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