• 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!

Wayne Woodrow "Woody" Hayes (5x National Champion, OSU HOF, CFB HOF, R.I.P.)

Some people would say that about New Straitsville, Gore, Union Furnace, Chesterhill, Stockport, and other small southern Ohio villages that prospered in the 1850s but many of those who grew up there needed a groundedness in that soil and culture. My father was such a person. Like Woody, he was a different man when he went "down home."
 
Upvote 0
Some people would say that about New Straitsville, Gore, Union Furnace, Chesterhill, Stockport, and other small southern Ohio villages that prospered in the 1850s but many of those who grew up there needed a groundedness in that soil and culture. My father was such a person. Like Woody, he was a different man when he went "down home."

Most of my statement was tongue in cheek. There is a certain simplicity about those towns and the SE Ohio region that really means something to a lot of people. For me, it's the superfluous people variables that make my home town such an unpleasant experience for me any more. Other than that... to each their own.

Caldwell will always be a town that draws rememberances for me, because of cross country. I grew up at the same time as young man in Caldwell who was simply superb at running. Ran to/from school every day from the time he was in Middle School (and maybe earlier). My first meet exposed me to what it was like to see someone run 14:14 in the 5k. Blew my mind. Just like a machine.
 
Upvote 0
Some people would say that about New Straitsville, Gore, Union Furnace, Chesterhill, Stockport, and other small southern Ohio villages that prospered in the 1850s but many of those who grew up there needed a groundedness in that soil and culture.

And here I thought it was because there was really good weed down there.
 
Upvote 0
The movie "Pay if Forward" was just shown on an SA television channel this morning.

I know that the concept is due to Benjamin Franklin in the 1700s, but it will always be the student of history, Woody Hayes, who brought it to my attention and encouraged me to adopt it as a value in life.

Thank you, Woody!
 
Upvote 0
“….BECAUSE THEY WOULDN’T LET ME GO FOR THREE!”

The true story on O-Zone, great article:

It’s a good story, but the most-famous myth of all involving Woody was born from the 1968 game against Michigan at Ohio Stadium.

Ohio State, behind all of those super sophomores such as Rex Kern and Jack Tatum, entered the game ranked No. 1 with an 8-0 record. The Wolverines entered the game 8-1.

The Buckeyes, who hadn’t played a close game throughout the season, held a 37-14 lead when fullback Jim Otis scored his third touchdown of the game with 3:37 remaining. After an interception, the Buckeyes were in the red zone again as the clock ticked down.

Woody didn’t plan on taking a knee to run out the clock – he wanted another touchdown. The starters were on the sideline now. Backup fullback Paul Huff got stuffed at the line of scrimmage on first-and-goal at the 2-yard line. Otis was standing behind Woody and noticed he was agitated.

He tapped the coach on the shoulder.

“Coach, do you want another touchdown?” Otis asked him.

“He just said, ‘Go in and get it and you call the play!’

“So I went in and looked around the huddle and the best lineman I saw was Dave Cheney at left tackle. I looked at Dave and said, ‘Now Woody wants this touchdown and he wants (the play) over you!’ I got the touchdown over Dave’s hole and the old stadium was rocking like it never was before.”

It was Otis’ fourth touchdown of the day, 17th of the season and it made the score 50-14 with only 1:23 remaining. After the score, Otis stood up and fired the football deep into the crowd in the closed end of the Horseshoe. You could do that in those days without so much as a sideways look from an official.

As the Buckeyes huddled for the PAT kick, there was confusion about who was in the huddle and who was not.

“Here’s why there was confusion,” backup quarterback Billy Long told me years ago. “Our long-snapper had been hurt earlier and he wasn’t in the huddle. Jim Roman was our kicker and he had to fill in at center to do the long-snapping, so we didn’t have a kicker in the huddle.”

Chances are, the Buckeyes had only 10 men on the field, too, but nobody knows for sure.

Long was scared to death to get a delay of game because there was nothing Woody hated more -- outside of an ill-timed fumble, or a stupid question from a out-of-town reporter, or a blown officials’ call, or the color blue, or … well … never mind -- than his offense being penalized for a delay of game. Even if it was before a meaningless PAT while holding a 36-point lead in the final minutes of a game.

Hey, it was against Michigan.

So as the offense broke the huddle and headed to the line of scrimmage, then-assistant coach Earle Bruce said he was screaming into the offensive headset from the pressbox: “No, no, don’t go for two!”

But it was too late.

Long had called a play to run.

“So I had called ’27 pass’ and we lined up and ran the play,” Long said. “It was designed to go to the halfback but nobody was open, so I threw it into coverage and it was incomplete.”

As proof, the official play-by-play sheet from that game reads: “Long’s pass intended for (Bill) Pollitt incomplete, too long.” You can even find the play on Youtube, showing Long rolling to his left and firing over the head of his intended receiver in the back of the end zone.

WOODY-HAYES-3_225.jpg


The game ended 50-14 and Woody was giddy afterward. His undefeated team had just won a Big Ten championship and was headed to the Rose Bowl to play USC and O.J. Simpson for the national championship on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, Calif.

Afterward, a reporter asked Hayes, “Coach, why did you go for two points with a 50-14 lead?”

Ever quick with a quip, Hayes didn’t even pause for a second …. “Because they wouldn’t let me go for three!”

The room broke into laughter and Woody beamed with that ear-to-ear smile beneath those signature silver, wire-rimmed glasses.
.
.
.
A few years ago, I had asked Bruce about the two-point conversion. He was adamant that Woody had called for the play and that it was successful. It shows how the legend grew over the five decades since even from people who were at the game.

But the facts are indisputable: Hayes never called for the two-point play in the first place and really had no idea why the Buckeyes weren’t kicking the PAT (although he did indeed want that final touchdown). And the two-point play was not successful.

“That thing has gotten so blown out of proportion over the years,” Cheney recalled recently. “I sometimes even wonder if Woody ever said that line, ‘Because they wouldn’t let me go for three.’”

Woody just didn’t like that team up north and didn’t care much if he offended it, its coaches, administrators or its fan base.

Nevertheless, one of the most unrecognized facets of the legendary coach was this: He had one hell of a quick mind and a vastly underrated sense of humor.

So it was, on November 23, 1968, when those ingredients and one of Ohio State’s greatest all-time victories cooked up one of the greatest all-time lines in sports history.

Entire article: http://theozone.net/Ohio-State/All-.../“…BECAUSE-THEY-WOULDN’T-LET-ME-GO-FOR-THREE”
 
Upvote 0
woodyhayes1117.jpg


Thirty-eight-year-old Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes closed up shop at Miami University Monday and moved his T-formation to Ohio State as its 19th head football coach.

The portly, black-haired 1935 Denison University grad inherits what his resigned predecessor, Wesley Fesler, hinted was a “hot spot,” but has several compensations.

Hayes assumes his new duties as the announced “unanimous” choice of the screening committee, athletic board and board of trustees. The latter group gave its official and required stamp of approval at a special session Sunday.

Also, Hayes was accorded the fattest contract ever offered by the university. President Howard L. Bevis said, following his official announcement of Hayes’ hiring, that the salary would $12,500 and that his contract would be for one year “according to university regulations.”

Later, it was learned that Hayes has been given a “gentleman’s agreement” for five years and that his salary would increase to a maximum of $15,000 in its fifth season. Dr. Bevis did admit that “there was a general understanding it will be a continuing contract.”

Fesler came to Ohio State in 1947, also at $12,500, but under a “gentleman’s agreement” for only three years. He collected $15,000 in salary for the 1950 season before resigning Dec. 9.

Sunday’s action ended the long and rumor-surrounding coach-hunt in which the screening committee interviewed eight candidates before finally submitting Hayes’ name last Monday. The trustees delayed decision because three members did not attend Monday’s session. Two of the three, Sen. John W. Bricker and Charles F. Kettering, were on hand Sunday, bringing the board attendance to six.

The official statement said:

“The nomination by the President of Wayne W. Hayes to be head football coach has been confirmed by the board of trustees by unanimous vote.

“Such action is not to be considered as a reflection upon other candidates, as there were other qualified persons considered by the screening committee and the athletic board.

“Considering all factors involved, Mr. Hayes appeared to be the best choice. The board wishes to announce that there was absolutely nothing of any kind of character to disqualify any of the other candidates interviewed by the screening committee and the athletic board.”

This latter obviously referred to Paul Brown, coach of the world champion Cleveland Browns and the “people’s choice.”

Bricker, it was reliably reported, made a 10-minuted speech to his fellow trustees, in which he opposed Brown and boosted the candidacy of Hayes.

Brown was interviewed by the screening committee upon invitation, but did not apply for the job. The trustees apparently wished to attempt to appease the legions who backed Brown with letters, petitions and phone calls.

Hayes, who has five years of college coaching at Denison and Miami behind him, wasn’t the least bit dismayed by the tough Ohio State coaching situation.

Accepting congratulations shortly after the trustees’ action Sunday night, the new Buckeye gridmaster said: “I have wanted this job very much. It’s the greatest coaching opportunity in the country.”

Hayes waited in the office of Athletic Direction Dick Larkins while the trustees deliberated for almost two hours. This time his vigil proved fruitful. Last Monday, he arrived to accept the job, only to find it hadn’t been officially offered.

Dr. Bevis assured that Hayes, the sixth Buckeye coach in the last 11 years, would be given a “free hand to name his staff.” Hayes later declined to hint as to his aides, explaining that “I definitely will bring one man with me from Miami, but other than that, I can’t say for the time being. This has been so much up in the air that I haven’t been able to make definite plans.”

Hayes was the seventh of eight candidates interviewed by the screening committee and is believe to have been the third “favorite.” Harry Strobel, Ohio State freshman coach, enjoyed early favor of the board, was abandoned for Don Faurot of Missouri. Faurot, however, withdrew when Missouri granted him a boost in salary and other considerations.

Once he became “their man,” university folks worked unceasingly -- and successfully -- in Hayes’ behalf, even though it did not coincide with the wishes of the vast majority of fans, students and alumni.

While it did not affect their votes for Hayes, the trustees rapped Alumni Secretary Jack Fullen and his aid, Kenyon Campbell, across the knuckles for having used their positions to campaign unduly. Fullen, who has more than once cast the university in an embarrassing light, came in for severe criticism for his activities in the coaching matter. He was censured by every member of the board. Fullen also is an executive secretary of the Ohio State Development Fund and Campbell is the field director.

Besides Brown, Strobel and Faurot, other candidates interviewed included Sid Gillman of the University of Cincinnati; Chuck Mather, Massillon Coach who was backed by the Ohio High School Coaches Association; Warren Gaer of Drake University; and Jim McDonald of Springfield High School.

Hayes said he would need “about a day to clean up affairs at Miami,” but that he expected to be on the Buckeye campus for work on Tuesday. From there on, his schedule should be a busy one.

The regular February meeting of the athletic board is scheduled for Wednesday night. Since contracts of the assistant coaches are dated as of March 1, Hayes will have to decide by Wednesday night which of the present coaches will be retained and which new aides must be rehired.

Strobel, assistant freshman coach Gene Feketa, end coach Esco Sarkkinen and assistant line coach Ernie Godfrey remain from Fesler’s staff. It’s understood that Godfrey is certain to stay, since he is assistant athletic director as well as a football staff member.

Following the athletic board meeting, Hayes will go to Chicago for the regular meeting of the Big Ten football coaches Thursday. He hopes to get the Ohio State squad together for an introductory meeting Wednesday and figures on at least a week or more indoor workouts before the end of the current school quarter.

Spring practice is scheduled for March 28.

Entire article: http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/con.../woody-hayes-archive-coach-hired-in-1951.html
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
The Dispatch employed a columnist named Paul Hornung?

Re: May 4, 1994
Hornung, a former sports editor of The Columbus Dispatch who covered 326 consecutive Ohio State football games, died of cancer Monday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 78. He started covering Ohio State football in 1941. His books included Woody Hayes: A Remembrance and books on Ohio State football.


He was the primary sports writer for the Columbus Dispatch for many years.
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top