Bradley Roby and Remembering Jack Tatum

*Bradley Roby photo from Springfield News-Sun, Jack Tatum photo from Sports Illustrated.

Bradley Roby is our most highly-touted player going into the draft this year. Although last season's defense had problems, Roby was one of the bright spots. He blocked a punt in the end zone against Northwestern, scoring a touchdown, and another one against Indiana. He had three interceptions; one of which was returned for a 63 yard touchdown:

Roby is a pretty amazing player and will likely be drafted in the first round. Although the game is different than it was 45 years ago, I can't think of Bradley Roby without thinking of Jack Tatum, the most feared player Ohio State has ever produced. Roby and Tatum both played cornerback for us, and Roby is 5'11/192 (a little undersized by today's standards) while Tatum was 6'0/205.

Tatum was from Passaic, NJ and was recruited as a running back. Back in the '60s, a lot of guys would still play offense and defense, but by his junior year, 1969, Tatum was only being used on defense because of the power of his hits. Sports Illustrated did a great article in 1969 before the Michigan game about how the best game to watch in the post season would have been OSU's offense vs. OSU's defense. According to Woody Hayes, this was the best team he ever coached. By 1970, Tatum's senior year, he had played in two Rose Bowls and won two National Championships. He was an All-American in 1969 and '70. Tatum was part of the best years of Buckeye football, and part of the genesis of the Ten Year War against Michigan.

In 1971, Jack Tatum was drafted in the first round by the Oakland Raiders and moved from cornerback to free safety. He was outstanding in the NFL and the power of his tackles earned him the fear of receivers and running backs all over the league. With Ken Stabler at quarterback and their new coach John Madden (ever heard of him?), Tatum played for arguably the best team in the NFL and was an important part of what made them so good. The Raiders were division champions every year from 1972-1976 and won Superbowl XI in 1977. Tatum was the defender who smashed into Steelers receiver John Fuqua, contributing to 1972's Immaculate Reception. Tatum faced a lot of criticism for his hard hits, one of which paralyzed another player for life, but always maintained that he played fairly. He was in the Pro Bowl in '73, '74 and '75.

In 1980, Jack Tatum released a book, They Call Me Assassin, which details his youth in North Carolina and New Jersey, and his high school, college and professional playing days. The most interesting part is his description of the transition from college to NFL play, where he had to work harder and improve his wits considerably just to be able to compete. He discusses his method of hitting hard, basically aiming for a spot behind an opponent and channeling all of his body weight to go "through" the other player. He used to use a method called the "hook," which is now illegal; it involved bracing the arm to hit an opponent's head to take them out. Tatum would have contests with other players for the most hits that caused stoppages of play. It is an interesting read from a different time in football. The aggressive style used by Tatum and others in the 1970s and '80s are the roots of the safety concerns in football today.

All things considered, Tatum was a great asset to any team he played on including our beloved Ohio State Buckeyes. He died in 2010 at the age of 61. The NFL ranked him as one of the most feared players of all time:

A Look at Ohio State's First Squad

Football was much different in 1890, the year Ohio State first fielded a team. The game was pioneered at the Ivy League schools of the East Coast, so most people in Ohio had never seen a game. In 1890, some OSU students bought a football and began trying to figure out how to play. They were perplexed by the oblong shape of their first ball, but started playing with it and eventually formed a team. They wore scarlet and gray, and, apparently, funny striped hats. Our first coach, Alexander Lilley (seen in this list of all OSU coaches), was a Princeton graduate who was asked to coach because he was familiar with the game from his time in the Ivy League.

In those days, the rules of football were evolving, but some standards had already been set. There were eleven players on each side of the ball, but the same players played offense and defense, so the first OSU team only had 14 players on the roster. The snap was performed with a foot instead of the hands. There was no forward passing yet, so the quarterback would normally hand off or lateral to another back, or run the ball himself. The offense had three downs to gain five yards or the ball was turned over. Touchdowns were worth four points and field goals were worth five. The "try," or kick after a touchdown, was worth two.

Our first roster:

Quarterbacks: Joseph Large and E. D. Martin

Center: Jesse Jones (captain)

Right guard: Paul Lincoln (captain)

Right tackle: Walter Miller

Right end: Charles Foulk

Left guard: Hamilton Richardson

Left tackle: Arthur Kennedy

Left end: J. B. Huggins

Halfbacks: Charles Morrey and Frank Rane

Fullback: David Hegler

Substitutes: H. L. Johnston and Hiram Rutan

The First Games

The first game was played in Delaware, OH against Ohio Wesleyan in May of 1890, and was a 20-14 win for the Buckeyes (although we were not yet known by that name). They played two 45:00 halves, and quarterback Large, halfback Morrey and linemen Foulk and Kennedy scored touchdowns. The season continued into the fall, where, after losing some players to graduation and filling out the roster with a few new guys, the Buckeyes lost all three games. Charles Foulk moved to quarterback and Charles Murray became the team's manager. The 1890 season ended 1-3.

Who were these players?

Not much is known about the lives of these original Ohio State players, but what I have found, I will share:

Charles Foulk went on to become a Professor of Chemistry at OSU and stayed at least into the 1920s. He researched extensively on Ohio's water supplies. Famed automobile innovator Charles Kettering was a student of Professor Foulk. Charles Morrey became a Professor of Bacteriology at OSU.

Paul Lincoln became president of the OSU Alumni Association. Hamilton Richardson became mayor of Brooklyn Heights, OH and the president of the Brooklyn Heights Board of Education. Frank Rane moved to West Palm Beach, FL, and joined the East Coast Finance Corporation. David Hegler was the longest surviving member: he died in 1959 in Chillicothe.

David Hegler. H. L. Johnston and Arthur Kennedy can also be found listed as members in Company A. of Ohio State's University Battalion in 1890.

OSU Coaches Clinic Inspires a Look Back at Great Coaches

Ohio State is hosting the 2014 Coaches Clinic April 10 - 12, themed as a tribute to Ohio football. Marvin Lewis, head coach of the Bengals and Mike Pettine, head coach of the Browns, will speak at the clinic. So will Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer and several members of his staff: Tom Herman, Luke Fickell, Tim Hinton and Chris Ash. Several Ohio high school coaches will also speak. The weekend ends with the Ohio State Spring Game on Saturday, April 12 at 1:30 PM.

This gathering of Ohio coaches inspires a look back at the great coaches of Ohio over the years.

Paul Brown is a coach every Ohioan should know. He was born in Norwalk in 1908 and grew up in Massillon, where he played for the Massillon Tigers in high school. He started college at Ohio State and finished at Miami University (OH), where he played quarterback. After college, he coached at a high school in Maryland before returning to Massillon to coach the Tigers for nine years. He was hired as head coach at Ohio State in 1941 and led the Buckeyes to our first national championship in 1942. He was commissioned to coach the Great Lakes Bluejackets during World War II and went on to coach the Cleveland Browns for 17 seasons. He later coached the Cincinnati Bengals for eight seasons. Paul Brown died in Cincinnati in 1991. Today, the Massillon High School Tigers play in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium and the Bengals play in Paul Brown Stadium.

Wes Fesler was born in Youngstown in 1908 and played lineman and fullback at Ohio State from 1928 - 1930 and was a first team All-American every year. He immediately started as an assistant coach at OSU after college. He then went on to be head coach of the Harvard University basketball team for nine years while serving as an assistant football coach at Harvard. In 1941 Fesler was hired as head coach of the football team at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, but his time there was cut short by World War II. Eventually he went back to the dual basketball-football coaching, this time at Princeton. The University of Pittsburgh hired him as head football coach for one season before he returned to Ohio State. After building the program in 1947 and 1948, his 1949 Buckeyes won the Rose Bowl, and Vic Janowicz won OSU's first Heisman Trophy in 1950. After the infamous 1950 Michigan game, known as the "Snow Bowl," Fesler fell out of favor and coached at Minnesota until 1953. He died in California in 1989.

Woody Hayes is the most famous coach of Ohio State; he coached at OSU for 28 seasons led the Buckeyes to five national championships. He was born in Clifton in 1913 and played high school football for Newcomerstown and college ball for Denison University. He later coached at Denison and Miami (OH) before getting hired as Ohio State's coach in 1951. He coached the likes of Howard " Hopalong" Cassady, Archie Griffin, Jim Otis, Art Schichter and Jack Tatum. Earle Bruce, Lou Holtz and Bo Schembechler all coached under Hayes at some point. Woody Hayes died in Columbus in 1987.

*Photo of Paul Brown Tiger Stadium by Sean P. Bender