Woody Hayes
Wayne Woodrow Hayes was a hot-tempered, difficult, and aggressive man --but at the same time, he was loving, gentle, and often went to great lengths of kindness( Paul Hornung). Different people have different opinions of Woody, but no one would disagree on one thing, he absolutely despised and refused to lose. People can label Woody Hayes as many things, but the one thing he was without question was a winner. This man would even refuse pay raises because he thought they would cause problems that would interfere with winning. He welcomed pay raises for his assistants, but by choice, he never received one himself, and was one of the lower paid coaches as a result.
Woody who became simply know as “The Old Man” was born February 14, 1913 in Clifton, Ohio. He grew up in a small town called Newcomerstown, graduated from Denison and Coached at Denison and Miami of Ohio before coming to Ohio State. Over his career, he amassed a 238-72-10 record and 205-61-10 in the Big Ten. He won four national championships, produced 56 All- Americans, and had three Heisman Trophy winners, three Outland Trophy winners, two Lombardi Trophy winners (Robert Vare). Some of the coaches that were assistants under him were Lou Holtz, Bo Schembechler, Rudy Hubbard, Bill Mallory, Earl Bruce, and Dave McClain. “We all coached the same (as Woody) when we became head coaches,” Holtz once said. Schembechler, was probably the most famous of Woody’s assistants; he went on to coach at the University of Michigan and had many classic battles with Woody’s Buckeyes.
Woody had a unique style and it was strength-on-strength, will-on-will, toughness-on-toughness. His style of football of football was mainly running the ball at the opponent which later became “three yards and a cloud of dust” (Woody Hayes). Woody believed that the pass should only be used as an element of surprise. He later went on to say “There are three things that can happen
when you pass, and two of them isn’t good,” (Woody Hayes). Woody was a perfectionist, he paid
attention to every minute detail. His discipline came from his day in the Navy. Woody had his teams so prepared that most teams couldn’t match up to their toughness and their discipline. His work ethic was harder than any competitor; he would stay up to the wee hours of the night watching game film.
Woody’s temper made him a legend. He would commonly explode into verbal assaults at coaches and players, but would be the first to congratulate you if you did something well. Woody is most famous for throwing things on the sidelines, such as his hat, watch, and glasses. He once picked up a full water jug on the sidelines and chucked it onto the field.
Woody Hayes was fired in 1978 after having a temper tantrum during the Gator Bowl against Clemson and striking a Clemson linebacker named Charlie Bauman after intercepting a pass to clinch the [next page]