. Gary Moeller was 81.
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