Miami vs. Miami football history: Revisiting every time Florida, Ohio schools played head-to-head

Get ready plenty of parentheses.

As far as rivalries go, Miami vs. Miami is not exactly a big one. The Florida and Ohio programs are not in the same state, the same conference or are really even considered remotely to be at the same caliber when it comes to football. Miami (Fla.) has five national championships, has appeared in 41 bowl games and carries an all-time record of 607-347-12.

Miami (Ohio) has no national championships, has appeared in 12 bowl games and has an all-time record of 374-297-15, though it does have the nickname as the "Cradle of Coaches" for having a litany of big-name coaches pass through its doors, including Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, John Harbaugh and Sean McVay, among others.

Yet the limited engagements between the two teams has its own nickname and is already finding ways to stir the pot at the schools. RedHawks quarterback Brett Gabbert was asked which Miami was the real Miami. As would be expected, he's banging the drum for the Midwest program.

"Oxford, Ohio," Gabbert said. "I think we'll show them September 1st."

Miami of Ohio QB Brett Gabbert says that they’re the real Miami.

“We’ll show them September 1st” pic.twitter.com/y7CVcZgjA0

— Andrew Ferrelli (@Andrew_Ferrelli) August 26, 2023

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These teams will be meeting on the gridiron for the fourth time. How has the rivalry fared in the past? Take a look back at the history of the matchups.

What is the Miami vs. Miami series record?

Given that long track record of success from the Hurricanes, it likely comes as no surprise that they are a perfect 3-0 against the RedHawks. However, the wins have not always come easy.

The first two wins in the series came only be a two-score and one-score margin, respectively, though a 1987 matchup was considerably more decisive. All of the games have been played in South Florida.

Miami vs. Miami rivalry timeline

It might be a stretch to call this a rivalry, considering the two teams have matched up only three teams and that there's been nearly 40 years since the last meeting. But if there's a nickname for the matchup, that has to count for something.

The first edition of the game, played on Oct. 26, 1945, was dubbed the "Confusion Bowl game," according to The Logan Daily News, as published the morning of the game. And that name has lasted over the decades.

1945

Miami (Ohio) had to travel by train to arrive in Miami, Fla., with The Miami Herald writing on Oct. 27, 1945, that it took 40 hours for the visitors (then the Redskins) to reach the destination, and they did so only on the morning of the game. 

Still, the Ohio-based club was the one that got off to the fast start. Quarterback Robert Wieche found end Bill Hoover in the end zone for the first score of the game. The defense forced a Hurricane fumble at the Miami 29-yard line, and the offense turned it into another touchdown, with the visitors taking a 13-0 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.

But it was all Miami (Fla.) from there. Inky Mazejka scored a rushing touchdown to make it a one-score game early in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, team captain Harry Ghaul scored three touchdowns to pull away as the Hurricanes held the Redskins scoreless through the second half.

"The Hurricanes got up off the floor to win that one," Miami (Fla.) coach Jack Harding said, per the Herald. "The Miami, Ohio, team was fast and scrappy.

"They had a good offense and swell quarterbacking. They had us going in the first half."

Miami (Ohio) coach Sid Gillman expressed disappointment in the outcome despite the early lead, saying that his team, "came here to win." He said the traveling conditions could have impacted how his team played.

"We'd planned to come here by plane and work out Thursday afternoon," Gillman said. "Maybe if we could have done that things would have been different. But my boys played a great game while they lasted. I'm proud of them. They're a grand bunch of kids."

The win by Miami (Fla.) snapped a five-game Miami (Ohio) winning streak, though both teams wound up finishing the seasons with solid records, with the former going 8-2 and the latter finishing 7-3.

1946

For the second straight year, the two Miamis faced off. The Hurricanes entered as a two-score favorite over the Redskins after winning by 14 the previous year.

What the 31,158 fans in Miami, Fla., would watch, however, was a much closer contest that featured a challenging Miami (Ohio) passing attack keep pace with a consistent rushing attack from Miami (Fla.).

The Hurricanes scored the first points of the game on the team's second possession. The team initially appeared to be stalled at the 31 and had to settle for a field goal, but a penalty allowed the Hurricanes to keep pushing, ultimately leading to Ghaul scoring a rushing touchdown and booting the subsequent PAT. But the Redskins responded right away, with a rapid scoring drive mounted largely through the air that ended with future Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian scoring the equalizing touchdown.

Early in the second quarter, the Redskins drove to the Hurricanes' 7-yard line, but were stalled and had to settle for a field goal. Miami (Fla.) responded with a touchdown drive to take a 14-10 lead on a rush by Ed Injaychock. Miami (Ohio) nearly evened the game up with a pair of throws into the end zone before halftime, but both fell incomplete as the clock wound down.

The Hurricanes added to their advantage early in the third quarter, scoring a touchdown on a carry by Bob McDougal, who helped redeem a first-quarter fumble, but Ghaul's PAT was blocked. Miami (Ohio) mounted a meticulous drive, marching down the field in 10 plays before Wayne Gibson rushed in from three yards out to make it a 20-17 contest.

The Redskins had one final charge left, marching to the Hurricanes' 16, but came up three yards short on a fourth-down attempt as the drive stalled.

"Who made us a 13-point favorite over a ball club like that?" Harding said after the game, per The Miami Herald. "Did you see the marvelous stuff they had off that T-formation? No one can tell me we were 13 points better than that outfit."

Gillman praised the comeback effort by his team, but was asked whey they didn't try for the game-tying field goal in the fourth quarter, he made it clear his team was not looking for a tie.

"We wanted to win this one awful bad," Gillman said.

1987

Last came the most decisive game. Miami (Fla.) was ranked third in the nation and was a considerable favorite to beat Miami (Ohio), which came into the game with a 5-5 record.

The first quarter would have given no foreshadowing to what was about to occur. Though the Redskins did not score on the opening drive, they took over seven minutes off the clock, but wound up having to punt the ball away. It wasn't until 3:03 was left on the scoreboard that Greg Cox drilled a 46-yard field goal to put the Hurricanes up 3-0. They would be the only points of the quarter.

But from there, the Hurricanes just rained down on their Midwest visitors. Quarterback Steve Walsh drove Miami down the field, eventually hitting Warren Williams in the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. 

Miami (Ohio) turned the ball over at its own 29, and it took just four plays for Walsh to find Michael Irvin for the 11-yard touchdown to pus the lead to 17-0. After the two teams traded punts, Redskins quarterback Mark Kuzma was sacked in the end zone on first down for a safety, and Walsh turned the ensuing kick into another touchdown on a pass to Cleveland Gary. Another turnover on the next Miami (Ohio) drive turned into another touchdown, this time on the ground by Williams. That touchdown marked 30 points in the second quarter, a single-quarter record for the Miami (Fla.) offense.

The offensive display continued in the second half, though not to the same extreme. The Hurricanes scored seven in the third and 14 in the fourth, relenting only a field goal in the waning seconds of the game as Miami won the game 54-3.

"This [Hurricane] team has more weapons than any team we have ever played in my 10 years at Miami," Miami (Ohio) coach Tim Rose said after the game, per The Miami Herald. "The score could have been a lot worse."

The final box score certainly showed just how lopsided the game was. The Redskins had minus-19 net rushing yards and 51 net total yards, while Miami (Fla.) had 153 net rushing yards and 414 net total yards. 

"I was pleased with our overall execution," Hurricanes coach Jimmy Johnson said. "Defensively, we we rushed the passer extremely well. Offensively, I was pleased we did not have any turnovers."

Miami (Ohio) went on to go just 5-6, losing the next game to Kent State 14-10. Miami (Fla.), however, wound up playing in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1 with an undefeated season on the line against No. 1 Oklahoma, and won the game 20-14, to claim the national championship.

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Why is Miami of Ohio called Miami?

According to the University of Miami (Ohio), the origin of the school's name is from the Myaamia people, who lived in the Miami Valley in what is now southwestern Ohio. The university was founded in 1809.

Long before the first edition of the Confusion Bowl, the school made it clear that they wanted to be the only program to claim the name of Miami, especially when Miami (Fla.) was chartered in 1925. According to Love Land Magazine, George Shuman, an alumnus from Miami (Ohio), wrote to school president Raymond Hughes in 1927, calling on him to "protest against the use of the Miami name by any other university."

In letter to the editor of the alumni magazine, the Bulletin, in 1927, Alfred H. Upham said he was surprised to see that there had been no protest made to prevent the Florida school from having the Miami name.

"Presumably names of collegiate institutions are not copyrighted and these good citizens of Florida have the legal right to adopt such a name as they choose. But they certainly have not much moral right to usurp the name of a university which has established itself by more than a century of sound scholarship and effective educational service," wrote Upham, who would later become the school president.

"There are so many perfectly good names for a new and aspiring university. What justification or justice is there in appropriating one that has made its place in the academic world through more than a century of achievement?" Upham continued.

Hughes wrote back to another alumnus, saying that he has voiced the sentiments of alumni from his school to the Florida institution's president, but noted that he did not believe the Ohio school had any right to call on the change, though he said "undoubtedly large confusion will arise from this joint use of the same name, which will be very embarrassing in the educational field."

Miami (Fla.)'s president, Bowman F. Ashe, wrote a letter in 1929 to Upham after he became president, saying that he had spoken with Hughes about the name two years earlier and said the Florida school's board had "seriously considered changing the name to the University of Southern Florida." He said the biggest obstacle was that it would create confusion with the state university and said that it could create some issues with the local government in Miami.

"We are now, so far as possible, in our own publications, using the full name 'The University of Miami, Florida,'" Ashe wrote. "May I assure you that I will do everything possible to prevent the confusion of the names, and it is possible that at some future time there may even be a change in the name here which would end the confusion for all time."

On Friday, the fourth edition of the Confusion Bowl will commence. In the box scores, one team will be labeled, "Miami." The other, "Miami (OH)."