The Eigth Wonder of the World

My buddy Dimitri Nakassis sent along a link to an article by James Odenkirk in the 2007Journal of Sports History about Ohio State’s decision to decline an invitation to the 1961 Rose Bowl.  

The 1961 Buckeyes were 8-0-1, coached by the legendary Woody Hayes, and ranked #2 in the AP poll, but a faculty council (!!) who had control over athletics at OSU decided to decline the invitation. This council had come into existence following some bad publicity surrounding the football program in the 1950s and an NCAA suspension after it came out Woody Hayes has been slipping money to OSU players. There was a general feeling that football at Ohio State was garnering too much attention and was beginning to overshadow the academic mission at the university.

As someone who spent nearly a decade at Ohio State, I can assure the reader that academics is king on the Columbus campus and aside from the occasional news report, one would hardly even know that the school had a major football program. In other words, this stand against the encroachment of big time college athletics was the turning point. 

Today, “The Harvard on the Olentangy” maintains the highest academic standards and keep a healthy perspective around athletics. This is controversial, of course, when schools like Alabama, Clemson, and even the University of Michigan have become football programs with universities attached. Ohio State has stood their ground despite the peer (institution) pressure, and tend to I think Ohio State is a better place for it.

Hecks, it doesn’t even matter that we lost to Michigan this season and then lost to Missouri last week in the Cotton Bowl. I’m glad that our focus on academics occasionally means we’re not as good at football as we could be.