1897 a key year in OSU football history
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - In the early years of Ohio State football, the head coaching position was not a glamorous job. There weren't outrageous salaries, country club memberships and all the other perks that come from being the most popular person in the state of Ohio.
Instead, there was sometimes no wage at all, long hours and poor working conditions.
The one constant since the first team was fielded in 1890, though, is stress. From the outset of the program, winning in has been the No. 1 priority. Combined with not being a plumb gig and the lack of winning, the Buckeyes went through several head coaches before John Wilce took over in 1913.
He stayed 16 years.
Wilce ushered Ohio State into the big time. Under his guidance, the Buckeyes won three conference titles, played in their first Rose Bowl and fielded one of the great players of the era - and arguably all-time - Chic Harley.
From 1890 to 1898, Ohio State had five head coaches and an overall record of 31-39-4. The 1897 season is one of particular intrigue.
Following a 5-5-1 record in 1896, Ohio State fired its football coach, Charles Hickey. A search for the next coach was conducted, which included Fielding H. Yost. Yost was an accomplished player at West Virginia, Lafayette and Ohio Wesleyan.
In February of 1897, he ventured to Columbus seeking the coaching position. Yost may well have got the job had it not been for his eager enthusiasm. In The Official Ohio State Football Encyclopedia, author Jack Park writes, "After Yost demonstrated his physical competence on both a student and a faculty member, instructions were given to 'get that wild man off campus.'"
It was an order that had a major effect on the biggest rivalry in sports. Yost ended up at Michigan in 1901 and coached for 25 seasons, the most successful stint in college football history. Michigan had an overall record of 165-29-10 and won six national titles and 10 Big Ten championships. Its record against Ohio State was 16-3-1.
For five seasons, 1901 to '05, Yost's famed "point-a-minute" teams were 55-1-1, outscoring their opponents 2,821 to 42. The most famous of those 55 victories was the 1902 Rose Bowl - the first bowl game in college football history - a 49-0 embarrassment of Stanford. The score was so lopsided that Tournament of Roses officials ran chariot races, ostrich races, and other various events for the next 15 years instead of football.
The Buckeyes ended up with former Princeton halfback David Edwards as their head coach in 1897. It would be the worst season in school history.
Ohio State went 1-7-1, its only seven-loss season, something the 2011 team is trying to avoid, and was outscored 168-18. Ironically, the Buckeyes lost to Ohio Wesleyan, coached by Yost, in the season finale.
A crowd of 1,000 took in the game and The Lantern took satisfaction in the final score writing, "Delaware, with all their trick plays taught by their crafty coach, Yost, could only score one lone touchdown."
Ohio State's lone win, 6-0 over Ohio Medical, is disputed. Leading by a touchdown, the Medics left the field after Ohio State was awarded a touchdown it felt was undeserved, but not before they started a fight with the Buckeyes. The referees declared Ohio State the winner via forfeit.
The third game of the season was the first in the long and storied history of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. Played at Regents Field in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines won 34-0, with the game being called with five minutes remaining in the second half.
The situation got so bad under Edwards that the Athletic Associations' funds dried up. University President James Canfield suspended the athletics programs until the debt was paid off. Not surprisingly, Edwards was not retained.
In its December 8, 1897, edition, The Lantern took charge in an editorial.
"The experience the Ohio State University has had during the past two years with high salaried eastern coaches who were supposed to know the game, but who didn't, has a lesson not to be forgotten soon," the paper said. "If the Ohio State University could secure the services of several of its alumni to coach the team next year as is done in the University of Michigan and the Eastern schools, it would undoubtedly put a winning team on the gridiron and would meet with the hearty approval of the alumni, faculty and student body."
Edwards, however, would not be done coaching. The very next season, he led the Texas Longhorns to a 5-1 record. It shut out five of six opponents. In Austin, though, Edwards is known as the guy who is responsible for burnt orange and white being the official school colors.
The hues had been used by the school prior to Edwards' arrival, but he wanted to use orange and maroon. The decision didn't sit well and the university had a vote. Burnt orange and white won out.
Edwards departed after the season and returned to his native New Jersey, where he served as the New Jersey Supervisor of Inheritance Taxes.
Yost and Edwards are the only coaches to hold the head coaching position at two of the Top 5 winningest programs. Yost was the head coach at Nebraska and Michigan.
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