Go Bucks, Part III

I’ve know I’ve told you this before, but I’m going to say it again:  I grew up in a house where Woody Hayes was God, and football Saturdays were sacred.  I am old enough that I was actually sitting in front of the television at my cousin’s house when Woody threw the punch heard round the world.  The rest of that day was like a funeral – I was seven years old and I remember this like it was yesterday – because everyone knew that Woody would not recover from what he had done. 

But Buckeyes are Buckeyes forever, and there was never a question of Woody’s place.  This could not have been more clear than in 1983, when Hayes dotted the “i” in script Ohio, to a thunderous ovation.   Or in 1986, just a year before his death, when Hayes gave the commencement address to graduates in Ohio stadium, where he said, “When you get knocked down, which is plenty often, get right up in a hurry, just as quick as you can. Do you know what to do then? You probably need more strength. Do you know where you get it? You get it in the huddle. You get it by going back and getting a new play and running that same play together with your teammates. That ‘together’ is the thing that gives you the buildup to get ready to go again.”

Buckeyes are Buckeyes forever.  Jim Tressel found that out today, as he was hoisted onto the shoulders of his 2002 National Championship team, and the Buckeye faithful gave him a sincere and sustained cheer of appreciation, even as the team on the field was living the consequence of his mistake, in a perfect season that couldn’t continue. 

Woody Hayes said, “Anything easy ain’t worth a damn.”  This year’s graduating senior class learned that the hard way.  When they entered Ohio State, it was to play for a proven program, under a proven coach – the one who had come to their homes, and promised their parents that their boys would get the kind of care on and off of the field that their parents wanted for them.  And these boys were failed.  In their careers, they suffered the disgrace of their coach, the loss of their talented quarterback, suspensions, a year of disappointment under a courageous, but thoroughly overmatched Luke Fickell, the Bauserman era, and another coaching change, this time for a guy who started them off with punishing 5 am practices in the dead of winter.  And these guys stuck with it, and believed in the legacy that Woody Hayes built – something that Urban Meyer learned under Woody protégé Earle Bruce – that, in the words of Woody Hayes, “It does not matter the size of the man, rather the effort the man is willing to put forth.” 

So, to this year’s senior class, you are the men Woody Hayes was describing, and your legacy will live forever.  In the words of Carmen Ohio, “The seasons pass, the years will roll….”  But the friendship of Buckeye Nation will be with you forever.  Go Bucks.