Ohio State: 100 Years of Football (1990)

in the last 100 years the ohio state university has carved a lasting place for itself in the history of college football a tradition of success that has produced over 100 all americans more than 20 academic all-americans a rhodes scholar three winners each of the outland trophy and lombardi awards five recipients of the heisman trophy and six national championship teams that is the celebrated legacy of ohio state football but it grew from far more modest routes a century ago in 1890 the ohio state university was surrounded by hundreds of acres of fertile farmlands alongside a road that carried horse-drawn wagons from columbus to worthington the focus of life on this quiet campus was clearly academics with only a few opportunities for exercise and recreation through athletics but in the spring of 1890 all of that was about to change the first intercollegiate football game was played between rutgers and princeton in 1869 but the game was slow to spread beyond the east some interest began to grow in the sport at ohio state but no faculty member was willing to assume the task of coaching on the east side of columbus lived a man called alexander lilly a former member of the princeton football team he took on the ohio state team as a volunteer on may 3rd 1890 ohio state played its first football game at ohio wesleyan and nearby delaware winning 20 to 14 before a crowd of about 700. by the autumn of that same year alexander lilly had turned the coaching reigns over to jack reiter playing their home games at recreation field on south high street lilly's team beat ohio wesleyan again while losing to denison worcester and kenyon lilly returned in 1891 and split the four game season jack ryder again replaced lily's coach in 1892 beginning a four year span of stability during these seasons the football schedule grew from 4 to 10 games and added opponents like otterbein marietta wittenberg and cincinnati in 1896 charles hickey became coach bringing with him from williams college a more complicated system and earning a five five and one record including a 34 to 18 pounding by kenyan before 8 000 fans at a new football facility near kneel at 11. hickey was dismissed and replaced by david edwards a princeton player from the year before edwards had the distinction of first playing and losing to michigan 34 to nothing in ann arbor in 1898 for the third time jack ryder returned his coach and ohio state football moved to university field a facility along high street at woodruff that would later be renamed ohio field ohio state could do no better than a three and five record jack eckstorm became coach in 1899 with significantly greater success ohio state was 9-0-1 and earned the championship of the new intercollegiate athletic association of ohio known as the big six in 1900 ohio state enjoyed continued success with another championship season barred only by a loss to ohio medical and a tie with michigan ohio state dropped to 5-3-1 in 1901 but ex-storm retained his popularity so it came as a shock when he resigned to become coach of ohio medical in the two seasons that followed ohio state was coached by perry hale a star player at yale although he earned a winning record of above 700 he endured ohio state's worst defeat to this day and 86 to nothing grubbing by michigan e.r sweetland became coach in 1904 and hopes were high for a successful season but that fell short with a record of six wins and five losses but his 1905 squad improved to eight two and two a financial crisis plagued the football program in 1905 and sweetland did not return replaced by a former player at rival michigan al hernstein hernstein reeled off a record of four winning seasons the 1906 team scored 153 points to the opponent's 14. for some unknown reason hernstein was not rehired in 1910 and was instead replaced by yale all-american howard jones he became a popular coach during his initial winning season but resigned a continuous career at iowa and later at usc where his coaching in the late 1920s and during the 30s earned him selection to the college football coaches hall of fame another yale alumnus harry vaughan became jones replacement bond coached the 1911 buckeyes to a 5 3 and 2 record and then he left to return to yale to study law wary of hiring eastern coaches only to see them leave the athletic board named john richards of wisconsin as coach with the added authority of athletic director after winning six of nine games in 1912 richards ii announced his resignation to take outside employment ohio state's frustrating inability to provide long-term leadership in the coaching staff was coming at a most awkward time under the leadership of law professor and athletic board president george weitmeyer ohio state in december of 1912 was selected to join the western athletic conference one day to become the big ten ohio state would not only find a new coach but the stability so critical to success with the appointment of john w wils from 1913 through 1929 john wilson a former three sport athlete from wisconsin guided ohio state football through a period of remarkable growth he was an unusual individual a big man probably six three or four something like that and well preserved and very intelligent uh a scholar very much interested in the players in 1913 ohio state played its first western conference season with losses to indiana and wisconsin and a season-ending victory over northwestern in 1914 ohio state won five of seven games and was two and two in the conference the 1915 record showed five one and one but 1916 was a season to remember ohio state won its first western conference championship even though league champions were not officially recognized in those days the 7-0 team beat illinois wisconsin and indiana and down overland 128 to nothing and for the first time ohio state players earned all-american honors with tackle robert karch and back chick harley he was slight not he wasn't i mean he wasn't a very big fella didn't seem to be but he could run like a deer and it didn't make any difference whether he whether a couple of fellows were hanging on to him or not he would he would run with him hanging on and shake him off and go on over three seasons chick harley built on his legend each time selected as a walter camp all-american he paced ohio state to a second championship in 1917 a year in which the team did not yield a single touchdown but in the war short 1918 campaign minus harley and many of his now military teammates the buckeyes slipped to three and three in 1919 with the war over ohio state lost only one game they also beat michigan for the first of what would be many times 13 to 3. in 1920 the buckeyes were once again league champions and boasted two more all-americans in iolas huffman and gaylord stinsham their undefeated season earned them an invitation to play in the 1921 rose bowl but ohio state's first game west of the mississippi ended with a disappointing 28 to nothing lost to california the success of ohio state football coached by now dr john wills had made it clear that a larger playing facility was needed the issue is how to pay for such a stadium under the farsighted leadership of athletic director lw st john a plan was devised for a private fundraising campaign there were parades pageants and demonstrations all for the benefit of the building fund by late 1920 over nine hundred thousand dollars had been pledged and work began on designing the new stadium with most supporters favoring a to 35 000 seat facility st john kept close guard on the fact that the new stadium would accommodate more than 60 thousand ground was broken in august of 1921 on what was to become one of america's most enduring monuments to the game of college football as construction went forward over the next 14 months the huge horseshoe rose out of a former cornfield on the olympia riverbank a flowing graceful structure of concrete and steel on october 21 1922 ohio stadium was dedicated before an overflow crowd of more than 72 000 the dedication overshadowed the game itself a 19 to nothing loss to michigan that snapped a three-year ohio state win streak over the wolverines the first three years in ohio stadium were anything but glorious the buckeyes posted their only three consecutive losing seasons in history but in 1925 ohio state broke the string with four wins three losses and a three to three tie with colombia captured in this rare film in 1926 the buckeyes were 7-1 losing to michigan by one point that cost ohio state the conference championship the team also brought big ten football to new york in a rematch against columbia it was a big deal for a cow town school to go to new york and play in the polo ground they had three special trains we went to new york and it was loaded with students that didn't have any money or a ticket or anything they had to pull when they got outside of columbus they had to stop and throw all these kids off i remember i told the kid to jump in my birth god i had to sleep with him all the way to new york in 1927 ohio state finished sixth in the big ten and a wave of dissatisfaction developed over wilson's coaching sensing this he submitted his resignation to take effect in 1929 but dr john wills left a lasting mark leading ohio state into the big ten winning three championships and producing 14 all-americans he was eventually selected to the college football coaches hall of fame in 1934 he became head of the ohio state student health service where he practiced until his retirement in 1958 [Music] after talks with several nationally known coaches including newt rockne lw st john settled on sam williman an assistant to wills from 1929 through 34 sam willman teams posted five consecutive winning seasons he became known for a strong defense recording 20 shutouts these were difficult times in the throes of the great depression and at a time when athletic scholarships were not available i can remember one afternoon i'm not mentioning names but he was a big tackle and he fainted and we said what's wrong well he said fellas i'm trying to save enough money to to go through the season and stay in school and i've had nothing but cheese and crackers for three three times a day that's what i eat so i talked my mother and i told her the circumstances will bring him up home the most memorable player during the sam william era was wes fessler a three-time all-american who won nine varsity letters in football baseball and basketball but in spite of his winning record sam williman was not generating the popular support he wanted unfortunately sam lost the wrong games he lost to michigan and at that time we did not play michigan the last game like we do today illinois was our big game but michigan started to become the big game and you better beat them your chances were a little slim resigned in 1934 and moved to western reserve as football coach and athletic director in early march the ohio state athletic board approved the hiring of texas christian head coach francis schmidt ushering in one of the most colorful eras in buckeye football history well francis was a rather boisterous very opinionated had a great offensive mind i mean i think he was a true genius in in the offensive sense of football but had no time or spent no time at all on defense a little questionable there he spent about one afternoon on defense and that was enough of that i think his whole philosophy was keep possession of the ball and every time you get it score six points and then let the other guys try to score on us schmidt launched his ohio state career with a second place finish in the big ten losing only to illinois by a point but in 1935 the buckeyes were undefeated in the conference and shared the crown with minnesota who they didn't play this was ohio state's first share of the coveted championship in 15 years in those first two seasons of francis schmidt football there were two games that fans remembered more than any others actually the only two times really that they got all worked up was when we played the michigan in 34 and we beat him 28 to nothing and also that notre dame game boy it was unbelievable ohio state dominated the early going and appeared to be in complete control of the game in the middle of that first quarter frank ananducci who was had taken my place at fullback intercepted the pass and laddled the ball to frank boucher who ran for i guess it was somewhere around 70 yards for a touchdown we kept pounding away at him and had several opportunities couldn't quite make it then finally we drove down and in the second quarter joe williams went over the second touchdown in the second half irish coach elmer layton gambled on a new strategy and started his backup team late in the third quarter notre dame's andy pilney sparked the irish with a 53-yard return of john cabilo's punt setting up their first score [Music] [Applause] [Music] with less than two minutes on the clock pelney completed a 33-yard touchdown pass to narrow the margin to within one point after suffering a twisted knee pilney was replaced by a new irish quarterback william shakespeare with a ball of the 19 in time running out shakespeare went for the end zone milner catches it for the touchdown and everybody's heart fell it was over ohio state carved out two more winning seasons and second place big ten finishes in 1936 and 37 including their third and fourth consecutive shutouts of michigan after a lackluster 1938 campaign that included schmidt's first ever loss to the wolverines the buckeyes earned the big ten crown the following year and then in 1940 it was the disaster year that's the year that francis schmidt got fired but we ended up four and four and we thought before the season start we were favored to win it but oh there was a lot of problems we had some dissension and things like that but michigan beat us 40 to nothing and you have to give tom harmon credit for that he and eva chesky had a heyday at the ohio stadium the stadium that year and uh that was the end of francis schmidt lw st john the athletic director felt that that was enough lw st john was again searching for a head coach a name that surfaced as an early favorite among ohio state fans was paul brown well he of course he was very very successful at maslin he had a record that no nobody could equal and i think the high school coaches were pushing for paul brown to get the job after all with if you get the good high school kids from around the state of ohio they're going to have a good football team so i'm sure lw st john knew that and the athletic council and they hired paul brown ironically i never even discussed money i never asked them what it paid i didn't care i just wanted to go there and have the job it turned out that it paid 6 500 and i guess the only thing i really requested was to have a full professorship i had just received my master's degree there in secondary education and i knew quite a few of the professors very well by way of it and they always spoke about how important that was and in fact the matter is i think the fact that i requested it sort of pleased them and they did make me a full professor [Music] paul brown was in many ways the opposite of schmidt a soft-spoken man he was completely methodical and organized in all facets of the game he never seemed to get excited at the right time that is to say he never seemed to get excited when you thought he was going to be excited and when he went when he when you didn't see the need for him to get excited he gets excited so if we were behind he would be very calm and delivered and what have you and he will explain this explain that but on the other hand if we were ahead he'd come in right brown's 1941 buckeyes included several future all-americans including les horvath bob shaw lynn houston and chuck surrey in that first season the bucks tied with michigan for a second place big ten finish and a six one-on-one record [Music] [Applause] in 1942 in the midst of the second world war paul brown led ohio state to a new plateau of success its first national championship an almost perfect campaign of nine and one we beat everybody except wisconsin we had some uh we had some problems with with concert we went up there a lot of guys got dysentery drinking uh some foul water i guess of course and we just didn't play up the part [Music] turned out we became national champions i think we were a bit surprised because as expectation that one or two of the other teams might have made it because we had lost one game i think the fact that we beat the iowa seahawks uh quite handily i think made a difference in 1943 world war ii took its toll on buckeye football as an army school ohio state's team was comprised mainly of pre-draft age young men rather than the older players from the many navy affiliated schools i always felt it was very unfair to the players to ask these youngsters who had to go in service the moment they became 17 years of age and they're competing against mature teams three or four different ones where they just didn't have a chance it was physically detrimental as i always felt the buckeyes slipped from national champions to seventh place in the big ten and lieutenant junior grade paul brown left columbus to serve at the great lakes naval training station it was always expected that brown would return to campus after the war for that reason he was able to hand pick his acting successor carol widows had been a brown assistant from his high school days in masalin the transition between coaches would be as smooth as possible follow the same principles that paul did our widows was a very soft spoken sort of easy going fella never very demanding that paul was i'm going to put this way if it was his way or it wasn't at all with widows you could you might express an opinion and he might go your way between seasons the rule that created the baby bucks had been changed and ohio state was back in the hunt they responded with their first unbeaten untied season since 1916 falling just short of army in the national championship race we rank second to army uh that was the year in which the great uh inside outside army blanchard and uh davis were playing but uh perhaps if it had been some other school rather than army we would have been national champion for two years at ohio state university willis a tackle and jack duggar and guard bill hackett were named all-americans along with that les warvath who also became ohio state's first winner of the heisman trophy i guess while i dreamed a lot about football and i did win a lot of dreams you know there were times before a ballgame i'd i just dreamt about the ball game the night before the game and dumped about situations that mine arise and things that i i could do or would do and hoped i wouldn't do i never dreamt about the heisman it just just never entered my mind that my thought was you know if i ever made one all-american team that would be fantastic as world war ii ended many fully expected the return of paul brown but widows had become highly successful and brown had been courted by sportsman archward to coach professional football i got talked to mr st john and saint was nice to me about it but in a way i i felt like i was sort of relieving a little bit of pressure everywhere he said you know you have the right to come back and have the job as a coach that's uh by the way the rules work he says i must say that wit has done very well and uh but you still have the right you know to the job if you come back and somehow rather i don't know it was a little bit of a i don't say it hurt my feelings so much as it just made me see well this is a little tender at both ends here and i'm in position if i want to to go into professional football because by this time archward was really working at having me come down there and talking about it he talked about the new owners to be in cleveland and to make a long story short i finally said to my wife katie well this will just make it easier for everybody with the word acting removed from his title carol widows posted a 7-2 record in 1945 but on his own widows resigned the head coaching position to paul bixler and return to his duties as an assistant he never aspired or wanted all the speaking all the pressures that went with it and i think he told mr st john when i didn't come back i think he would do it a year but he wanted to be relieved of it he wanted it was just wit you had to know him grand grand man paul bixler could do no better than four three and two in 1946 his roster was filled with returning servicemen and a subtle change had taken place it was harder perhaps to get the kind of response from the veterans that you could get from the younger players and i think that probably created some problems and the attitudes of the veterans affected the younger players as well paul bixler quit after one season moved on to coach colgate and later rejoined paul brown in cleveland ohio state moved quickly to fill the coaching position with former buckeye all-american wes fessler [Music] fessler struggled badly through his first season a two six in one campaign featuring a new single wing offense [Music] but in 1948 after winning the recruiting wars with the signing of illyrious vic janowitz vessler improved to six and three [Music] by 1949 the buckeyes had earned a big ten championship and a trip to the rose bowl in pasadena ohio state evened its rose bowl record to 1-1 with a january 1st victory over the berkeley bears [Music] although 1950 was ushered in with a rose bowl victory the season would end with a loss to arch rival michigan on a 10 degree late november afternoon forever to be known as the snow bowl the weather was bad it was 10 degrees 28 miles an hour wind and it was a swirling wind thick widows held the ball i kicked i think a 29-yard field goal it was good so at that time uh whoever would have thought what would have happened after it was over who would have would have ever thought 40 years ago how bad it would have been mccullough snapped the ball back to me but tony momson came in blocked it fell on it in the end zone so they scored their extra point so that's how the scoring so it's been memories for four years but not the best memories in the world and i can still remember what happened michigan won 9-3 despite the fact they didn't earn a single first down or complete a pass yet fessler was widely criticized for his decision to punt which provided michigan a blocked kick and the margin of victory a few weeks after the snow bowl vessler resigned as head coach but in the midst of all this vic janowicz was being honored as ohio state's second winner of the heisman trophy they called me at the athletic department and told me i was the recipient of the heisman trophy which the heisman trophy didn't mean that much to me but all i knew was one of the finest football players in the country won it he's my friend les horvath and i felt pretty darn good about it his name was wayne woodrow hayes the new head coach of the ohio state buckeyes a man of immense loyalty and commitment with a passion for military history and a consuming love for the game of football over the next 28 years this man would become one of the greatest gridiron legends of all time [Music] woody's first season was anything but spectacular the team was four three and two and janowitz struggled to fit into the new buckeye offense in 1951 bud wilkerson was the greatest name in collegiate football at the time really fantastic and what did he use but the split and you know it took perfection to run a splitty and i think woody hayes incorporated this in our offense and being a young coach now he thought well we have the finest football player in the country on our team now so let's build our offense about him we'll put janowicz as a flanker we'll get all of their guy the defense concentrate on him and we'll run over everybody but it didn't work but over the next two years the evaluation of hayes improved significantly behind the quarterbacking of john borton and dave liggett and the running and receiving of a columbus central redhead nicknamed hop cassidy ohio state football was on the upswing [Music] 1954 was a year ohio state football fans would long remember [Music] we all had great respect for one another there was a lot of close relationships everybody respected everybody pretty well and it was a very close-knit team ohio state reeled off an unbroken string of nine victories during the regular season with great plays like these described by woody himself on the first play that ohio state has the ball howard cassidy goes 26 yards for a touchdown with good blocking by jim reichenbach dean duggar dick lindsay and hop scores standing up to give us a seven to nothing lead here's a great defensive play by number 43 our right half back jimmy roseboro a sophomore watching hit larson and larson gets rid of the ball and jim roseboro recovers it on the 12 to stop a drive that might have scored a beautiful pass from our quarterback dave leggett to left end dean duggar pretty congested down there but dean catches the ball and goes clear down to the five yard line we had a tough game with iowa that year we had a tough game with michigan that year we came from behind and we won those games and we were born about to get beat by by a west coast team and we went out there and of course it was raining pretty bad and a lot of rain a lot of lightning i remember the kickoff came out and i couldn't see the ball but i heard the splash and i picked it up the buckeyes 20-7 win over usc is short woody of his first at ohio state second national championship we didn't think about winning the national championship woody never mentioned that to us woody wanted to win one game at a time and um i don't think that he uh i don't think he realized we was playing for a national championship until after the after we was going into the last two or three ball games uh certainly everybody was very joyous and happy um i'll tell you those are memories that you have the rest of your life and having a ring that says national champion on it is something special in 1955 the buckeyes repeated his big ten champs but a conference rule kept the team home on new year's day still 1955 was a remarkable year that year of 55 we didn't have hardly anybody back we had i was the only letterman back in the backfield or starting a letterman in the backfield that was back and on our line was uh all new and so we we had uh we had a tough year that year but we won the big ten and we sent michigan state out there who went out and beat ucla who was number one in the country then but we stop michigan and enter across the 50-yard line at the close of that season howard hop along cassidy became ohio state's third player to be honored as the best the winner of the heisman trophy it was really a an exciting thing to realize that uh that that hai had won the heist when he since you know so earlier to just a few years or early before me vic jenna which had won it and to win it so close to him and the two guys from ohio state weren't that close in 1956 the big ten championship eluded the buckeyes with a 6-3 record jim parker since elected as guard on the all-time all-american team made this memorable fumble recovery against northwestern and went on to score his only collegiate touchdown that was the biggest thrill because as i get older i tell people about 70 yards and 80 yards you remember me i'm the guy that scored 80 yards in that particular game parker who set a goal of being the best at his position achieved his dream in 1956 as recipient of the outland trophy i just felt like i owed the school a hundred percent i felt that it was my responsibility to move this football down this hill it wasn't hop cassidy it wasn't dave's leggett it wasn't dean douglas it was jim parker's job to carry the ball and that's what something about the football team 1957 uh we had the four returning starters obviously seven untested people we i think were picked for something like fifth or sixth in the big ten um and uh the predictions looked like they were maybe uh true after our first game because we lost texas christian after the tcu loss the buckeyes went undefeated and returned to the rose bowl beating oregon 10-7 it was somewhat disappointing to some of the players in the sense that the press had made us overwhelming favorites but so often uh people don't understand that football is played on the field and not not on not in the headlines and oregon played very well ohio state won its third national championship and woody had been named college coach of the year i think as time goes on those things they maybe take on a greater importance than they do at the time uh when you're young and somebody says you're number one you didn't feel a whole lot different than you did the day before other than obviously we're proud to be on a football team in the high states football team when it was rated number one [Music] for the next three seasons ohio state rode a roller coaster finishing third eighth and then third again in the big ten but in 1961 with 26 letterman and two promising sophomore halfbacks in matt snell and paul warfield optimism was returning 1961 was a was a big year for ohio state and kind of a frustrating year we did win the big ten title but because of events that were going on on campus it was sort of an atmosphere of athletics versus academics and these two things were clashing and hitting heads and as a result some decisions were made and i remember that vote of the athletic council in which uh the council made the decision that we were not going to go to the rose bowl which was so very disappointing to all of the members of the ohio state football team but not only that so disappointing to 10 000 other students who decided to march in mass down high street to the state capitol building and voice their disapproval in spite of the fact the rose bowl had been denied the football riders chose the 1961 buckeyes as regular season national champions [Music] for the next four years ohio state stayed close in the hunt for the big ten title but each season the effort fell just short back in 63 illinois went and we were second place 64. obviously we lost to michigan last game of the season and in 65 michigan state had that great year the frustration was there i mean we're playing our hearts out and the fans seemed to think that wasn't good enough as a matter of fact in one of the games they flew this plane over with this trailer behind it saying goodbye woody i mean they were out for woody's head in 1966 the buckeyes dropped to four and five and woody experienced his second but last losing record at the end of that season he set out to do what he did best recruit woody talked about coming to ohio state to get an education we're going to give you an opportunity to come to a great institution and play college football but i want you to get your education if you don't get your education that's our fault and by god i won't let that happen he saw me and said you know you're the boy from military school right next he says you look like an athlete the first thing he asked me was what's the last novel i read and i bought and i couldn't understand that because i've been all over the south where they were all you know promised me the world to play for them and i said moby dick which i didn't read i just saw on tv but i have a good memory so he says well good so we went in his office and talked about moby dick for a half hour and he looked at my ankles and said you're quick you know great racehorses have thin ankles and he says you've got to be fast and he asked me if i if i would consider coming to ohio state he said the only thing he could promise me is if i was good enough i'd make it and if i wasn't i wouldn't get to play and i said that was a good deal 1968 marked the beginning of a decade when ohio state would capture or share the big ten title nine times and bring two more national championships back to columbus but all of this was nothing but the wildest of dreams in early september of 1968 i think we recreated the tradition ohio state with that team they expected to get beat and they played their best so we always got the best out of no matter if it was a good team or a bad team i think when the catalyst occurred was when we beat purdue in ohio stadium they had come in number one in the nation they had beaten notre dame the week before they had mike phipps and leroy keys and we won that football game 13 to nothing and i think at that point in time we thought hey we can compete with almost anybody in the country now the buckeyes fought their way through the remaining six big ten games capped by a 50-14 win over michigan [Music] [Applause] that victory sent number one ohio state to the rose bowl to play second rank usc [Music] [Applause] on new year's day ohio state laid undisputed claim to the crown jewel in college football defeating o.j simpson and the usc trojans 27 to 16. in 1969 the expectation across america was that ohio state would repeat as national champions the buckeyes were on track toward that goal with an 8-0 record when they traveled to ann arbor to play michigan now coached by woody hayes former assistant beau schembeckler we just couldn't do anything offensively against them we can do anything defensively it was like they had that 12th guy in the huddle and they knew exactly what we were going to do and they were well prepared michigan upset ohio state 24-12 and almost immediately buckeye fans look forward to the rematch in columbus [Applause] [Music] in 1970 ohio state led now by the senior super sophomores reeled off eight straight victories in what was seen only as a prelude to the rematch with michigan i remember two weeks before the michigan game woody had to do a good job of keeping us down we were ready to play the football game it was a very emotional game [Music] [Applause] i was on the field night and we were out there it was a defensive stand and they were going ohio and i mean it was like you feel it in you and i said look it was like it broke your concentration because usually when you're playing you're concentrating such at a high level that you don't really hear the crowd and i actually i said this is one hell of a game [Music] that afternoon michigan managed only 37 yards rushing and 118 by the pass the final score ohio state 20 michigan 9. the buckeyes won the national football foundation selection as national champions of the regular season but in the rose bowl against jim plunkett and stanford the quest for a second overall championship ended with a 27 to 17 loss but middle guard jim stilwagen won both the outland trophy and the inaugural lombardi award at the close of the season in 1971 ohio state weakened by graduation slipped to six and four the law and i were the only two returning starters everyone else was new our guards were new or just tackle a lot of guys play you know tom campana left from wing back went on defense so it was a transition year but we had a good freshman class a lot of guys got a lot of playing time because we had ball games where they were decided to have so it was started out to be a pretty interesting year but we started getting decimated by injuries in 1972 against the tar heels of north carolina ohio state was about to enter another remarkable era of greatness we were down seven to nothing because north carolina blocked the punta bars and all of a sudden i got a call from the bench to go into the game and i hesitated because i really didn't think that he had meant for me to go into the football game and i finally got up to coach hayes he told me to go into tailback and i was in a daze the whole time but all i really remember is that my number was being called and i was running with the ball griffin's 239 yards set a new school record and launched the buckeyes toward an 8-1 mark going into the season finale michigan comes in here in 1972 number one in the nation only giving up three ball points a game and subsequently we knocked off number one michigan in our stadium the buckeyes posted a dramatic 14 to 11 win that sent them on to the first of four consecutive trips to the rose bowl but in pasadena usc 1 42-17 in 1973 archie griffin was surrounded by a cast of great players who helped ohio state lay claim to the number one ranking in the nation early in the season that year we had a great football team guys like john hicks randy gratishaw uh p johnson did well that year uh we had champions and feet both playing the full back position uh cornelius green was in his first year at quarterback so brian bashnegle had been our starter at the wing back position for a long time so we we really had a great football team and we had beaten everybody are pretty good scores in the michigan game against the also unbeaten wolverines both teams had to settle for a 10-10 tie but ohio state won a vote of confidence that sent them on to the rose bowl all the ads had to vote which team would go and there was a lot of uh hope law and people were upset because ohio state got the goal bid and some people say it's because the quarterback from michigan had the dislocated shoulder and they wouldn't represent their big ten one well that rose bowl game it was without a doubt a big game for us we wanted to prove that we were not as bad as we showed the year before in the rose bowl because usc really put it to us the year before and we came out there with it with a vengeance our goal was to win that football game and and really show that we could play football ohio state won 42-21 and finished the year ranked second in the nation tackle john hicks nearly pulled off a triple play winning the lombardi award outland trophy and coming in a close second in balloting for the heisman trophy to close out his ohio state career after suffering a heart attack early in june woody haynes was back by september to lead the buckeyes into the 1974 season [Music] ohio state overpowered their opponents through the first eight games against illinois archie griffin broke the ncaa record for consecutive games with 100 or more yards rushing and woody earned his 200th career victory but the following week in east lansing the perfect season stalled in a bizarre finish with michigan state we thought we had won the football game we thought brian bashnick had gotten over the goal and he did get over the goal but i guess the question was you know if he got over in time with the ball snapped before the time ran out on the clock but once we got in the locker room we found out that nobody had won yet and they were gonna decide who won the game and uh it was tense in the locker room to say the least i i think you can understand the fact that uh most of us were upset when we got the word that uh we didn't win the game the buckeyes rebounded in the last two games with wins over iowa and michigan but lost their bid for a national championship in a one-point loss to usc in the rose bowl but in 1974 ohio state did lay claim to college football's top individual honor archie griffin was selected as the recipient of the heisman trophy i think i was in the right place at the right time with the right people meaning my teammates my coaches everybody involved with our program because they are who made it happen in 1975 the archie griffin era was coming to an end one final chance to win it all [Music] griffin broke the career ncaa rushing record against purdue and extended his string of 100-yard games to 31 in the home farewell to this remarkable group of athletes the annual battle for the roses ended with ohio state at 21 to 14 victor over michigan and archie griffin won the heisman again becoming the first and only man ever to win it twice the 1976 rose bowl was a rematch with ucla a team the buckeyes had humbled earlier in the season 41 to 20. we absolutely tore them apart the first time and coach hayes told us after the game that we'd probably see him in the rose bowl he called it that early in the season and he brought back the old analogy that a boxer that knocks out his opponent time he is against him that edge is not there and he just wanted us to you know warn against that so we went out there we were playing a great game but we got beat again that was a devastating loss for us because there's no question in my mind that that was a national championship team and that hurts to today i'll tell you i would trade one of those heisman trophies today for a national championship especially that one when you get so close right down to that last game 1976 woody hayes faced a rebuilding effort the buckeyes lost to missouri and tied ucla but lost only to michigan in the big ten the most enduring memory of 1977 came early to a team that would go nine and three and play in the sugar bowl the game was ohio state oklahoma a match-up between two perennial titans of college football it lived up to everything the fans expected i'll never forget our opening series uh tommy lotz are quarterback and they got kenny king diving inside and then throwing the ball out to billy sims it's unbelievable and they're all so fast i mean we had worked and worked on it all week long and trying to put the fastest people we had on our scout team to just get us used to running and it wasn't even flows three minutes into the second period oklahoma was already leading 20 to nothing but then the excitement really began ohio state led by quarterback rod gerald and the running of ron springs and joel payton fought back to a 21-20 lead [Applause] with gerald injured late in the third period backup greg castignola hit tight end jimmy moore to put ohio state up 28-20 but with less than 90 seconds remaining oklahoma cut the lead to two points the sooners recovered an onside kick and moved to the ohio state 23 with six seconds left juve on shaman's 40-yard field goal gave oklahoma a 29 to 28 victory so so close that's what people come to the horseshoe for great games obviously to see the bucks win but i think everybody goes away with a with a great feeling when you're involved either as player or specter in a game like that 1978 will never be remembered as a seven four and one season but instead is the season when woody hayes fiery temper ended his coaching career when he struck a clemson player after an interception in the gator bowl just from my my personal opinion and couple of my close teammates where those are the only people you can really talk to and get anything out of it i think what what we came away with basically is that coach hayes i think may have considered retiring with a win it was so important woody haynes left coaching with 205 victories at ohio state five national championships and 57 first-team all-americans but he left with much more from those who knew him best woody hayes great key to success was be if you're average he'll make you good if you're good he'll make you great if you're great he can make you a superstar probably the most valuable thing anyone ever has in their life is their time and he gave so much of that that people aren't aware of as far as spending time in the hospitals visiting patients people he didn't even know coach hayes would grab a couple players two or three times a week and during practice and say you're coming with me tonight you have to go to study table so where we're going coach you'd go to children's hospital or the vet's hospital and walk the halls for an hour and a half and just uh make people's days he was not one type of person to sit still he always felt the young people continue to teach him more about kind of things that i keep working for myself today i think the people in columbus and the state of ohio they know the real woody hayes they know that he was a man who cared a great deal about people and they know that he was a great great football coach but he was even a better person than he was a coach [Music] in early january of 1979 the man to replace the legend had been chosen earl bruce a man with deep buckeye roots as a player graduate assistant and later as a hayes assistant coach i think everyone knew it would be a tough chore to follow coach hayes but i knew that coach aids would help in the transition i knew he'd be back of anyone that probably had been connected with ohio state university and attached to his program what earl bruce accomplished in his first season was astonishing with a solid roster of talent headlined by a more poised archliester at quarterback the buckeyes marched through the regular season without a misfire if there was a benchmark in this year it was when ohio state met ucla in the coliseum that was a really tough physical defensive football game they had some really outstanding people by easily from free safety and safety managers outstanding so when you come to that last drive for art to come out as a sophomore quarterback and pick them apart with them picturesque two-minute drive picked them over here picking over the air around the draw for the final touchdown we faked the run and hit the titan in the end zone for the touchdown that won the game it was a spark after the game we threw over the rose bowl and everybody was talking about returning and returned to the rose bowl they did clinching the big ten title by beating michigan 18 to 15 on this jim loughlin block punt the todd bell ran in for the winning touchdown ohio state nearly captured the national championship falling only one point short in a 17 to 16 loss to usc in the rose bowl beginning in 1980 ohio state posted the first of what would be six straight nine and three seasons always in the race and earning one outright and two co big ten championships these were years filled with great games and even greater players in art schleister's senior year of 1981 he won a shootout with john elway in stanford stadium 24-19 he made this remarkable touchdown in the closing seconds of the michigan game to beat the wolverines 14-9 in 1982 ohio state lost three straight games but after a turnaround win at illinois the buckeyes came together and came on strong but as the year went gone we started rolling and we had an opportunity to really take off and and the season really turned around we uh i think we finished up that year playing byu in the holiday bowl we won 47-17 and at that time lavelle edwards the byu cougar coach said that he thought we were one of the top teams in the country at that time i think at that point in the season we may have been i'm not withstanding our record we may have been the best team in the country and i've i've since talked to a lot of people that played on that brigham young team and they just were afraid it was amazing how good we were we were just the machine in 1983 six long years after the sooners came from behind a win in columbus ohio state was more than ready for the rematch john frank played one of the best games i've ever seen an athlete play he really took control and as a tight end i don't think i've ever seen a player take control of a game like that and i played some great tight ends kellen winslow with the chargers one probably one of the best tight ends all time he couldn't match john frank that big that was probably my best game as a as a football player i like i said i had four years to get ready for that game and there was nothing that was going to stop me i can remember the first pass the first drive of the game i caught a pass in the 10 yard line and there was nothing nothing that was going to keep me from getting in the end zone that was three years of adrenaline built up the buckeyes dominated oklahoma had brought back a 24 to 14 win ohio state led by junior tailback keith byers was poised for a great season in 1984. with mike tomzack and jim carsados splitting the early season quarterbacking the buckeyes made it 4-0 before stumbling at purdue the next week in ohio stadium illinois leaped out to a huge lead early you know we look up at the school but we're down 24 to nothing and then uh you know we just took it upon ourselves saying we don't have a plan on offense it's going to give us 25 points at one crack so we take a little bit of time and you know we still got plenty of time we got three quarters to play [Music] keith byers spearheaded one of the greatest comebacks ever made in a horseshoe along with shore-handed receiver chris carter they cut the illini lead to 24 to 21 by the half in the second half buyers scored three more tds including this never to be forgotten 67-yard run going the final distance into the end zone with only one shoe when it was over the score ohio state 45 illinois 38 and ohio state was well on its way to another big ten championship i never forget it and each each touchdown seemed like it it meant you know so much more every time you know i went out and scored one uh something like illinois were trying to score another one but you know at the end you know that buckeye spirit you know that endures in all of us you know we found a way to you know bring the victory home and send the homecoming crowd away happening in the game they could talk about for many years to come in 1985 keith byers was the odds-on favorite to win the heisman trophy and the buckeyes had a legitimate shot at a national championship i planted my left foot came down on my right and then ran up field as soon as i came down to my right foot i knew something was wrong right away you know nobody ever hit me nobody fell on me i got it twisted or anything i came and i immediately you know stopped running and uh it signaled for uh our trainer uh billy hill to come to come come here come to me for a second i said something's not right i said something i heard some snap he's like are you sure that i'm more than positive and you know we got x-rays and you know the foot was broken [Music] wire's foot kept him on the sidelines for almost all the season still the buckeyes pulled together and upset iowa the nation's number one team in a great game at ohio stadium [Music] the year ended with a 10-7 win over defending national champion byu in the citrus bowl the buckeyes opened their 1986 campaign in the kickoff classic against alabama but lost 16 to 10 followed two weeks later with a 40 to 7 pounding by washington this was the first time since 1894 ohio state had ever opened with two straight losses well i think it showed the sign of our character and it was a gut check and it was a responsibility that we took upon ourselves this team to hold up a tradition that's bigger than everyone and we felt that we knew we had the potential and the capabilities to when it was just a matter of getting that confidence [Music] ohio state fought their way back for a big ten co-championship and a berth in the cotton bowl to meet texas a m played a great game i think he had about five or so interception the quarterback was supposed to turn pro that after that game or something like that but uh we end up changing his mind [Music] our team played their hearts out i mean they played every down and hit him harder than they've probably ever been getting hit and we ran some great uh uh plays we had some great interception out of spielman and our linebackers and uh one for a touchdown at the end of the game but most certainly uh the spirit of that was something the spirit of our whole body to go down there and win the cotton bowl early in 1987 buoyed by the tone of the close of the previous season ohio state fans were expecting great things but gifted wide receiver chris carter was declared ineligible for dealing with an agent suddenly this was not the same team the buckeyes took a five three and one record into the next to the last game with iowa with 16 seconds remaining and ohio state leading 27 to 22 iowa's marv cook scored from 23 yards out in an ending that left fans started two days later earl bruce had been fired and athletic director rick bay had resigned in protest when you win and everyone loves you and when you start losing people just have to start pointing the finger and i think once we lost to to iowa on that last play you know people really got on earl but the true fact of the matter was earl didn't miss the tackle his character really showed up and how he prepared us to play for michigan and he could have just walked out right there but he felt obligated to his players and his to ohio state fans to coach and do a fine coaching job he did a great job in keeping the attention off him and keeping him keeping it on the michigan game in a dramatic and emotional show of character ohio state traveled to ann arbor a few days later and beat the favored wolverines 23 to 20. no finer nine years of my life than to be in columbus ohio coaching the buckeyes i'm a buckeye i always will be a buckeye i support that institution 100 in the midst of the turmoil surrounding earl bruce's firing linebacker chris spielman became the third ohio state player to be selected as the recipient of the lombardi award new athletic director jim jones launched a nationwide search for a head coach and made his announcement on new year's eve john cooper came to ohio state with the most impressive credentials of any buckeye coach including recognition as pac-10 and national coach of the year for his success at arizona state when the job opened my first reaction was hey i won't have a chance to coach sarah but then the more you thought about it the record we had arizona state you know winning the rose bowl beating michigan i thought well maybe i'll give it a shot so when i started talking to jim jones and the people here at ohio state that were making the decision to hire a football coach the more i talked with them the more i realized that i may i may be the guy they're looking for i may have a chance to coach at the ohio state university someday john cooper and his staff soon found that making the transition to a new offensive and defensive plan would not be without its trying moments very frustrating to know that you could match up one-on-one and just drive the ball right right down against the other team and and they have mental breakdowns and physical breakdowns ohio state's not used to losing and it's extremely frustrating to use at ohio state it's not expected at all but ohio state showed a flash of its explosive potential in a dramatic win over lsu and a dominating second half against [Applause] michigan [Music] [Applause] in 1989 the final year of the first century of ohio state football the buckeyes put together one of the most remarkable turnarounds in college football improving from four six and one to eight and four including an appearance in the hall of fame bowl 1989 was punctuated by the miracle in minneapolis the gophers jumped out to a 31 to nothing lead in only the second quarter of play we knew that if we settled down and you know we got the whole team settled down that we could score but uh you know at that point on enough we really thought we'd come back but uh we did get ourselves settled down and we scored before half and uh we went in at halftime we just talked about and said hey look you know we got a chance to come back in this game we were down early but with the new offense we were able to use the firepower that it gives us to really come back and dig ourselves out of a hole with 51 seconds left greg fry hit jeff graham in the end zone to cap a 41-37 victory the second century of ohio state football has begun filled with the promise and potential to make the next 100 years even more exciting than the first a century that will refine and reinforce the legendary tradition of ohio state football i think the number one thing that comes to my mind is probably pride pride you talk to all the ex-players all ex-coaches anybody's ever been associated with this program with tremendous pride and the accomplishments that you know they've been a part of i can't really think of too many other places that when you walk into a room of 50 professional football players you're something special because you come from ohio state that was one of the happy times for our family and they all they used to talk about how tough it was to coach at the highest state listen massimo high estate these kind of places wanted it to be good that's for me being a part of ohio state uh from 1953 to 1950 seven i called it 57 but it was 56 with the greatest years of my life i was able to be a part and have an impact on something that people since the 1800s have been a part of and it's been a tradition where i was able to to be a part of it and it's bigger than anybody i don't care if you're a 50-time all-american lionheart heisman trailer whatever it's something that is bigger than everyone and i was able to be a part of it and that's one of the finest memories i had

Channel: Grey Beard

Views: 2,517

Rating: 4.9024391 out of 5

Keywords: Ohio State Buckeyes, Big Ten Conference, Woody Hayes, Paul Brown, Archie Griffin, Rose Bowl, Ten Year War, Howard Hopalong Cassidy

Id: 7uUxFOQWwOE

Length: 76min 48sec (4608 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 03 2020