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Woody Hayes Quotes (Official Thread)

Thanks for sharing this site with all of us. It took me about an hour to read all of it. I went over some of them twice. I just spent a nice hour reading and learning about Life. Now i know why i became as passionate about Ohio State and Woody Hayes.
 
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There is a new feature in Bucknuts with a Woody Hayes's quote everyday.

Morning Woody Quote

Quote of the day for April 25, 2008:
"I remember losing. I remember the fights after the game. I remember Woody telling us, 'They think they kicked our (expletive) out on the football field. They're only across the hall. Let's go over there and kick their (expletive). And Steve Luke: 'Yeah coach, let's kick their (expletive).' And I remember Neal Colzie saying, 'Y'all better sit your (expletives) down. We'll be in trouble out there, all those Michigan people out there.'"
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Pete Johnson, excerpted from the book Woody's Boys

Quote of the day for April 26, 2008:
"Success is the only motivational factor that a boy with character needs. When he sees that he's getting in shape, that all this work is good for him, then he doesn't grouse about it anymore. He begins to drive himself. Hell, he wants to win as much as I do. There's a lot of silly talk about building character in football -- and I happen to believe in it. In our society, there aren't too many things that a boy can do anymore. Football is one of the few. He has to whip that guy across from him and he has to do it as a member of a team, playing within the rules. But a coach doesn't go out to build character; he goes out to win. The character will take care of itself."
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Woody Hayes

Quote of the day for April 27, 2008:
"When I came here 11 years ago, I was determined that you don't cheat the kid who plays football for you. You see those two buildings?" (St. John Arena and French Field House) "They cost $5.5 million to build. Where did the money come from? From these kids on the football team. They earned it. Football is a $2 million business at Ohio State -- which means that the 22 boys on the starting team bring in almost $100,000 apiece in gate receipts each year. Think of that. And what do they get in return? Well, we're not going to cheat and give them a slice of melon or anything else illegal, you can bet on that. What they get is $1,300 a year in room, board, tuition, and books -- the opportunity to get an education. And I'm going to see that they get that education. We certainly owe them that."
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Woody Hayes

Quote of the day for April 28, 2008:
"All my life I have been and always will be a hero-worshiper... When I get a great athlete... I feel a little tingle inside because I'm a respecter of the great athlete. I feel it's my duty to him as a coach to get the best out of them, and I get very bitter when they don't want to give us the best, because they owe it to us."
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Woody Hayes

Quote of the day for April 29, 2008:
"We respected one another so damn much. Now that doesn't mean I didn't get so mad at him that I wanted to kick him in the, uh, groin."
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Woody Hayes on Bo Schembechler

Quote of the day for April 30, 2008:
"I walked out of my office yesterday, and there's Garth Cox standing on the showroom floor. I look at him, and I think of Woody right away. I remember, I think it was my freshman year, and I scored the only touchdown against Michigan, and the Big Ten voted whether Michigan or Ohio State would go to the Rose Bowl. Garth Cox was in my freshman class, and he was sick. He had some kind of virus. Woody had let us vote among ourselves who we wanted to go. And someone said, 'Coach, what about Garth? Are you going to take him?' And he said, 'You don't think I'd go to California with my Cox out, do you?'"
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Pete Johnson, excerpted from the book "Woody's Boys" by Alan Natali


Quote of the day for May 1, 2008:
"Woody drove himself as hard as the rest of us. The secret of his success has always been that he sticks to what he believes is right, even if he's wrong. He never stopped thinking football. One afternoon he caught me reading. 'What the hell d'you mean, reading a book during the football season?' he shouted."
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Assistant coach Rix Yard


Quote of the day for May 2, 2008:
"The guy was hilarious. Here's what I always tell people: You were afraid of him as a freshman, you hated him as a sophomore, liked him as a junior, and loved him as a senior. He took you on an emotional roller coaster because of the way he was. When you're a freshman, you're standin' there at practice, and you see someone fumble, and Woody bites his hand until it bleeds. You know what I'm sayin' -- bleedin'. That freaks you out. Then someone throws an interception, and he starts beatin' himself in the face. Black and blue, fat lip. You're sayin', 'This guy's committed.' You realize how bad the guy wants to win, and you want to help him win so he doesn't hurt himself."
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Tom Skladany, excerpted from the book "Woody's Boys" by Alan Natali


Quote of the day for May 3, 2008:
"We've got to do something to help those kids. One of those boys came to me and said he had only one pair of pants. 'Can't you get a loan?' I asked him. 'I tried,' he said. 'They told me it would take four months.' Hell, a pair of pants can get to be awfully dirty in four months. Sure I gave him the money."
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Woody's response to a 1956 probation after giving players some of his own money
 
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Previous Quotes

Quote of the day for April 16, 2008:
"I just don't have time. I'm much too busy to sit down and shoot the (expletive) with a fella like you. Y'see, another thing is I've just been burned so (expletive) many times. Every time I've talked to a writer I've regretted it, because you fellas end up twisting everything. Now take the 1973 Rose Bowl game. We go out there and lose to a fine USC team. So what do the (expletive) people out there write about? They don't write about the wonderful football team they had out there. They write about nothing but Woody Hayes beating up on a photographer. I get on the plane out there to go home and the reporters send me a message: 'Won't you come out and give us a statement?' I send 'em a message back that they don't need any help from me to tear down the game of football. They knew what they were gonna write without hearing what I had to say. So why even bother to talk to me? Y'see, this embitters a fella. I get so (expletive) mad every time I think about it I want to put my foot through a (expletive) window."
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Woody to Esquire writer Robert Vare in response to an interview request



Quote of the day for April 17, 2008:
"Being cold, like being determined to win, is just a state of mind."
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Woody Hayes, known for wearing short sleeves on a freezing day:
woodyrun.jpg


Quote of the day for April 18, 2008:
"The first guy I met up here was Ken Kuhn. I'm gettin' recruited. I'm sittin' there at this big bar on campus, and they said, 'That guy over there at the bar's our captain.'
"I said, 'What position?'
"They said, 'Linebacker. I'll introduce you. Hey, Kuhndog, come over here. This's Tom Skladany from Pennsylvania. He's a punter.'
"Kuhn reached over. I thought he was goin' to take my hand, but he took my glass of beer. He drained it, bit it, and chewed the glass. Blood was comin' out of his mouth. He went back over to the bar.
"That's my first impression of Ohio State. I swear to God. He ate glass."

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Tom Skladany, excerpted from the book "Woody's Boys" by Alan Natali



Quote of the day for April 19, 2008:
"He doesn't play cards, he doesn't play golf, he doesn't fish. He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink. You know, now that I think of it, he doesn't do anything at all."
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Unnamed OSU assistant coach answering the question of what Woody Hayes does in his spare time


Quote of the day for April 20, 2008:
"Nobody ever really challenges Woody. You go to practice. You see or hear something and the old man says, 'I don't want to see this in the newspaper' or 'I don't want to see that in the newspaper.' You make a choice: if you want to cover practice again, you don't put it in a newspaper."
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Newspaper/Sports Editor Tom Keys



Quote of the day for April 21, 2008:
"It was getting late, high time to depart, and as I got up to leave, Hayes picked himself up from his chair and bellied up to me. He extended that enormous hand, grabbed the tip of my tie and flipped it up in the air. " 'Now the next time you come to see me," he chortled, quite warmly, "you better not wear that tie.'
"I looked down at the tie, puzzled. "What's wrong with it?"
" 'The colors!' Woody Hayes bellowed, pointing to the blue and yellow stripes. 'Those are the (expletive) colors of Michigan!' "

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Excerpt from "Woody Hayes Makes War" by Robert Vare of Esquire magazine




Quote of the day for April 22, 2008:
"I wanted to tell him what a great game Ohio played, but I made the mistake of asking him what time it was. I never got another word in; he spent 30 minutes telling me about his new watch."
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Former Iowa head coach Forest Evashevski

Quote of the day for April 23, 2008:
Our quote today was going to be from Woody's speech at OSU's 1986 graduation ceremony... but instead of reading it, why not watch it? [ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=byBpdZG4V5w"]Click here to check it out![/ame]

Quote of the day for April 24, 2008:
"We were at Michigan, away, in '75. We're sittin' there at the lunch room in the hotel, and it's so quiet you couldn't hear anything. You couldn't even hear the forks clickin'. It was just dead silence... your stomach's up in your throat. You're playin' Michigan. Everyone's nervous -- national TV, Big Ten championship. All of a sudden, Woody hits his glass with his fork. Any time he hits his glass, you sit up.
" 'Maitre d', maitre d',' he's yellin' at the top of his lungs.
"I said to someone sittin' next to me, 'What's he doin'?'
"He goes, 'I want all of the cooks out of the back to come out here and serve my men, and I want these co-eds who were planted here by Bo to go in the back.' And, I mean, these girls who were waitin' on us were beautiful. Then he said, 'Men, Bo infiltrated our lunchroom today. He put these girls here to get your mind off the game, but I caught it. I just want to let you know the kind of guy you're playin' against tomorrow.'
"I was laughin' so hard at him -- inside, because you can't laugh outside. He was serious. You should've seen the freshmen and the sophomores who didn't know about him. Next thing you know, there's chatter. Guys're talkin'. He took the pressure off. He got everybody pissed, and we beat the (expletive) out of 'em, 21-14. You believe that? That's what he did. He sensed the tenseness. Then from then on, everybody was talkin': 'That (expletive). He sent those girls in here to take our mind off the game.' He turned the whole lunch around, and we went out there and kicked (expletive) the next day. Tactical warfare. That was him. He was the captain of the ship. That's vintage Woody."

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Tom Skladany, excerpted from the book "Woody's Boys" by Alan Natali
 
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Previous Quotes

Quote of the day for April 10, 2008:
"I love football. I think it is the most wonderful game in the world and I despise to lose. I've hated to lose ever since I was a kid and threw away the mallets when I lost at croquet."
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Woody Hayes

Quote of the day for April 11, 2008:
"Blame is safer than praise. And that's what I tell the boys all the time -- that this niceness from people complementing you can be what kills you. It can be deceiving. Yes sir, Emerson was hitting the ball square when he said, 'As soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for me I feel as one who lies unprotected before his enemies.' "
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Woody Hayes

Quote of the day for April 12, 2008:
"When we are stopped, we don't go to another play. We change the blocking angles in the line until the play works. Maybe that is why we don't look very spectacular early in the game. But we look pretty spectacular sometimes in the fourth quarter."
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Woody Hayes

Quote of the day for April 13, 2008:
"Son, at Ohio State we run straight for the goal line."
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An agitated Woody Hayes to freshman Jack Tatum, after Tatum returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown in practice by zigzagging all over the field.

Quote of the day for April 13, 2008:
"Son, at Ohio State we run straight for the goal line."
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An agitated Woody Hayes to freshman Jack Tatum, after Tatum returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown in practice by zigzagging all over the field.

Quote of the day for April 14, 2008:
"People ask me so many times how I've maintained my drive, my enthusiasm. I think the only way a man can maintain his enthusiasm for his job beyond a certain point is to be able to see his job in the larger context -- the sublime context. This to me is an absolute necessity. I see my job as a part of American civilization and as a damn important part. I see football as being just so much above everything else."
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Woody Hayes

Quote of the day for April 15, 2008:
"I get along fine with the fans. They want to win, and I can understand that. So do I. That's the idea of this game. The only idea. Anyway, I'm just a little bit meaner than they are."
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Woody Hayes

"Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never a convenient time for any of them."
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Margaret Mitchell (Author of "Gone with the Wind")
 
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My personal favorite:

There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you. - Woody Hayes
 
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I watched him at practices twice. The phrase that sticks in my mind is, "Level off. (expletive deleted) Level off."

Anyone here who ran the ball for the Buckeyes heard that expression a thousand times. He wanted all of a man's energy aimed directly into the men who would try to tackle them.
 
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I just watched that Woody video. Ain't a one of us who grew up in that era who can watch that without a tear coming to your eye. He was like your father. On the wrong side of Nixon, the war, and free love. A cantankerous old bastard.

I saw him once walking over to his office when I was a freshman. There was a group trying to stir up the annual spring riots, but it was after Kent State and people were more interested in sit-ins than getting shot. A speaker was shouting about the war and Nixon and the usual.

Woody never shied away from demonstrators. He would engage. He said, "It's bigger than that. Keep your heads in your books. Don't waste this opportunity for yourselves."

Authority figures can scold you in life and it really doesn't mean all that much. But, when your parents scold you, it cuts to the quick, if you love them. There was a great sadness in Woody, when he said that, and everyone was affected. I felt embarrassed to have been there. It was like your father just told you that you had disappointed him for the first time in your life.
 
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"I've had smarter people around me all my life, but I haven't run into one yet that can outwork me. And if they can't outwork you, then smarts aren't going to do them much good. That's just the way it is. And if you believe that and live by it, you'd be surprised at how much fun you can have."
 
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Bucknuts.com - Morning Woody Quote: May 5

Quote of the day for May 5, 2008:
"This's a true story. You can ask anyone who was there. I'm taking snaps from center, and I'm pulling my hands out early intentionally. I do this about six times. Bo Schembechler was there at the time, and he knows what I'm doing. Woody has no idea what's going on. And the poor center, Billy Joe Armstrong, he almost got castrated. "Woody's yelling at Billy Joe, 'You got to bring the ball up faster!'
"He's bringing it up faster; I'm pulling my hands out; he's hitting himself right in the cujones. He'd go to his knees.
"After six times, Woody looks at Bo and says, 'Bo! What're we gonna do? God---- you, Matte!'
"He takes his left arm, gives me a left forearm shiver, knocks me backward ass-over-teacups. I'm laughing. Bo's holding back. Woody says, 'It's not god---- funny, Matte.'
"And with that, he hits himself in the temple with both fists and knocks himself out cold. He always wore that whistle, and that whistle comes up and lashes him in the eye. He's bleeding from the eye.
"Bo looks at me and says, 'Matte, you better get your (expletive) out of here, because if he wakes up, he's gonna kill you.' "
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Tom Matte, excerpted from the book "Woody's Boys" by Alan Natali
 
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