Low Point on High Street (1982)

[Ed. 11/20/2022 – Bumped – On the 40th anniversary of this game and the postgame incident with Wojo.]

You know Bob Wojnowski of course. He’s the long-time Detroit News columnist and the fun-loving, Nutter Butter-gobbling co-host of the venerable ‘Stoney and Wojo’ radio show from 1995 to 2009.

Wojo is a Michigan grad, and he cut his journalistic teeth at the Michigan Daily three decades ago.  In one of his final assignments as sports editor back in 1982, he and Daily photographer Brian Masck became part of the story after they spent the night in a Columbus jail.

Here’s what happened. After midnight on November 20, 1982, the evening before The Game, the two were down on High Street taking in the sights and sounds with a few of their peers from The Lantern, the Ohio State student newspaper.  They noticed a whiskey-soaked man cussing out police officers patrolling the area. The cops didn’t like it and got rough. They brutally shoved the man against a wall.  Masck saw all this go down and confronted the police about their tactics. He also whipped out his camera to try to capture the scene.

The cops told him to put the camera away, but Masck challenged the legality of such a request. He was promptly arrested.  The Daily later published this photo, the best Masck could muster thanks to the interference of the local cops:

Meanwhile, Wojo saw this go down and protested Brian’s arrest (and also tried to fetch the car keys in Masck’s pocket).  Young Wojo was promptly arrested as well. They spent a few hours in a Columbus clink before being released around 6 a.m Saturday morning.

Fast forward to early 1983.   Once the “charges” were dismissed against him and Masck, Wojo dropped this guest opinion piece/bomb (he was no longer editor) into the March 22, 1983, Michigan Daily.  I was going to highlight a few sections but it’s too damn good. A Woj-bomb, if you will.  This slice of vintage Wojo from the aftermath of this incident is priceless:

See Part II:  There’s a pretty interesting follow-up piece.   I exchanged emails with Brian Masck about all this and he shared some great stuff.  I asked him (not being snarky, I was generally curious) why he had his camera with him at 1am-ish on High Street, back when cameras didn’t fit in your pocket of course.   You’ll love his answer and the rest of this story.