Appreciation of rivalry takes hold, doesn't let go

COLUMBUS (AP) -- Long before he became a linebacker at Ohio State, A.J. Hawk recognized the most important dates on the calendar at his suburban Dayton elementary school.
There was Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. And there was Michigan week.
"Everyone wore their favorite Ohio State stuff the week leading up to the game," Hawk said with a grin. "Stuff like that, you realize how many people around the state and around the world really care about this game. Once you get here, you finally realize the impact this game has on so many people."
For the 101st time, Michigan and Ohio State meet on the football field on Saturday in what is called "The Game." It's a grudge match because of generations who have made it one. When kids get to middle school, they are almost forced to choose: Michigan or Ohio State? That's particularly true in Ohio, where the Buckeyes have no true intrastate rival.
From the first time a boy in either state squeezes his ears into a too-tight helmet to toss a football in the back yard, he is subtly and not so subtly instructed in the ways of the annual end-of-the-schedule showdown.
Michigan's All-American receiver, Braylon Edwards, first learned of the game from his father, Stan, himself a former Wolverines player.
Quotable
"When I was growing up, he never talked about the passion of the rivalry. He never talked about the 'hatred' between the two sides and the two cities," the Detroit native said. "It was more, 'Ohio State and Michigan is a great rivalry. We don't like them and they don't like us.' That's what I learned growing up."
There are pockets of resistance in both states, areas where a local standout played for the other state's team and which continue to offer quiet support. Toledo, which rests on the border between the states, is split fairly evenly between the two camps.
Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith grew up in Cleveland and was steeped in the tradition and the emotion of the game at an early age.
His high school, Glenville -- which has the colorful and unique nickname "Tarblooders" after the rock-hard men who built the railroad that passes through that part of the city -- will be well represented in The Game.
Glenville grad Pierre Woods will play linebacker for Michigan. Former Tarblooders Smith, receiver Ted Ginn Jr., defensive back Donte Whitner will be on the field for the Buckeyes. All are close friends, except for a three-hour period each November.
"We're Ohio State," Smith said of Glenville High's allegiance. "We ARE Ohio State."
Smith considered dozens of schools when he was being recruited as an athlete, but the early indoctrination by all the Buckeyes around him eventually swayed him.
"I always knew it was huge, even when recruiting hadn't really picked up for me. It was my senior year when Ohio State won up there," Smith said. "Even with that win, I felt something: 'Yeah, we beat Michigan.' That meant something to me."
Wolverines fullback Kevin Dudley was a late arrival to the rivalry. He grew up in Indiana and only had a passing knowledge of the enmity between the two schools.
Nothing quite like it
Headed for his fifth Michigan-Ohio State game, he is now a convert. He said there's nothing quite like coming out of the visitors locker room at Ohio Stadium.
"It's unbelievable, going into a stadium where there are over 100,000 people cheering for you to lose. It sends chills through your body," he said. "Running out there, everybody is booing you. Going out there and trying to prove that you're the better team, it's nice."
Ohio State receiver Santonio Holmes grew up in Florida and was more interested in the classic showdowns between in-state schools. It was an uncle, Byron Brown, who first told him about the cold-weather border war.
"He's the one who introduced me to watching Michigan-Ohio State," he said. "I didn't care. I was always watching Florida-Florida State. That was the biggest rivalry in Florida at the time. That was my main focus."
Two years into his career as a Buckeye, Holmes has come around. "It's going to be one of the biggest games of all," he said.