Woody Hayes was a hard-nosed football coach, but he was also a man of integrity

[maxrandb]

Bad calls happen in sporting events all the time. You dust yourself off and move on. You display sportsmanship. You don't have dad call the league to get calls overturned. My beloved Browns would have won a Super Bowl, or at least played in one, by now if those are the rules we're operating under now.

It's OK. It will just make the celebration that much sweeter when the Browns finally do go to and win a Super Bowl.

Woody Hayes was a walking, talking contradiction. Most will remember him only for the time he punched a Clemson player who intercepted a pass in the Citrus Bowl. Woody lost his job over that, as he should have, but he also had untreated diabetes that may have contributed to his abhorrent behavior during that game.

I want to share 2 anecdotes that come from a good book by long-time Columbus Sports writer Paul Horning; "Woody Hayes, Warts and All".

Despite an undefeated 8-0-1 season and a Big Ten championship, the university faculty rejected the bid to send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl, due to concerns over academic priorities and missing final exams. Hayes ultimately accepted the decision to prevent a deep divide between the athletic department and the university faculty.

"I don't agree with those 28 'no' votes, but I respect the integrity of the men who cast them, if not their intelligence. I would not want football to draw a line of cleavage in our university. Football is not worth that."

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During a Rose Bowl team luncheon. Woody Hayes grew frustrated that the luncheon program had not mentioned that former president Harry Truman had just died the day before. When it was his turn to speak. he didn't mention football at all, but instead, gave a 20 minute sololiqie about the life of President Truman, passionately recounted his time in the Navy in the summer of 1945, telling his players why Truman's legacy mattered and giving him the credit for saving him from the impending invasion of Japan.

When they asked Hayes why he, a Republican, devoted his speech to honoring President Truman, he said; "dagnamit! A former president of the United Stated had just died, and nobody was saying a word about him. I couldn't let that stand."

If the USA team has integrity, they would sit Folarin Balogun against Belgium, despite the corrupt FIFA Board capitulating to the master of corruption.