From Woody's Couch

Did you know that one of OSU’s football coaches was an M.D.? Coach John Woodrow Wilce became Dr. Wilce in 1919 while head coach of the Buckeyes. In 1913, Wilce came to Ohio State from the University of Wisconsin (his alma mater), where he had been head football coach for two years. At Ohio State, he accepted the dual appointment of football coach and professor of physical education. He was 25 years old.

Wilce served as head coach for 16 seasons, leading the Buckeyes to three Big 10 Championships and into national prominence. Under Wilce, All-American Chic Harley led the Buckeyes to two of those championships. In fact, nine players achieved All-American status during the Wilce era. It was also Wilce who transitioned the team from playing at OSU’s first football game location, Ohio Field, to the big-league venue of Ohio Stadium.

He even had a football fight song written for him. An unidentified press clipping in his biographical file here at the Archives says that back “in 1915, when the Buck team began to show its first signs of being a big conference threat, Bill Doherty, who was managing the team, wrote the ever popular ‘Fight the Team Across the Field,’ and dedicated it to Dr. Wilce, who was coach then.”

Wilce resigned after the 1928 season, took nine months off, and returned to the University as a physician on the staff of the Student Medical Service. Upon the reorganization of that department, he took the helm as director in 1935. In that position, he wrote many journal articles and gave many conference talks about University health services.

He continued in that capacity until he retired in 1958, spending additional time studying the cardiac effects of athletic stress, another subject on which he was considered an expert. He was a Fellow and life member of the the American College of Physicians and vice president of the American College Health Association. He also was a recipient of the University’s Distinguished Service Award in 1956. He passed away in May 1963 at the age of 75.

Thousands of sick and injured students now probably link Wilce more with the University’s health services than his record as football coach: In 1969, the Board of Trustees officially named the then-new student health facility in Wilce’s honor.

 

 

All of the rumors have been confirmed.  Former Ohio State assistant coach Urban Meyer has accepted the position of head football coach.

Meyer is from Ashtabula, Ohio, and played football for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats in 1984 as a defensive back.

During his previous tenure at Ohio State, Meyer served as the tight end coach in 1986 and the wide receiver coach in 1987. During this time some of Ohio State’s greats played such as Chris Carter, Chris Spielman and Tom Tupa.

Meyer has won two BCS National Championships while head coach of the Florida Gators and several national awards including the 2006 Woody Hayes Trophy for the top collegiate coach presented by the Touchdown Club of Columbus.

With the signing of Urban Meyer as Ohio State’s new head coach brings a new era to football fans. It might also bring a new twist to the Nebraska game next October when Meyer faces Mark “Bo” Pelini who was a freshman free safety on the 1987 Ohio State team.

 

New Buckeyes Football Head Coach Luke Fickell, who turns 38 on Aug. 18, starts his tenure at a significantly younger age than his more recent predecessors, which started us wondering, who were the youngest Buckeye football coaches? Here are the top three, although there’s a tie for third:

#1: The youngest OSU Head Coach appears to have been Jack Ryder, who we believe was 21 years old when he began coaching. Born in 1871, he came to OSU in 1892 and coached until 1895, returning in 1898. He is also notable as OSU’s first paid head coach. He made $10 per week, which he was allegedly quite pleased with, bringing him to a total of $150 for the season. After his coaching career ended he became a sports editor for The Cincinnati Enquirer, a post that he held for more than 30 years until his death in 1936.

#2: The next-youngest coach was David Edwards (1875-1948) who coached the 1897 season at the ripe old age of 22. Edwards was a half back at Princeton, and the next fall came to OSU to coach. It seems he was a better player than a coach, because the Buckeyes had an epically bad season, and Edwards was let go.

#3: The last is a tie for age 23: Both Alexander S. Lilley, the Buckeyes’ first coach, and Perry Hale, the sixth OSU coach, were 23 years old when they started coaching here.

We previously posted on Lilley, but just as a reminder: He was unpaid, which was probably a good thing. It can be debated as to whether it was the newness of the game, the inexperience of the players, or Lilley’s coaching ability that resulted in so many losses in the beginning of the Buckeyes football history. Lilley, however, did help start the madness here on campus, riding an indian pony to practices from his home on Main Street. A plaque honoring him hangs over the team’s dressing room door at the Stadium.

Perry Hale was a graduate of Yale, where he was All-American Fullback in 1900. He coached for two years at Phillips Exeter Academy prior to coming to OSU in 1902. From several accounts, Hale was well-regarded by the team and the community, and as a plus, the Buckeyes won the first four games of the season. He left OSU in 1903 and opened his own civil engineering office.

filed by C.N.