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.