Archie Griffin - Greatest Moments in Ohio State Football History

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Ohio State University Archives, Ohio State University Sports Information, Roy Hewitt and The Plain Dealer Sports Department, Jerry Hoegner, Gloria Gamble, Jim Russ, Terry Jacoby, Susan Kordalski, the Rose Bowl Media Relations Office, the Fiesta Bowl Media Relations Office, Chance Brockway, Wide World Photos, Bettmann Archives and Allsport Photography USA.

The stories on are reprinted by permission of The Plain Dealer. Copyright 1997 by The Plain Dealer. All rights reserved.

Copyright 1997, 2003 by Triumph Books. All rights reserved.

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[ By Archie Griffin ]

W hen I looked up and scanned the seats in Sun Devil Stadium on that balmy desert night in 2003, I thought it would be a magical evening for Ohio State University and its football program. When fireworks lit up the star-filled sky and scarlet and gray confetti shot from the ground and fluttered down like a thousand Buckeye butterflies, I was certain of it.

It was the same kind of certainty I had when we hired Jim Tressel as football coach in 2001. I could see his character, his personality, his integrity, the way he shapes young mens livesnot only on the football field but, more importantly, off it and I knew we had found the right man to lead our team, our community and our fans to where they want to be. The naysayers didnt believe a coach from Division I-AA could lead a major college football team, but the fact that he had led Youngstown State to several national titles was something we viewed very positively. He knew how to get to the championship game, and he knew how to win there. I have believed from the beginning that he is a winner. After the six weeks he had to prepare for Miami, I was totally confident that the Buckeyes were in great hands.

On January 3, 2003a night I will never forgetthe Buckeye nation was well represented at the Fiesta Bowl. You looked around the stadium and saw nothing but scarlet and gray. You saw very little Miami Hurricanes green and orange. I shouldnt have been surprised by the effort our fans made to be there. We had 16,000 tickets to sell, but some how, some way, our fans managed to get more. I was blown away by how loyal our Ohio State fans are.

That game was the high point of my long association with Ohio State, including my two Heisman Trophy-winning seasons. It was the end of a 34-year span without a national championship.

The groundwork for our Fiesta Bowl started during the previous January, when Mike Doss made his decision to stay at Ohio State. The impact coach Tressel was having on his players was obvious then, as it is now. Doss set an example for future Buckeyes when he made the decision to stay in school.

I thought something special was in the offing after the Purdue game. Thats when I began to believe that a national title could be in the cards. The way we won that gamewith a touchdown pass on fourth-and-one with less than two minutes left in the gamewas like destiny.

Very few people thought this team had a chance of winning the national championship. But they refused to lose. They werent a team that ran away with gamesquite the contrary. They won seven games by seven points or less to get to the Fiesta Bowl. They were a team that won tough games. They were persistent and consistent. They just got the job done.

At the end of the night, when all the Buckeye butterflies had floated to the ground, after coach Tressel accepted the national championship trophy, I was left with one thought: Ohio State is a special place because of special people. It has been led by extraordinary individuals throughout its history. To try to boil down what makes us special in the pages of a book is nearly impossible, but this volume has done a great job in doing so. In the coming pages, you will read about some of those wonderful folks who made us what we are, and about what they have done for footballsomething that is in our blood in this great state.

In 1975, running back Archie Griffin (45) became the first player ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice.

T his is what they tell you at freshman orientation, before you ever take a class at Ohio State University.

Sorry, make that, The Ohio State University. They make a point of telling you that, too.

Its The Ohio State University, pal, and dont you forget it.

Not an Ohio State University or even just plain old Ohio State University. Its THE Ohio State University, as in, The One and Only, Biggest, Baddest and Best Ohio State University.

Thats important.

But its not the last thing they tell you.

That stuff about the buses leaving for West Campus every 15 minutes and Orton Hall housing the chimes and Mirror Lake being a wonderful place to spend a spring day and, oh, yeah, dont ever let anyone sell you a subscription to the Lantern because its free, stupid all that stuff is important.

But all that information is provided before a guy walks on stage in front of an auditorium full of freshmen-to-be, just before dismissing them to their hometowns for the rest of the last summer of their pre-college lives.

Slowly, he pulls something out of his pocket and holds it between his thumb and forefinger.

This, he says, serious as an IRS audit, is a buckeye.

A buckeye, he continues, is a nut.

A poisonous nut.

If you eat this nut, he adds, pausing for high drama, you will die.

So, you see, he finishes, a trace of a smile leaking out the corners of his lips, you are about to attend the only school in the country named after a killer nut.

Oh, there are legions of Lions and Tigers and Bears, but there are, indeed, no other Buckeyes in the land.