Looking back at: the 1972 Ohio State-Minnesota brawl

Today we are going to add a new occasional feature to join Forgotten Superstars for the odd slow day.
We will look back at the 1972 basketball brawl between Ohio State and Minnesota and what I write may surprise some of you that know of my devotion to the Buckeyes.
I found a video online of the fight and it was the first time that I have ever seen it.
I have read several different accounts of the event and seen still pictures of its aftermath, but never actual film.
I am not going to give an actual second by second account of the fight, although an excellent recap and article can be found here as written by Sports Illustrated Billy Reed in 1991.
Suffice it to say the atmosphere was electric in Williams Arena (Still the Gophers home today) as both teams entered the game undefeated and prepared for their only game of the season.

In 1972, the Big Ten did not have a round-robin, home, and home schedule against every team.

Ohio State and its dean of the Big Ten, Fred Taylor, was the usual powerhouse in the league, although that would change soon as an OSU grad named Bobby Knight was in his second year of rehabilitating the Indiana program.

Minnesota was led by Bill Musselman in his first year at UM after being hired from Ashland College.
Full disclosure-I was living in Ashland when this game was played, although I do not remember it on TV or seeing it, I have always been a fan of Musselman.
When Musselman was the head coach at AC (now AU), my dad took me to all the home games, and even though I can only recall small snippets of those times, they are some of my most cherished memories of my childhood and my dad.
Plus I faintly remember meeting Musselman in the gym a few times at the time and that was a big deal to this toddler.

One of the biggest kicks I had during a Tennessee vacation in 1994 was stumbling over Musselman's biography in a Knoxville bookstore when I was not even aware that such a thing existed and I might have been the only person mad when the Cavaliers fired him in the early '80s.

I wrote Musselman a letter when he was hired as the head coach at South Alabama and he responded and invited me to drop by if I was ever in the area or if South Alabama ever played near me.
I still have the letter and it pops up here from time to time when you dig through things and I even have a reprinted copy of his book on defensive basketball that he self-printed during his tenure in Ashland.
So, I just wanted to make clear my opinion on Musselman before I write this.

In my opinion, some of the incident can be placed on the coach's feet.
He lost control of his team for those few minutes and that caused the ugliness.
The Gophers had two future NBA players on their roster in Jim Brewer and Ron Behagen and a fellow that you have heard of by the name of Dave Winfield, so these were not all inexperienced babes in the woods that were led astray, but none the less the coach should take a chunk of the blame.
Brewer and Behagen were both selected in the first seven picks of the 1973 NBA draft, so these were not talentless thugs sent out to rough up opponents.

Many have looked at the Musselman win at all costs mentality and thought the Gophers were hyped out of control for a big game, were losing late, and lost their composure.
Maybe that was the case, but once that breakdown occurs, the coach should be quickly involved in restoring order and it does not appear that Musselman does that in the film.

Why was the team so hyped up?
Ohio State was the Big Ten's top program at the time, but an underrated factor could be that Musselman wanted to beat OSU so badly because he was an Ohio guy, born, raised, played and coached in the state and until accepting the Minnesota job, had never been employed or lived outside the Ohio boundaries.
Sometimes, the most important win is over the one closest to you and maybe that had something to do with it.

But even assuming the emotional aspect of the game, the players still are not blameless-they were, after all, adults.
Musselman had no way of knowing that violence was going to occur and in my opinion, can be held somewhat innocent for the actions that started the fight by Corky Taylor (Clyde Turner actually ignited it with a hard foul to the head of OSU's Luke Witte).
The thing that surprises me 36 years later is the hatred that still festers among Buckeye fans.

I agree that it should be remembered to try to avoid similar incidents, but with both head coaches being deceased and as noted in the article, Luke Witte having talked and accepted amends from some of the Minnesota players, shouldn't we move on?
I mean the players are nearing 60 now and to actually remember much about it other than by research, you have to be at no younger than 45 now.
Ohio State fans-you do not have to forget, but at least forgive.