’55 and ’75 Bucks Make a Special Homecoming – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Celebrate Big Ten titles, Rose Bowls and Heisman winners vs. Purdue Saturday
1955
Ohio State uses a 17-0 blanking of Michigan to claim its second-consecutive Big Ten championship. Howard “Hopalong” Cassady becomes Ohio State’s third Heisman Trophy winner. During the season, Hayes voices his displeasure over the fact several other football conferences had started awarding scholarships to student-athletes, but the Big Ten had failed to follow suit. After a series of meetings and heated debates, the conference adopts a complicated grant-in-aid program based on financial need, marking the first form of athletics scholarship available at Ohio State.
1975
Coach Woody Hayes gives West Coast reporters a now famous quote about Archie Griffin: “He’s a better young man than he is a football player, and he’s the best football player I’ve ever seen.” Griffin becomes the first two-time winner of the Heisman Trophy, leading the Buckeyes to their conference-record fourth-consecutive Rose Bowl. He also becomes the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher in a midseason game against Purdue.
