[color=brown:38clji1p]After a quarter century of the Buckeyes and Bulldogs playing in their annual non-league contest turning into a league contest once again, I thought I’d put together my list of the top 5 games all-time between the schools during the non-league era. There were actually 6 games decided by a touchdown or less, so I couldn’t bring myself to eliminate any one of those games, so I gave two games a tie for fifth place all-time!
#5 1995 - After finishing an 11-1 season in 1994, the Buckeyes lost a lot of talent and many thought this would be the year that Athens would knock off the Buckeyes. The Buckeyes were out to prove they don’t rebuild, they just reload. In the end, it was the Buckeyes who came out on top at Boston Field by a final score of 22-15.
#5 1987 - In the final game of the season, neither team won their respective leagues, so this game was played for pure rivalry and bragging rights. In an outstanding defensive contest at NY, Athens came out on top by a final score of 7-0. In the 25 years of the NY/Athens non-league series, the game was played as a week one contest every season except for 1987 and 1988, when it was the Week 10 contest for each school.
#4 1983 - The one that started it all. After NY left the SEOAL in 1970, the Buckeyes and Bulldogs ended their football rivalry, and did not play between the years of 1970-1982. That all changed in 1983. In fact, so determined were the two schools to play each other every year, that a championship traveling trophy was dedicated to the winner of this game. The Doc Kroner trophy has been awarded to the winner of this game every year since. That year, the rivalry was reborn and the fans were given an outstanding defensive effort by both teams. NY was coming off the '81 State Championship team and the '82 state semifinalist team, and this was the first game played of 1983. The Buckeyes won 12-8.
#3 2000 - At Rutter Field, the Bulldogs were determined to end the jinx of consecutive losses to NY. Athens had not won since 1990. In an evenly matched contest, the difference was a field goal - NY won 17-14. This was the first game of a surprising season that would see the Buckeyes make an unexpected appearance in the state playoffs.
#2 1998 - At Rutter Field, the Buckeyes played their first game as a Division V school, having dropped down from Division IV the previous year. The Buckeyes were also coming off an 11-1 1997 run and lost key players from that team. In the end, the game was decided by a point after touchdown. NY won 21-20. NY went on to advance to the second round of the playoffs that season.
#1 1986 - It can often be argued what is or isn’t the greatest game in a rivalry. In the case of the Buckeyes and Bulldogs, their is one game that stands heads above the rest. At Athens, this defense-dominated game ended in regulation tied 6-6. Then came the first overtime. Neither defense would let its team down. Then came the second overtime. Same result as the first. In the third overtime, the Bulldogs scored a touchdown to win a very emotional contest for the two schools by a score of 12-6.
And there you have my top games on the Buckeyes vs. Bulldogs quarter of a century of non-league contests.
A couple figures…In the last 25 years, NY has won the Doc Kroner trophy 17 times and Athens has won it 8 times.
As a league game in the SEOAL, Athens went 3-0 against the Buckeyes (I do not include the old Greyhounds vs. Bulldog figures in this because they were both pre-consolidation schools). Both NY and Athens consolidated in the same year - 1967, so all games listed are those played with both schools in their present form (NY with Nelsonville and York, and Athens with Athens, The Plains, and Chauncey).
So the Buckeyes will be looking for their first-ever league win over the Bulldogs, and hope to accomplish this goal in the first season of Athens joining the TVC in 2008.
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