Posted on 01/03/2004 9:43:42 AM PST by anncoulteriscool
Woody's 'punch' still packs a wallop
It's been 25 years since haymaker KO'd OSU coach's career
By Eddie Pells
Associated Press
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- For decade upon decade, football coaches have struggled to maintain a delicate balance. They teach a violent, emotional game, yet try to do so without letting the ferocity and passion compromise their image or taint their message.
Twenty-five years ago this week, Woody Hayes lost control in that struggle.
Even in today's era of reality TV and instant analysis and results, the images and consequences from the Ohio State coach's terrible moment in the 1978 Gator Bowl are startling.
One second, Clemson defensive tackle Charlie Bauman is making an interception, a play that ends on the Ohio State sideline.
Next, Hayes, a white-haired, 65-year-old man in the twilight of his career, comes seemingly from nowhere. He delivers a right-handed haymaker across Bauman's collarbone, stunning the lineman more than hurting him.
But there was damage done. It was a vicious moment that defined one man's total loss of self-control. The headline in the local newspaper the next day: "Friday Night Fights."
By the time the team landed back home, 17-15 losers to cap an otherwise forgettable season, the coach — who won two national championships, 205 games and eight trips to the Rose Bowl over 28 seasons with the Buckeyes — had lost his job.
Hayes was escorted by police from the airplane to a car on the tarmac, rushed home in privacy — decades of solid, albeit ham-handed, work tarnished by one ugly punch.
"It was sad, because he was a great man," former Ohio State linebacker Jim Stillwagon said. "A lot of people I talk to only remember him for that one thing. They never saw all the great things he did for people."
A quarter-century after the hit, and 16 years after Hayes' death, the wheel of history has come around a bit, especially in and around Ohio.
The coach who skulked out of Jacksonville in disgrace was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in 1986. He gave a heartfelt speech that stressed the value of education, the worth of a diploma and the need for good acts in the community. It resonated with even his most harsh detractors.
Three years earlier, he was taken on the field to dot the "i" in the "Ohio" that the Buckeyes' marching band spells out during halftime in one of college football's great traditions. Tears flowed in the stands. Hayes called it one of the greatest honors of his life.
Hayes often acknowledged having flaws as a coach but never publicly explained why he slugged Bauman, who did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
In the flattering glow of retrospect, Hayes is still viewed by many as an icon, a tell-it-like-it-is taskmaster who worshipped George Patton, demanded discipline and wasn't afraid to threaten, cajole or intimidate to get it.
"In those days, if Coach said, 'We're meeting at 1, and jumping off the bridge,' people would be in line to jump off," Stillwagon said. "These days, some of the things he did, and he said, you'd have litigation."
And while many, especially in his old home turf, are willing to look at the single rash moment as an anomaly, the farther one strays from Ohio, the more that hit seems to define Hayes.
"I wish I could say I didn't think it did," said Gene Stallings, a Bear Bryant disciple who, as coach at Texas A&M, competed against Hayes in the 1960s and '70s. "He was a great historian. He won lots of games. He meant so much to Ohio State over 25 years. But it tainted him. Ask the majority of the people to tell you something about Woody Hayes, and that's what they're going to tell you."
Surely, Hayes — the consummate teacher and coach — would have wanted some lessons to be gleaned from his misfortune. But it's hard to tell exactly what was learned.
This is, after all, a sports culture that preaches zero tolerance and yet turns Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer's slapping a player on the sideline — and the player's foul-mouthed retort — into a lead highlight on TV. Beamer was never punished.
Bob Knight is caught on video grabbing a player by the neck in practice and eventually gets fired. But two years later, he's coaching again, swearing on television and acting every bit as outlandish as before.
Former Jacksonville Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin, who swore for eight years while stomping up and down the same sideline on which Hayes lost his job, remembers watching TV the night of Hayes' punch.
"It was very unfortunate," Coughlin said. "But you've got to remember the other things he did while he was the football coach. He was always teaching vocabulary, etiquette, manners. He had some rather crude way of explaining things, but he was always teaching."
Stillwagon sees the irony there.
Hayes, he says, was always teaching, always preaching and yes, always violent.
Back then, though, the linebacker recalled, it seemed like the message was more important than the method.
"I remember he said you never remain the same," Stillwagon said. "He said you either get better or get worse. You don't stay constant. He always had a lot of great advice like that. Sometimes, I wish he would have taken it for himself."
1. If it is a harmless punch like that, sometimes walking away and letting go is best. It took care of itself anyway, and the price was Coach's job.
2. If the punch is a threat, the best thing to do is respond appropiately in kind.
Unfortunatly too many people have to be candyass litigators running to courts nowawdays. How weak and sad.
I agree(that litigation and charges comment really stuck a cord with me though, as I have a personal resentment for ambulance chasers). I coached for 4 years(high school). I've never hit a player, unless you count football related limited contact in a drill - blocking, tackling, etc.
I think walking away there was the best thing, and justice was delivered by the firing. If he retaliated(which I normally support), the rest of the players at OSU would jump in and defend their coach, the other Clemson players would defend their player, and all hell would break lose.
It was handled in house, as it should have been IMO. It also set the example of hitting a player will get a coach fired, even if you are Woody Hayes. Even Bob Knight got fired.
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