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| ISBN-13: | 9781633193840 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 10/15/2015 |
| Series: | Bucket List |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| File size: | 36 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Ohio State Buckeyes Fans' Bucket List
By Zack Meisel
Triumph Books
Copyright © 2015 Zack MeiselAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63319-384-0
CHAPTER 1
Coaching Stories
Visit Woody Hayes' Cabin
Ten miles. Ten twisting miles winding down a wayward path devoid of visibility, with nary a streetlight nor stop sign to impede. The sights along the route are antiquated and unconventional, rural and unsophisticated. A collection of rusty, downtrodden cars, the ignitions long untapped, rest among weeds and tall, untamed grass. A tire covers the hood of a navy sedan parked in front of a patch of woods. A ceramics shop, a bar, and an inn sit atop dirt lots at various junctures along the trail. Farms line both sides of the road, with cows and horses roaming the giant pastures that keep plenty of distance between neighbors.
Ten miles of this, before ultimately reaching the hidden gem of Caldwell, Ohio. Ten miles to Woody Hayes' old cabin.
The pathway is easy to overlook. It peeks out just before a sharp left turn on the main road. The rusty gate, innocent yet inviting, hangs ajar, but blends in with the backdrop of leaves, trees, and earth. Up the steep hill lies the log fixture, sold multiple times since Woody died in 1987. The cabin and the quirky town surrounding it are where Woody rushed to escape from football, from work, and from life; where he reconnected with his extended family; where he chatted about school and jobs with the 12 children of Mary Hill, a widowed neighbor.
This, in essence, was home.
"He never forgot to come back," said Mabel Schott, Woody's second cousin.
No one in town had seen Woody Hayes since he punched that player and lost his job. Everyone was on the same page, though. No one wanted to prompt that uncomfortable conversation.
Gennie Saling knew her husband. She knew all too well of the lack of a filter between his brain and his mouth. So, Gennie warned Ed.
"Don't you say anything to him about that," she told him.
Woody always stopped by the Saling residence on his visits to Caldwell. Upon his arrival, the words flowed from Ed's mouth with reckless abandon. He approached Woody and asked: "What the hell can make a man do that?" Gennie shook her head. Of course he asked about it.
On Saturday afternoons during the summer, Woody walked up the street to the bar owned by his cousin and bought everyone drinks. Woody knew every patron at the three bars in town. Everyone in Caldwell knew Woody. Of course, unfamiliarity does not really exist in the small community.
"Everybody knows everybody and everybody knows everybody's business," said Schott, whose white front door bears an Ohio State adornment.
In Columbus, where he coached for 28 years, Woody was a daunting, directive dictator. Former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce, who succeeded Woody as the Buckeyes' boss, said Woody almost always drove places by himself. "But if he rode with you, it was his car and he took over the radio, took over the windows, took over the heat. He took over everything. He was always in control."
In reality, though, Woody was a recluse.
"He used to go mountain hiking all the time by himself," Bruce said. "He was always kind of a loner in that respect."
In Caldwell, Woody was a hallowed figure, revered for his five national championships but respected and beloved for his generosity. He stood out, sure, but at the same time, he fit in seamlessly with the small town's people.
"It was the complete opposite," said Melinda Antill, one of eight Saling children. "Nobody was intimidated by Woody Hayes around here."
Woody visited on weekends during the summer. In the winter, snow and ice blanketed the steep gravel path to his cabin, creating a nearly impossible trail to traverse. When he returned to Caldwell, he steered the conversation away from his own legacy.
"Never once did that man ever talk football," Gennie Saling said. "All he ever talked about was learning and working."
Once a year, Woody provided a set of tickets to the denizens of Caldwell. They filled a car or two and made the two-hour trek west to Columbus and sat in the front row to watch their hero lead Ohio State.
"My kids, they used to go to school and tell people they met Woody Hayes," Saling said. "Kids didn't want to believe them."
Here was this man, this imposing figure, the stirring face of one of college football's premier programs, a seemingly callous coach who was ultimately dismissed for striking an opposing player. Yet in Caldwell, where he spent his childhood summers on his grandparents' farm and his offseason weekends in his secluded log cabin, Woody conformed to a simple, innocent manner of life.
"I liked to talk to him," Schott said. "He was really understanding. He liked everybody."
No one appreciated Gennie Saling's work ethic more than Woody did. She plucked worms off of the tobacco on her family's farm and she threw the burrowing bodies into a can. She milked cows, tended to horses, did housework for neighbors, served at all three bars in town, and worked at a steel plant. She could operate every machine in that factory. Woody admired that.
He stopped in at the Saling residence on Sundays. He would bring a case of beer for the adults and a watermelon for everyone else and he would sit in a chair in the living room and preach about the value of education to the family's children, grandchildren, and the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. They had all heard tales about Woody making his players stay at his house under his watchful eye until they improved their grades.
"I was told that if they weren't making their grades, you did not want a teacher giving him a phone call," Antill said. "If he got a phone call, you were dead meat."
So, Woody spoke to the roomful of children each week and relayed the importance of studying and completing homework.
"He always told them: 'Get an education first,'" Antill said. "'It's not all about football. You have to have the education or the football ain't gonna get you nowhere.'"
In the early 1940s, Gennie — then 17 — married Ed, who worked for a local coal company that tore down old houses, which were really just log structures with siding. Ed had taken the logs and built two cabins on his farm. They caught Woody's eye.
Woody secured an acre of land atop a majestic hill and he hired Ed and Joe Schott — Mabel's husband — to build him a new abode. Years later, the complex still sits on the same grounds. The exterior looks like a faded American flag or a dual-flavored birthday cake. Layers of white- and brown-stained wood compose the framework. A cluster of barren wasp nests hangs from the track of the front door. Two wooden benches rest on the porch, one of them sporting a busted leg that prohibits any sitting. Woody often settled onto one of the seats and read or wrote. He penned a book about football, which Antill keeps in her home. He would read about world history and famous battles and anything that Ralph Waldo Emerson composed. The stone chimney started to reluctantly separate from the foundation of the cabin, as the old mortar in between pleads for its life. In the spring, Easter lilies blossom all throughout the surrounding woods. Antill says they spring up "everywhere" one looks.
Woody installed a red sink and a gray bathtub to give the place Ohio State flair. He had an Ohio State rug near the front door. Long after his passing, a grill and a Jacuzzi were added outside of the cabin. The grass was littered with empty cans of Natty Light.
A large yellow candle, two smaller, exhausted candles, a book, a white porcelain bowl, and a picture frame rest on a wooden table in the center of the cabin. A blanket is draped over the back of one of four chairs positioned around the table. A tall, rustic lamp hovers over a leather chair. White curtains, decorated with a blue floral design, shield the inside from too much sunlight. The lodge boasts a fireplace, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom loft.
The Salings used to tend to the cabin when Woody was away. Gennie mowed the lawn and even did Woody's laundry. He called her to say he was coming to town and he would stop by to exchange his dirty clothes for his clean garb. When Woody died, Gennie still had his clothes hanging upstairs. Now, her grandson has Woody's patented button-up short-sleeve shirt framed in glass hanging on a wall in his house. Caldwell is home to several branches of the Hayes family tree, but even to those in the area not related by blood, Woody was like family.
"He was in this house and this kitchen more times than I can count," Antill said.
One time, his visit made Gennie nervous. Woody was bringing his wife to town for the first time. Caldwell did not — and does not — attract many visitors. Butch and Patti Damewood relocated to the area from Akron, Ohio, just for that purpose. They built a home on the main road and purchased the vacant property next door — the land adjacent to Woody's old estate — so they could maintain solitude and privacy. They sit at their kitchen table, catch up on news, and let their robotic vacuum cleaner tidy up the house.
Despite his ability to ease into the town's structure, Woody was still a superstar in Caldwell. Many who grow up in the area spend their entire lives there. Woody, meanwhile, coached a national spectacle of a football team that occasionally played in front of crowds the size of 50 times the population of Caldwell. Gennie envisioned Woody's wife as a high-class, hoity-toity, elegant, posh woman to whom she would not be able to relate. Then, Anne stepped out of the car.
"Here she comes, this little old heavy-set lady who had her hair back in a bunch like a farm lady," Saling said. "She was just like a farm lady, too. She was the nicest person that you could meet."
They hit it off. Once Woody died, Anne mailed Gennie $100 each Christmas. Anne died in 1998.
The Salings shared a special bond with Woody. He was not the same person in Caldwell — where he was alone and at peace in his cabin or at the bar or in a neighbor's living room before a cluster of kids — as he was in Columbus. There, he was obsessed with his work and rooted in his tunnel vision. His team and the responsibility associated with his job occupied every instant of his daily life.
"He was a very good-hearted person," Antill said. "It was amazing how good he could be to people. If anyone needed something, he would definitely help you."
Because of that, Ed Saling could not believe what Woody did during the waning moments of the 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson. Woody punched Charlie Bauman, a defensive player on Clemson who had intercepted a pass. He was later fired for his action. Ed and Woody never shied away from speaking their minds to each other, though.
So, Ed asked: "What the hell can make a man do that?"
Woody replied: "They ticked me off!"
That was the end of the conversation.
"You'd just have to know Woody," Antill said. "He had a temper. There's no doubt about that."
They knew Woody in Caldwell, and maybe a little better than most.
EXTRA POINTS
"I'm not resigning!"
The tension in the room was palpable. No one wanted to utter a word, out of fear of how Woody Hayes might respond. Ohio State lost to Michigan 7–0 to cap Woody's first season as head coach in Columbus. The Buckeyes finished the 1951 campaign with an underwhelming 4–3–2 record. Underwhelming by Woody's standards, especially. After the loss in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Woody called a meeting at his house. In the living room sat Bo Schembechler, a 22-year-old graduate assistant, along with the rest of the coaching staff. Woody was using a projector with 16-millimeter film to analyze what went wrong at Michigan Stadium.
"He's running it back and forth," Schembechler said. "I'm sitting in the back of the room, staying out of the way, and he's getting madder and madder. And suddenly, he picked up that projector and threw it."
Woody shouted: "I won't subject the people of Columbus to football like that!"
"I'll never forget him saying that," Schembechler said.
Early on in the following week, assistant coach Ernie Godfrey entered a staff meeting and said: "Woody, the people downtown who have the jobs are pulling the jobs out. We're going to lose most of our jobs downtown."
"Back then, you work for your room and board and stuff," Schembechler said. "I'll never forget, Woody said: 'Well, now, they wouldn't take the jobs away if I resigned, would they?'"
"No, they wouldn't," Godfrey replied.
"Well, you tell them," Woody said, "God damn, I'll pay the players myself. I'll mortgage the damn house. I'll borrow the money. I'll pay them myself. But I'm not resigning!"
Three years later, Woody directed Ohio State to a national championship with an unblemished 10–0 record, including a Rose Bowl victory against USC.
"He was a tough son of a gun," Schembechler said. "You don't run him out of town that easily."
Honor Woody's Legacy
What is Woody Hayes' legacy at Ohio State? Just look around the campus.
Beginning near Ohio Stadium and venturing west is Woody Hayes Drive. Woody's Tavern serves pizza, beer, wine, popcorn, and root beer in the student union. Football players and coaches spend hours each day of the year in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, a sports complex with practice fields that sit a short walk from the Schottenstein Center.
The longtime coach's presence on the campus should come as no surprise. In his 28 seasons at the helm for the Buckeyes, he compiled a 205–61–10 record, including a 152–37–7 mark in Big Ten play. Under Hayes, Ohio State was a recruiting powerhouse, a machine that churned out nine- and 10-win seasons and annually vied for national titles. During his reign, they captured five national championships and 13 of the conference variety. Woody was twice pegged as the Big Ten Coach of the Year and three times as the College Football Coach of the Year. He directed the Buckeyes to eight Rose Bowls, of which they won four. On four occasions (1954, 1961, 1968, 1973), his Ohio State teams went the entire season without a defeat. Woody sprouted a coaching tree that produced branches upon branches full of future college or professional football hires. Those who studied under Hayes included Earle Bruce, Lou Holtz, Ara Parseghian, and Bo Schembechler.
The wrinkle of Woody's personality that stands out most, however, might be his ruthlessness. He demanded the best out of everyone he encountered, be it his players, the media covering his team, or the students taking his military history course in Converse Hall.
The sultan of Ohio State football would periodically check on his players after dark to ensure they were studying. So one night when Rudy Hubbard hosted a poker game in his dorm room with a few teammates and a couple of nonplayers who smoked cigarettes, the telling taps on the door shook the tailback to his core.
He knew those knuckles belonged to Woody, and the coach tossed everyone out of the room. Everyone but Hubbard. After heaving an ashtray at the wall, he sat Hubbard down and told him that if any other authority had caught him pulling this garbage, he would have been dismissed from the team.
"He could have you scared to death and at the same time make you love him for the fact that he cared about you," Hubbard said. "I just saw that as Woody being Woody."
Over time, Hubbard and Woody developed a bond, one no one would have thought possible once Hubbard arrived at Ohio State in 1964 with aspirations to play professional football like his idol, Jim Brown. Hubbard, though, spent most of his time blocking for Jim Otis, Paul Hudson, or Bo Rein. In his final game in 1967, a 24–14 win at Michigan, he rushed for 103 yards and two touchdowns, matching his career total. The performance validated what he had thought all along, that he could excel as the focal point of an offense. After the game, assistant coach Larry Catuzzi, aware of Rudy's frustration, asked him: "You're glad to be leaving here, right?"
Hubbard's high school held a banquet that winter to honor his college achievements. Hubbard stood before friends, family, and former classmates and delivered a rant fueled by the animosity that flowed through his veins for four years as he watched Ohio State's quarterbacks hand the ball elsewhere.
"I was disenchanted," Hubbard said. "I thought I would have a much better career than what I had."
Woody was in attendance, but Hubbard didn't care. He figured he would never again see his old coach, since his eligibility had expired. When Woody called him a few weeks later and set up an appointment to meet with him, Hubbard figured his old coach planned to admonish him for his heated remarks at the reception.
Instead, Woody offered Hubbard the opportunity to be the first African American football coach at Ohio State. Hubbard was blown away. Despite being drafted by the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, Hubbard accepted the bullish coach's offer. Perhaps Woody actually appreciated Hubbard's candid tirade.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Ohio State Buckeyes Fans' Bucket List by Zack Meisel. Copyright © 2015 Zack Meisel. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction,Chapter 1. Coaching Stories,
Chapter 2. Notable Players,
Chapter 3. Ohio State–Michigan Rivalry,
Chapter 4. Memorable Seasons,
Chapter 5. Basketball and Other Sports,
Sources,