This lot offers a unique item, Woody Hayes often sent out a Christmas card to Family, Friends, Football Program Friends, Recruits, and likely many others. This year’s card was a fun, but yet scorched earth, play on how the football program’s 1961 play and efforts was under-appreciated by the broader University. 

You might ask why even a Christmas card regarding the 1962 Rose Bowl, the 48th Rose Bowl Game, which featured the play between the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the UCLA Bruins (not the Buckeyes), with the Gophers defeating the Bruins 21–3. 

Big Ten Conference champion, Ohio State, declined the invitation to play in the Rose Bowl. Days after the conclusion of the regular season, the University's faculty council voted 28–25 against participation in the Rose Bowl. They were under no contractual obligation to accept the invitation following the demise of the Pacific Coast Conference following the 1958 season. Minnesota, the runner-up in the Big Ten, was then offered the "at-large" invitation, and accepted.

This history centered around not just our blue-blood program but the most iconic Bowl of them all, makes this piece of OSU history very unique and certainly in exceedingly rarity.  And please see Woody's whimsical and forgiving book-end Christmas card for the 1969 Rose Bowl trip (lot 32), the pair would make a unique and complimentary run in your collection.

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