Dispatch
Selflessness defined him
Ohio State football: Retiring Tucker was man Tressel came to count on
Sunday, June 28, 2009 3:53 AM
By Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Kyle Robertson | Dispatch
Bob Tucker didn't know what a director of football operations was when he came to Ohio State, but he retires leaving a big void to fill.
Bob Tucker's boss had just left for another job -- a big job -- and Tucker waited, wondering whether Jim Tressel would call him. It was January 2001. Tressel had just been hired as Ohio State coach and was assembling a staff. Tucker had known Tressel for 18 years, first as a fellow OSU assistant under Earle Bruce and later as Tressel's special-teams coordinator at Youngstown State.
One day passed, and most of another. Finally, Tucker got the call he wanted -- sort of.
"He said he wanted me to come be his DFO, and I said, 'What is that?' " Tucker recalled.
It stands for director of football operations. At that point, Tucker had been a coach for 36 years, including 10 as a head coach at Wooster and two stints as a defensive coordinator, at Ohio State and Youngstown State.
"I said, 'Not coach?' I wanted to keep coaching, (and) I thought I was a pretty good coach. I said, 'Boy, I don't know.' "
That was a Saturday night. By 8 p.m. that Sunday, Tucker was in Columbus, reporting for duty as Tressel's DFO. He held the position for more than eight years. The 66-year-old will retire at the end of the day Tuesday.
Tressel is grateful. He understands the personal sacrifice Tucker made, giving up coaching to become "my right-hand man."
"I'm sure if he'd had his druthers, he would rather have continued teaching on grass," Tressel said. "But Bob Tucker is the most unselfish team player I've ever met. He's always been about whatever the team needs."
That's Tucker -- a low-key, low-profile man who worked for coaches such as Joe Paterno, Bruce and Tressel but said he never had a burning ambition to be a head coach. He focused on being the best assistant he could be.
Cont...
