Today is the 100th anniversary of Coach Hayes birth.....happy 100th Coach. There are few men that grew up in the state of Ohio that were not profoundly influenced by Coach Hayes. No doubt deeply flawed as are all mortals, he nonetheless left the world a better place than it was when he arrived......he was an extraordinary man and at least in my view, college football would be a better place today if we had more of his kind. Thanks Coach. Today is a day full of reflection for me. Of course Valentines Day, but also a day full of memories for two of my life heroes.....my Dad, who knew Woody well from his broadcasting days, and a constant preacher of Woody's life lessons, passed away 8 years ago today on Woody's birthday and I'm sure he did it so I wouldn't forget the day.......either of them! God bless 'em both.... http://www.thepostgame.com/features...ohio-state-buckeyes-college-football-columbus
Rumor was that back in his hey day that when he was going against Michigan for a recruit and saw that he was losing he would advise the youngster to go to Notre Dame!
Absolutely true...I heard him say it himself. He mentioned more than one time that he was one of ND's best recruiters!! He was a great humanitarian and would go to great lengths to keep a kid from ruining his life...... :wink:
A special ceremony is being held today to honor Woody with a full size bronze statue with his likeness by a local artist, that has been five years in the making. The statue will become permanent fixture in the Woody Hayes Athletic complex. Terry, Woody always said he was the best recruiter Notre Dame ever had.
Coincidently, a good friend of mine in Dayton just sent me this anecdote about Hayes.... Urban Meyer, speaking at the annual Ohio coaches convention, recounted the wildest coaching story he ever heard. Said Meyer, via CoachingSearch.com: "So I guess Ohio State had lost the bowl game, so Earl Bruce brings in Woody Hayes. I had been there just a week and I'm thinking, 'Holy, this is Coach Hayes.' I'm sitting in the back. Coach Hayes was not healthy at the time, but stands up and starts laying into the coaching staff about toughness. That we have no toughness in the program. That's why we lost the game. On and on and screaming, this old guy pounding the table. He says, 'We have no toughness, and the reason is because you're not tough. No one on this staff is tough enough, and that's a problem. '"Here comes the turtle. Meyer continued: "He reaches down and grabs this box, slides the top and there was something in the box moving around. He reaches in and he pulls out this turtle. He reaches down, this turtle's snapping and he says, 'I'm going to show you toughness.' He unzips his pants and takes out whatever he takes out. The turtle reaches up and snaps at him. You see the veins and the sweat (on Hayes). He screams at the coaches, 'That's toughness! That's [expletive] toughness!' He reaches down, pokes the turtle right in the eye and it falls off. He wipes the sweat off his forehead and says, 'That's the problem. We don't have anybody in this room tough enough to do that right there.' "And the punch line, which is amazing. Meyer: "(One assistant) raises his hand and says, 'Coach, I'd do this. Just promise not to poke me in the eye.'" As said earlier, Woody Hayes once demonstrated proper toughness to Ohio State's coaching staff by having a turtle bite his private parts. It worked: OSU went 10-3 in 1986, winning more than nine games for the first time since 1979, and capped its season with a 28-12 win over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.
A young Lou Holtz worked for Woody, he loves to tell this story. As the Buckeyes were going into the locker room at halftime during one of the Rose Bowls where they faced USC and OJ Simpson, Hayes grabbed Lou by the collar and almost choking him, yelled, "Why did OJ Simpson run the ball against us for 90 yards for a touchdown?!" Lou said, "Because that's all he needed to score?"
The HBO documentary on OSU and Michigan is classic. One guy tells a story of Hayes ordering a two point conversion with a big lead late in a game v. Michigan. After the game a reporter asked him why he went for the two. Hayes reportedly said because they wouldn't let him go for three.
Krebsie, I heard the turtle story as well....the old man was one tough sonofabitch and absolutely demanded it of his players.....never wore anything more than shortsleeves on the sidelines no matter the weather until after his heart attack when he was well into his 60's...classic photo
He walked into our gym class in high school ( Dayton Carroll ) in 1971 while on a recruiting stop. Couldn't have been nicer that day. He certainly had an aura about him.