KWOS Jefferson City News Authority
Two Top-10 programs will battle on the gridiron tonight in Arlington, Texas in the 88th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. Eli Drinkwitz’s #9 Missouri Tigers will battle #7 Ohio State at 7 at AT&T Stadium. Coach Drinkwitz led Mizzou to a 10-2 record and a New Year’s 6 bowl, earning SEC coach of the year honors. Ryan Day’s Buckeyes are 11-1, with the only loss a heartbreaking 30-24 defeat at Michigan on Thanksgiving weekend.
Ryan Day is 56-7 in his fifth full season in Columbus. The Buckeyes have the nation’s number two scoring defense, giving up just 11 points a game.
The Ohio State Buckeyes have dominated Mizzou in football over the years, with ten wins, one loss and one tie against the Tigers. Mizzou’s only win in the series happened in one of the biggest upsets in Mizzou football history: a 22-21 win over #2 Ohio State in Columbus in 1976. Ohio State had won 25 straight home games.
Mizzou football was known as the giant-slayers in the 1970s, due to their number upsets over Top-10 teams. Mizzou’s gutsy Hall of Fame football coach from 1971-1977 was Al Onafrio, who was known as “Uncle Al” in Columbia. Albert Joseph Onafrio was a World War II veteran who served during the Normandy invasion at Omaha beach. Longtime Mizzou football play-by-play man Bill Wilkerson referenced Coach Onafrio and the giant-slayers of the 1970s, during the 1990 fifth down game against Colorado at Faurot Field.
“There have times in the annals of Missouri Tiger football lore that someone has stepped forward and made a play. At Notre Dame (1978), it was Chris Garlich. At Ohio State (1976), it was Pete Woods. At USC (1976), it was Curtis Brown. At Alabama (1975), it was Keith Morrissey. Who among the 11 black-shirted Tigers today will make the play of the afternoon,” Wilkerson said on-air that day, in 1990.
Mizzou trailed Ohio State 21-7 at halftime in the 1976 game in Columbus but roared back in the second half. Chris Garlich had a huge interception to spark the comeback. Mizzou backup quarterback Pete Woods led the comeback throwing a touchdown to Leo Lewis with 16 seconds to play. That cut the Buckeye lead to 21-20, but Coach Onafrio went for two, and Pete Woods was hit at the line of scrimmage but took several Buckeyes with him into the end zone to score. Mizzou won 22-21, shocking the nation. Coach Onafrio, who died in 2004, was inducted into the Missouri Intercollegiate Hall of Fame in 1993 and was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Tonight’s Cotton Bowl Classic will be televised nationally on ESPN, and you can hear it on the Central Bank Tiger Radio Network from Learfield. Pregame coverage begins at 5 on Central Bank Tiger Radio Network Zimmer affiliates KWOS (AM 950), as well as on KCMQ (FM 96.7) and KTGR (FM 100.5).
