Sports Rivalries So Intense They've Made History

Sports teams are supposed to be competitive, but sometimes the normal back-and-forth goes way over the top and makes headlines off the field. When this happens, the resulting tensions can make headlines beyond the box scores, and sports fans can wind up with epic stories that get told and retold for decades. These are two of the most intense rivalries in American sports.

Red Sox Vs. Yankees

The rivalry between New York and Boston reaches into everything, including clam chowder, drinking games and even stand-up comedy acts. You won't see it anywhere more clearly than in the place where it all started: the Yankees and Red Sox rivalry. Since 1901, the two teams have faced off more than 2,300 times since then, with the Yankees a little ahead in stats and an unexplained 14-game tie record. In 1919, the Red Sox infamously traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees, which marked the start of an 86-year title drought known as the Curse of the Bambino. Even after the streak broke in 2005, the two were still butting heads over AL East titles.

Michigan Vs. Ohio State

Yankees v. Sox is one thing, since you'd expect two neighboring cities to have a rivalry, but Michigan v. OSU goes back to 1803, when the two states actually fought a brief war with each other. Back when Ohio and Michigan were both frontier states set on joining the Union, a small argument broke out over who owned Toledo, the biggest trade post on the Great Lakes. Tensions rose, shots were fired, and Congress finally had to step in. Ohio was already a state, so it got Toledo, Michigan got the Upper Peninsula, and the states' college sports teams have carried on the fight for 220 years (and counting).