Saturday afternoon two teams will meet on a field in Ann Arbor, Mich., for arguably the most storied rivalry in college football. One team already headed to a BCS game and the other still grappling to find its identity. Fans on both sides will be boisterous, belligerent and biased about their team’s certainty for victory.

Yet this rivalry, which kicked off in 1897, was built by two men who lived by similar principles: Hard-nosed work ethic, a drive to be the best and outspoken confidence.

Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes fought each other tooth and nail every year. Though both have passed their legends will never cease to be an inspiration and example to every athlete and coach who ever puts on a jersey or struts a sideline.

Bo Schembechler

“I love to win. Love it. Football is just too hard and too tough if you’re not successful. This isn’t just recreation, and the sport isn’t for everybody. I just don’t want to expend all this time and effort and come up short.”

“If I make a mistake, I’m going to make a mistake aggressively and I’m going to make it quickly. I don’t believe in sleeping on a decision.”

After Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh guaranteed victory over Ohio State in 1986:  “Well, at least I know our quarterback thinks we can win. Rally around him. Let’s go to Columbus and beat the Buckeyes.’

While Michigan Athletic Director, Michigan mens basketball coach Bill Frieder took a job at Arizona State before the 1989 NCAA tournament but wanted to coach the Wolverines in the tournament: “A Michigan man will coach Michigan.”

“Some of the finest people I know are football coaches,” he once told me. “They’re smart. They’re tough. Good thinkers. Hard workers. When I say I’m a football coach, I’m damn proud of the fact that I’m a football coach.”

“Deep down, your players must know you care about them. This is the most important thing. I could never get away with what I do if the players feel I didn’t care for them. They know, in the long run, I’m in their corner.”

“I am going to treat you all the same. Like Dogs.”

“When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing”

“What the mind can conceive, the mind can achieve and those who stay will be champions.”

Woody Hayes

At a banquet in his honor, discussing his self-proclaimed greatest team ever (1969–whose only loss came against Michigan) he looks over at Bo: “Damn you, Bo, you’ll never win a bigger game!”

on 1974 season’s loss to Michigan Sate: “I wanted that undefeated season more than anything I ever wanted in my life. I’d give anything — my house, my bank account, anything but my wife and family — to get it.’”

“I’ve had smarter people around me all my life, but I haven’t run into one yet that can outwork me. And if they can’t outwork you, then smarts aren’t going to do them much good. That’s just way it is. And if you believe that and live by it, you’d be surprised at how much fun you can have.”

“There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.”

“The only meaningful statistic is number of games won.”

“Without winners, there wouldn’t even be civilization.”

“I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying.”

“The time you give a man something he doesn’t earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect.”

“Success – it ’s what you do with what you’ve got.”

“I don’t apologize for anything. When I make a mistake, I take the blame and go on from there. I just despise to lose, and that has taken a man of mediocre ability and made a pretty good coach out of him.”

Woody on Bo Schembechler: “We respected one another so damn much. Now that doesn’t mean I didn’t get so mad at him that I wanted to kick him in the, uh, groin.”

To his 1974 freshman class: “Make sure you do the thinking with this head (pointing to his head), and not with this head (pointing beneath his belt).”

“I love football. I think it is most wonderful game in world and I despise to lose.”

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I can’t sum up the rivalry any better than this video:

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