• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Butch Reynolds (400M Olympian, former OSU coach)

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
Link


BUCKEYE BUZZ:Butch Reynolds held a world record and won an Olympic gold medal. Of being selected an honorary captain for Saturday's game against Akron, he says, "I can ask for no more blessings."
Reynolds, the former world-record holder in the 400 meters, won a gold medal in the 1600 meter relay and a silver in the 400 in the 1988 Olympics. The Akron native held the 400 record of 43.29 seconds from 1988 to 1999. He's now on the football coaching staff at Ohio State as a speed coordinator.
"You couldn't do this if you don't have a passion for it, or a commitment for it," Reynolds said of coaching at Ohio State, where he started three years ago. "It's just that tough, especially for a guy who never, never, ever had a job before. Never, ever, ever, ever. Now I've got a job. Tressel's the man!"Reynolds will speak to the team after the pregame meal Saturday morning.
Of the current Buckeyes, he said, "I thought we had a fast team last year. ... This year we have more speed all around."
 
Upvote 0
OSU notebook: Olympian will stress need to do best
Saturday, September 8, 2007 3:26 AM
By Tim May
The Columbus Dispatch

When Butch Reynolds, honorary captain for Ohio State today, rises to speak to the Buckeyes, he said he won't just talk about his Olympic gold medal. He's going to tell them about his silver one, too.

Being the world record-holder in the 400 meters going into the 1988 Olympics, he was expected to strike gold in that event and the 1,600 relay. He came home with gold in the latter but silver in the former.

"I won the silver because I didn't do my best, bottom line," Reynolds said. "I got out there and said, 'I broke the world record a month before. I don't have to do my best. All I've got to do is just beat 'em by five yards, not 10 yards,' and I should never have said that. You go out there and do your best, regardless."

It's a salient point, considering Ohio State is a 28 1/2 -point favorite over in-state foe Akron today. But in the wake of Division I-AA Appalachian State's upset of then-No. 5 Michigan, Reynolds said the Buckeyes know what a slip can mean.

In his third year as speed coach for the football team, he said he was taken aback when Jim Tressel and the coaches came to him about becoming the first non-player to be named honorary captain.

"I'm just helping Tressel's program," Reynolds said. "It's one of the best in the world. It's an honor to be a part of it. It's even more of an honor to be a captain for football (after) running track."

But what if he had played college football?

"I would have been the best lock-down cornerback in the nation," Reynolds said. "I had good hands, I didn't have great hands. But at cornerback, I'd like to get in people's face and stop them from doing what they were going to do."

Former Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger is expected to be the honorary captain for the game at Washington a week from today. Geiger lives in Port Angeles, Wash., on the Olympic peninsula west of Seattle.
Click to expand...

BuckeyeXtra - The Columbus Dispatch : OSU notebook: Olympian will stress need to do best
 
Upvote 0
Butch Reynolds happy to be coaching with Ohio State Buckeyes
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer

Columbus -- When Butch Reynolds set the world record in the 400 meters in 1988, he didn't cry. When he won a gold medal in the 1,600-meter relay at the 1988 Summer Olympics, he didn't cry.

In 2005, when he went to Michigan for the first time as a member of the Ohio State football team?

"We kicked Michigan's butt up at Michigan, and I did cry," Reynolds said. "I didn't want to, but I couldn't help it."
Click to expand...


"He loves it," said OSU receiver Brian Hartline. "It might sound kind of corny, but he's kind of inspiring in a way. He never looks down, he's always perky and ready to go and he hypes you up like you're the best player on the team."

Reynolds will be at his most hyped today. In a rare honor for a nonfootball player, he will serve as Ohio State's honorary captain for today's game against his hometown Akron Zips. At this morning's captain's breakfast, he plans to bring along his two Olympic medals and explain to the players and coaches how much it means for him to be one of them.
Click to expand...

Told by Tressel that the Buckeyes didn't need another ego in the weight room, Reynolds had no problem with that, either.

"Coach," Reynolds said, "my ego has been checked a long time ago."
Click to expand...

cleveland.com: Everything Cleveland
 
Upvote 0
matcar;927333; said:
This is kinda nitpicky, but shouldn't this thread be in a different section since he's more than just an alumni and is actually a coach?
Click to expand...

It is nitpicky. Cut it out or face a Reynolds brothers butt whippin'
burtreynolds.jpg
 
Upvote 0
Butch Reynolds looks to change Ohio State Buckeyes' slow reputation fast
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Bill Livingston
Plain Dealer Columnist
New Orleans

-- Speed kills, al though in Ohio State's case, the chance is that it only grazes -- or provides a flesh wound at most.

"You're too slow, you're not going to make it, you don't hit hard enough," said offensive tackle Alex Boone, recounting the many perceived weaknesses of the Buckeyes as they prepare for Monday's national championship game against LSU at the Superdome.

It is a reputation that sticks to the Buckeyes, Velcroed in place by their abominable performance against Florida, one of LSU's Southeastern Conference brethren, in last year's championship game. It is also lashed to them by stereotypes about big, plodding Big Ten teams, tailored for bad weather, but reduced to helplessness on the artificial turf of domed stadiums.

"If you look at our NFL draft statistics over the last five years, when we've been considered slow, you can put it up against anybody," offensive tackle Kirk Barton said. "But one bad game will give you that reputation."

"People say speed kills, but it's really speed, plus balance, that kills," said Ohio State's first speed coach for football, Butch Reynolds. "People forget about that power we have with [running back] Beanie Wells."
Click to expand...

Reynolds said freshman running back Brandon Saine and wideout Ray Small have run 4.3s in the 40 ("4.28 for Small," he said), and that the 235-pound Wells clocks a "high 4.4 or a 4.5." Quarterback Todd Boeckman is faster than Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith was, although not as elusive.

"I could put Boeckman and [wide receiver] Brian Hartline in the 400 meters, and Small and Saine in the 100. You know the school of Butch Reynolds and Jesse Owens isn't going to be any kind of slow Ohio," Reynolds said.
Click to expand...


cleveland.com: Everything Cleveland
 
Upvote 0
Speed coach and former Olympian Butch Reynolds has left the program as of Tuesday, Tressel said. He said Reynolds was looking to put more time into his personal training of other athletes and to work more with his foundation in Akron.
Tressel said a committee will evaluate how the open position on the strength training staff will be filled and whether it remains a spot for a speed coach. Considering the timing, it's not a urgent need so the process may take a while.
Click to expand...

Ohio State football: News and notes for the start of spring football practice - Cleveland Sports News – The Latest Breaking News, Game Recaps and Scores from The Plain Dealer
 
Upvote 0
Gatlin's court fight recalls bitter Reynolds battle in 1992
Posted: June 25, 2008

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- There is an air of uncertainty as Justin Gatlin tries for a court-ordered entry into the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

This is nothing, though, compared with Butch Reynolds' intense fight that shook up the 1992 trials in New Orleans in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

"It was just too much tension, too much pressure," recalled Reynolds' coach at the time, Russ Rogers.

Like Gatlin, Reynolds was one of the sport's best and had tested positive for performance-enhancing substances. But Reynolds -- the world record holder at 400 meters at the time -- said it was a mistake, that the French lab that did the 1990 test had mixed up his urine test with that of another athlete.

Gatlin took his case Wednesday to a federal appeals court in Atlanta and is seeking an emergency order to let him compete in Saturday's 100-meter preliminaries. U.S. and international sporting bodies are vehement in refusing to allow Gatlin to run. Still, officials are preparing for the trials not knowing whether they will have to make room for Gatlin.

This drug hangover is the last thing the United States needs going into the Beijing Games, in the wake of the BALCO scandal. It's the latest chapter of an ugly saga.

But 16 years ago, the Reynolds case was a much bigger deal.

"I have always been a strong advocate about drug use," Reynolds said at the time. "Why are they trying to do this to me? I've been good for this sport. I can't believe I'm in a situation where I have to fight."
Click to expand...

Sporting News - Your expert source for MLB Baseball, NFL Football, NBA Basketball, NHL Hockey, NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball and Fantasy Sports scores, blogs, and articles
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top