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Question for the OSU historians here

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RB07OSU

RB07OSU

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I am trying to research this but I am trouble finding this information and I was a young buckeye or not alive to remember...what types of scandal or controversy have previous OSU football coaches been involved in and what years? I know of Hayes' multiple anger-related suspensions, firing for hitting Bauman, and giving players money, but what about Bruce, Cooper, Fesler, Brown, Schmidt, etc.? Any link or bump in the right direction would be greatly appreciated (and greenied). And even the slightest of issues, even with the president, AD, etc. would be great as well, kind of a bio of their issues.
 
"On Woody giving money to players in the 1950's."

I remember reading this one blog (wish I could find it) by an English Professor who had taught at Ohio State in the late 50's - early 60's. He asked Woody about it at the Faculty Club. Woody admitted to it and said he would do it again.

The reason given was at that time (remember this was pre civil rights era) black athletes were paid less than white athletes. Woody did not believe it was right and made up some of the difference out of his own pocket.
 
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Ha I know this seems like lurking but I am just trying to place the whole Tressel "scandal" in context with how OSU has historically dealt with coaches in situations somewhat similar to this.
 
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RB07OSU;1902180; said:
Ha I know this seems like lurking but I am just trying to place the whole Tressel "scandal" in context with how OSU has historically dealt with coaches in situations somewhat similar to this.
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In basketball they fired these 2 guys:

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.....
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Only hints of scandals in the past

I guess RB070SU, I can answer your question...I have been there since the late 40's watching OSU football....and there was not a lot of activity with the NCAA and the football program in the early years....the NCAA started as early as 1906 but was not involved in the types of activities we see today..it was basically set up to see that players were safe and kept safe while playing the game....they did not even have a national headquarters till 1952 and football started coming on TV and money started getting involved...probably the real activity as we know it today started in the 80's as then the NCAA started getting involved in recuriting violations, gifts, and unortharized inducemets to student athletes....as I remember with OSU, the iniitial informnation I remember was with Woody Hayes (1950's). Woody gave football players cash to help them make it thru. As I recall it was around $50.(at a time) Woody did not know that this was wrong and thought it was his "personal business". The NCAA got involved and pretty much gave him a slap on the wrist. As football programs won more and more games, of course they were started to be scrutinized more by the NCAA. One other incident I heard of, but it never made it nationally, was that Hop Cassidy was receiving cash and book money from a local Columbus millionaire(Galbreath)..this never really made it to the national news and was never realy well founded.
Most of the problems in the Cooper and Bruce years were internal OSU as many players got dismissed forwrongdoings and activities not becoming to a scholar athlete.....most of the NCAA activity then was focused on the basketball team...of course later we got into the Tressel years and the Smith, Clorett, and Pryor & company cases developed.
To me, as I said before..when teams start winning big...the NCAA sqruitinizes them the most...nobody cares nationally when Indiana, Northwestern,etc get caught by the NCAA...its the big heads they want on a plate....today taking money by players, and coaches lieing to cover up their program(and fanny) seem to be the going story...it's a very big money game....that seems to drive the problems......to me it seemed back in the earlier game....coaches and kids played the game for the fun of it, and the honest accomplishment of winning......today "winning at any cost" has sort of replaced the game motto!
 
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RB07OSU;1901796; said:
I am trying to research this but I am trouble finding this information and I was a young buckeye or not alive to remember...what types of scandal or controversy have previous OSU football coaches been involved in and what years? I know of Hayes' multiple anger-related suspensions, firing for hitting Bauman, and giving players money, but what about Bruce, Cooper, Fesler, Brown, Schmidt, etc.? Any link or bump in the right direction would be greatly appreciated (and greenied). And even the slightest of issues, even with the president, AD, etc. would be great as well, kind of a bio of their issues.
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The only stuff I can recall with Cooper was the Katzenmoyer/Reggie Germany/Ken Yon Rambo's of the world showing the "student" part of student athlete wasn't exactly being stressed. Nothing major but there were clear signs that the players weren't exactly the choir boys we all hope them to be. Coops on the field issues in The Game and Bowls overshadowed anything going on off the field imo.

With Earl the only thing I would call "scandal" was the way he was fired and one of the popular rumors as to why. Cris carter took money from an agent and missed his SR year like a douche bag. Other than that I'm drawing a blank.

I'm sure shit went on but I'm having a hard time remembering hearing of it.
 
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According to Jack Park, THE Buckeye historian, in his book The Official Ohio State Football Encyclopedia:

During one of his weekly television shows in 1955, Woody Hayes mentioned how difficult it was for some of his players to stay in school because they had very little money. Because their rigorous time commitment to football allowed them little opportunity for any part-time jobs, he indicated he often loaned small amounts of money to players who were in need of financial assistance. The loans came from his own pockets, and the coach later admitted he did not keep an accurate count of the loans and could not completely verify which ones had been repaid.

They story appeared in Sports Illustrated and quickly made its way to the Big Ten and NCAA offices. This prompted an immediate investigation, since loans of this nature would be a direct violation of NCAA rules. * * *

The NCAA investigation led to a probe of the Ohio State "jobs program for athletes" that coordinated employment opportunites with outside employers. Many irregularities were discovered, icnluding athletes being paid even though they often did not show up for work. In April of 1956 Big Ten Commissioner Kenneth "Tug" Wilson announced the one-year probation.

The NCAA probation banned all Ohio State sports teams from participating in NCAA-sanctioned tournaments [including bowl games]. * * *
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Here's the link to the original Sports Illustrated article: Sports Illustrated - October 24, 1955

October 24, 1955
The Ohio State Story: Win Or Else
Unlike the Ivy schools (SI, Oct. 17), the Buckeyes function as a public utility for the entertainment of 8 million fans. All they ask of coach and players is a victory every Saturday
Robert Shaplen

Hayes is completely, in fact devastatingly, aware that in the struggle for survival he must produce a winning team or lose his $15,000-a-year position and, even more important, his prestige as a big-time coach....

* * *

In four and a half years at OSU, Hayes has won 28, lost 11 and tied two. If he should fail two years in a row to win more games than he loses, he will automatically be a flop as a coach and a foolish fellow to boot. That's how it is in these fickle flatlands, and that's how it will be, with Hayes simply a Frankenstein of the system, until football ceases to be a vast profit-making amusement enterprise with amateur dressing.

* * *

Jack Fullen, the alumni secretary, who is an outspoken opponent of big-time football, turns the argument around. "The football tail is wagging the college dog," he maintains. "Larkins has to meet an $800,000-a-year budget in the athletic department. If he doesn't fill that stadium every Saturday, he won't be able to make ends meet. Like Woody, Dick is a creature of the system. Little by little his ideals are disintegrating as he has to use football receipts to pay off the bond issue on the new field house. We'll never be off the hook until we stop worrying about attendance."

* * *

There, according to Fullen's research, he seldom went to classes more than three days a week and was awarded his high school diploma by the school board over the protests of the principal because Bobo promised to put Chauncey on the map. At OSU he was a terror, both on the field and off. A tremendous blocker and an astonishingly fast, helter-skelter runner for a big lad, he played a big role in OSU's great '54 record. He also openly boasted of having four tutors ("modern indoor record"), and he got involved in a paternity suit. Bobo finally flunked himself out, and since then he's turned down some good Canadian pro and southern college offers.

* * *

In recruiting, Hayes gets some help from his wife and some from the frank expenditure of the approximately $4,000 a year he earns doing a TV stint in Columbus. The Hayeses often entertain prospects in their home ( Big Ten rules forbid coaches to recruit outside). Once signed, a recruit can count on some financial help from Hayes if he is "in need." Woody insists that he never forks up for a luxury—another narrow line—but it's certainly also true that he makes sure he won't lose any valuable men by financial default.
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Most of today's issues with "amateur" athletics were topical fifty years ago.

Here's a link to a follow-up Sports Illustrated article: Sports Illustrated - May 7, 1956

And now comes the news about Ohio State. Of course, most people know that masses of fleet halfbacks and beefy guards do not arrive on a given campus through sheer luck. Most everyone also knows that Ohio State is favored to win its third straight Big Ten title this year along with an invitation to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. And those who read SI's Oct. 24 issue learned, among more striking matters, that Coach Woody Hayes sometimes lends money from his own pocket to players who are financially strapped. But it was generally assumed that this great football power of the Middle West remained within the rather liberal bounds of Big Ten regulations.

Not so, apparently. After a three-month investigation, Kenneth L. (Tug) Wilson, Commissioner of the Western Conference, announced from Chicago that he was putting OSU "in a state of probationary membership in the intercollegiate conference for a period of no less than one year"; that the university "shall under no circumstances be considered...eligible to represent the conference in the Rose Bowl football game"; and that "none of the athletes who were beneficiaries of the irregularities...shall be presented for eligibility until I have approved satisfactory evidence."

Tug Wilson had traveled to Columbus to find out about Hayes's personal loans to his athletes. Hayes would give him no accounting and simply admitted that during the past five years he had lent about $400 a year to various players in need of help. Wilson looked further and discovered "a serious irregularity" in the off-campus work program which provides OSU athletes, particularly football players, with salaries up to $100 a month and occasionally higher. Most of these jobs are with the state—things like paging for the legislature or clerking for the highway department; but some of the more rabid fans, including prominent Columbus businessmen, also hire athletes. The trouble was that in numerous instances the athletes seemed to have collected their wages in advance, without anybody notably concerned if they ever performed the work for which they had been paid. Naming no names, Wilson declared such players ineligible until they catch up with their back work.

Most of the Ohio State campus and downtown Columbus was in a rage over Wilson's edict. Not that they pleaded innocent. One player summed up the feeling when he said: "If they think we're bad, they should look around at a few other schools." Coach Hayes thought about the punishment and then roared: "No, I don't think it is a bit fair." As an analogy he explained that they pinch a motorist for speeding, "but they don't send him to the gallows, do they?"

In this case, the gallows consists of depriving Ohio State of a postseason excursion to Pasadena (assuming they earn it on the gridiron). But is there anything in the punishment to prevent Hayes and his players from having a whopping good time playing out their 1956 schedule with other colleges, just as the basic idea of a college sports program intends? If the fissure that is working its way through college football is to be repaired, not just patched over, Ohio's penalty will be a small price to pay for the boon to sport.
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Jaxbuck;1902209; said:
The only stuff I can recall with Cooper was the Katzenmoyer/Reggie Germany/Ken Yon Rambo's of the world showing the "student" part of student athlete wasn't exactly being stressed. Nothing major but there were clear signs that the players weren't exactly the choir boys we all hope them to be. Coops on the field issues in The Game and Bowls overshadowed anything going on off the field imo.

With Earl the only thing I would call "scandal" was the way he was fired and one of the popular rumors as to why. Cris carter took money from an agent and missed his SR year like a douche bag. Other than that I'm drawing a blank.

I'm sure shit went on but I'm having a hard time remembering hearing of it.
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There was also Eliot Uzelak (sp?) telling Robert Smith football was more important than silly old school. I know this isn't the same, but funny how the NCAA doesn't investigate that sort of thing.
 
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