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Making the List: Jack “The Assassin” Tatum
jcollingsworth via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Where do you go, football wise, after the mention of the great Woody Hayes, Archie Griffin, Art Schlichter, and Orlando Pace for Making The List?
Gotta head to the Defensive side … Right?
The Buckeyes have had a ton of greats from the defensive side of the ball that are deserving of notice. But when you think of The Ohio State University and ANY of its great defensive players who is the first to pop in your mind?
In mine it’s Jack Tatum.
Tatum was born in NC but grew up in Passaic, New Jersey. His interest in sports in his early years simply never existed. It would be in his sophomore year at Passaic High School that a “curiosity” arose for him pertaining to football. In High School he played running back, fullback and defensive back. He’d be selected first-team All-State. And come his senior year he would be an All-American. Much later on – in 1999, the Newark Star-Ledger named Tatum as one of New Jersey’s top ten defensive players of the century.
Tatum would decide on The Ohio State University after several offers. The Great Woody Hayes had recruited him as a running back. However, assistant coach Lou Holtz persuaded Hayes to switch Tatum to defensive back during Tatum’s freshman season. It would be genius.
Tatum was a first-team All-Big Ten in 1968, 1969 and 1970. And in his final two years as a Buckeye he’d be named as a unanimous All-American. In 1970 he was selected as the National Defensive Player of the Year and would be a top vote getter for the Heisman Trophy. The Buckeyes during Tatum’s three years as a starter, or better known as his reign of “terror”, would go 27-2, with two national championship appearances, two Big Ten titles and one national championship win in 1968, which was his first season with the team.
Jack’s NFL career is as storied. In 1971 the Oakland Raiders would make him their #1 draft choice at 19th overall. He would be nicknamed “The Assassin”, which would be a treasured title he embraced with tremendous pride. His violent hits would become legendary and sportswriters soon began to make comparisons to his aggressive style to that of Dick Butkus. The compassion would simply be a depiction of an era that was both ruthless and gladiatorish – unlike ever again.
Jack Tatum, to most, though is recalled for his infamous tackle in an exhibition game against the New England Patriots on August 12, 1978. In regular coverage he’d hit Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley who was leaping for a pass. Stingley in a natural move dropped his head to protect himself from the oncoming hit and smashed into Tatum’s shoulder. The impact would be bad news – damaging Stingley’s spinal cord, leaving him to be a quadriplegia for the rest of his life. There would be no disciplinary action for the tackle from the NFL, after review – calling it a “routine tackle gone bad.” But changes in tackling were swift thereafter.
Football is a violent sport – regardless how much we as a blood-thirsty audience hypocritically want to paint it any other way. Do not be fooled. Every player that takes to the field understands the implications that are in possession with the reality of this too. Just as the rest of us when we hop into a car, never imagining that we can be in a fatal accident, a player simply never foresees a career ending injury – certainly never a life threatening one.
Jack Tatum is football. Any name which may arise from anyone in a discussion of the greatest defensive players – ever – I am completely certain that his name would be in the small gathering towards the top of the list. Names that surface in my mine are Butkus, Nitschke, Tatum, & Taylor. Others will put it in different orders – but if the biasness of the Stingley hit is put into perspective – specifically of the era in which it occurred – then Tatum’s name will in fact rise – all the way up – just as I have it listed.
Jack Tatum is Defense and is Buckeye Football. He is in fact the first name I think of when I think of any great defensive player for The Ohio State University. So with that said – Jack Tatum deserves to be the first defensive player of all the great Buckeyes to Make The List.
The post Making the List: Jack “The Assassin” Tatum appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
jcollingsworth via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Where do you go, football wise, after the mention of the great Woody Hayes, Archie Griffin, Art Schlichter, and Orlando Pace for Making The List?
Gotta head to the Defensive side … Right?
The Buckeyes have had a ton of greats from the defensive side of the ball that are deserving of notice. But when you think of The Ohio State University and ANY of its great defensive players who is the first to pop in your mind?
In mine it’s Jack Tatum.
Tatum was born in NC but grew up in Passaic, New Jersey. His interest in sports in his early years simply never existed. It would be in his sophomore year at Passaic High School that a “curiosity” arose for him pertaining to football. In High School he played running back, fullback and defensive back. He’d be selected first-team All-State. And come his senior year he would be an All-American. Much later on – in 1999, the Newark Star-Ledger named Tatum as one of New Jersey’s top ten defensive players of the century.
Tatum would decide on The Ohio State University after several offers. The Great Woody Hayes had recruited him as a running back. However, assistant coach Lou Holtz persuaded Hayes to switch Tatum to defensive back during Tatum’s freshman season. It would be genius.
Tatum was a first-team All-Big Ten in 1968, 1969 and 1970. And in his final two years as a Buckeye he’d be named as a unanimous All-American. In 1970 he was selected as the National Defensive Player of the Year and would be a top vote getter for the Heisman Trophy. The Buckeyes during Tatum’s three years as a starter, or better known as his reign of “terror”, would go 27-2, with two national championship appearances, two Big Ten titles and one national championship win in 1968, which was his first season with the team.
Jack’s NFL career is as storied. In 1971 the Oakland Raiders would make him their #1 draft choice at 19th overall. He would be nicknamed “The Assassin”, which would be a treasured title he embraced with tremendous pride. His violent hits would become legendary and sportswriters soon began to make comparisons to his aggressive style to that of Dick Butkus. The compassion would simply be a depiction of an era that was both ruthless and gladiatorish – unlike ever again.
Jack Tatum, to most, though is recalled for his infamous tackle in an exhibition game against the New England Patriots on August 12, 1978. In regular coverage he’d hit Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley who was leaping for a pass. Stingley in a natural move dropped his head to protect himself from the oncoming hit and smashed into Tatum’s shoulder. The impact would be bad news – damaging Stingley’s spinal cord, leaving him to be a quadriplegia for the rest of his life. There would be no disciplinary action for the tackle from the NFL, after review – calling it a “routine tackle gone bad.” But changes in tackling were swift thereafter.
Football is a violent sport – regardless how much we as a blood-thirsty audience hypocritically want to paint it any other way. Do not be fooled. Every player that takes to the field understands the implications that are in possession with the reality of this too. Just as the rest of us when we hop into a car, never imagining that we can be in a fatal accident, a player simply never foresees a career ending injury – certainly never a life threatening one.
Jack Tatum is football. Any name which may arise from anyone in a discussion of the greatest defensive players – ever – I am completely certain that his name would be in the small gathering towards the top of the list. Names that surface in my mine are Butkus, Nitschke, Tatum, & Taylor. Others will put it in different orders – but if the biasness of the Stingley hit is put into perspective – specifically of the era in which it occurred – then Tatum’s name will in fact rise – all the way up – just as I have it listed.
Jack Tatum is Defense and is Buckeye Football. He is in fact the first name I think of when I think of any great defensive player for The Ohio State University. So with that said – Jack Tatum deserves to be the first defensive player of all the great Buckeyes to Make The List.
The post Making the List: Jack “The Assassin” Tatum appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...