Ohio State Buckeyes

Back to the start and behind the scenes on the Buckeyes recruiting trail The Ohio State University boasts one of the nation's most storied football programs, and the recruiting acumen of coaches like Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer plays a major role in that. The Road to Ohio State is a wild ride into the competitive world of college football recruiting, revealing how some of the most memorable Buckeyes players found their way to Columbus. Doug Lesmerises takes fans back to the start and behind the scenes, showing that the path to the Shoe is not always a straight and narrow one.

THE Ohio State University. That's how Buckeyes in the NFL introduce themselves on nationally broadcast football games. And this incredible history of the team will only increase that pride in Buckeye football for players, coaches, students, alumni, and fans who love the team. Author Robert J. Roman draws on extensive archival research to tell the untold story of the early days of football at Ohio's flagship public university. The game was different. Fields were rarely level and often rocky. Eleven men played both sides of the ball, quarterbacks were often the smallest men on the team, and coaches were not allowed to communicate with the players during a game. The travel was different. The faculty of rival Ohio Wesleyan forbid their team from traveling to Columbus, where the vulgar, godless public university students might corrupt their young men. After Ohio State's first game outside the state-a victory in Kentucky-the team had to run for its life, chased by an angry mob of stone-throwing locals. But the students were the same. Eager to establish their school as the equal of older, wealthier, and more strictly religious colleges, Ohio State students saw intercollegiate athletics as their path to respectability. Do you not believe that our athletic clubs have generally represented the University with great credit to themselves and the University?, asked a student in the campus paper. Do you not believe they have spread abroad our good name and won friends for us all through the State? I tell you, in this day athletics are becoming just as much a part of a great University as Greek or mathematics. Ohio State Football: The Forgotten Dawn will not only fascinate readers interested in the school's team history, but also those interested in the early history of athletics at American public universities. Familiar debates over the construction of facilities, hiring of coaches, academic eligibility, and the authority of the faculty and the administration are all part of the story here. But above all, college football fans will see themselves, with pride, in this history of one of the sport's most famed programs. Includes forty rare photos from the Ohio State archives.

Ohio State Football Radio Network commentator and football speaker Jack Park takes you on a memorable journey through more than 100 years of Buckeye football. The detailed scrapbook narrative contains never before-published vintage photographs, artwork and memorabilia drawn from OSU s extensive campus archives. Tucked into dozens of sleeves and pockets, fans will find reproductions of old game programs, historic tickets, bumper stickers and more. These fascinating replicas include a formation diagram for the band s famous Script Ohio, a letter from President Gerald Ford to Woody Hayes and those classic Buckeye helmet stickers. No Ohio State fan should be without this home archive of OSU s long and illustrious history.

A.J. Hawk can isolate the game of his life, the 2006 Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame, not because of individual statistics, but because of what the game represented. "I think the fact that it was the end of an amazing four years-four big bowl wins; three Michigan wins; lots of victories in those four years; and an amazing group of teammates and coaches is why it felt like the game of my life," Hawk said.Jan White has a different reason for the game of his life: He scored his first touchdown as a Buckeye, playing a position he didn't want to necessarily play. "It became a footrace I was determined to win," White says of his 72-yard reception from Rex Kern against Northwestern in 1968. "It was incredible. The only chance there was of me not scoring on that play was if I had fallen down. I had enough confidence in my speed-I was a state record-holder in track in high school-but you just never know."Whoever they are and whatever the reason, there always is "the" game in a player's memory bank. The folks, whose stories are chronicled in Game of My Life: Memorable Stories of Ohio State Football, are a compendium of the shy, gregarious, polite, reverent, modest, and honest. They tell you why a certain game was the best, providing the detail, the color, and the emotion that only a player can share.Football fans, most especially those card-carrying members of Buckeye Nation, will be enlightened and entertained by these stories. Buckeye greats such as Archie Griffin, Cris Carter, Mike Lanese, and Bob Hoying relive their legendary moments-from the sidelines to the huddle, from the depths of impending defeat to the pinnacle of glory. It just doesn't get any better.

The Ohio State Buckeyes have been a powerhouse in college football for decades, with numerous national championships and NFL draftees to their credit. With such a successful history, it’s no wonder that the passion for Ohio State football has reached a level of devotion that has religious overtones. Saint Woody is a Bill Bryson–style look at Ohio State football and the spiritual fanaticism that surrounds it. Bob Hunter tracks the development of this powerhouse program from its earliest days to its heights under Woody Hayes, the de facto king of Ohio State football, and beyond. Hayes led the team to three national championships and a record of 205–61–10 over a twenty-eight-year period and was at the heart of the Ten-Year War, a particularly intense period in the infamous Ohio State–Michigan rivalry. Hunter also looks at the present state of Buckeye football and the team’s scarlet-and-gray-clad followers, as well as its legion of detractors, who voted Ohio State as the “most hated” college team in a nationwide survey. America loves—and hates—a winner. Irreverent, honest, insightful, and always entertaining, Saint Woody will appeal to anyone whose spirit has ever lifted when hearing that famous cry “Go Bucks!”

Ohio State University's remarkable 2012 season--and the beginning of a new era at the Big Ten school—are recalled in this fascinating account. It tells the story of Urban Meyer, who accepted the job as head coach at Ohio State just before the NCAA banned the Buckeyes from postseason play in 2012, rendering them ineligible for the Big Ten Championship and bowl games. Meyer ultimately rose to the challenge of motivating a group of players to commit to the program despite the ban, and the book recounts what turned out to be one of the most remarkable seasons in Ohio State's 123-year history. Filled with never-before-revealed details about Meyer and the 2012 season, this surprising and entertaining record provides a complete picture of the new age at Ohio State.

Winning the 2003 national championship in dramatic fashion with a 31-24 upset of top-ranked Miami in what many called the greatest college football game of all time undoubtedly ranks as one of the most memorable moments in OSU football history. That moment, along with the Buckeyes' national championships of 1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, and 1968, is captured in this comprehensive collection of Ohio State's glorious triumphs on the gridiron. Beginning with a win over Northwestern that capped a perfect 1916 season, the book chronicles dozens of the biggest games in Buckeye history as well as highlighting some of the brightest stars to don the scarlet and gray. Included are OSU's Heisman Trophy winners Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, Hopalong Cassady, Archie Griffin, and Eddie George, as well as legendary linemen such as Lou Groza, Jim Houston, Jim Arker, Jim Stillwagon, John Hicks, Jim Lachey and Orlando Pace. Selected games include high-profile non-conference showdowns and the biggest of the Big Ten matchups as well as Rose Bowls, Gator Bowls, and Cotton Bowls, culminating with the incredible 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Whoever pronounced that OSU's victory that January night was the program's brightest moment to date might be surprised to find so many more special highlights brought to life in this book, a must for every Buckeyes fan.

The Ohio State Football narrative overflows with impressive statistics, scores and superstars including a treasury of inspiring, funny and even peculiar stories not found in the headlines. Each chapter highlights a coaching era led by one of the preeminent architects, including John Wilce, Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, and Jim Tressel. Read about players, coaches, fans, students, administrators, politicians, sportscasters and a myriad of others whose poignant perspectives, joyful celebrations and heartwarming experiences all spring from their connection to the Ohio State gridiron. Laugh over hilarious pranks, oddball coincidences and bizarre game day situations.