We Remember Woody: Recruiting

Each year it seems as if more and more fans are bitten by the recruiting bug and it seems timely to talk about some great recruiting stories from Woody Hayes' former players and assistant coaches.

Today's recruiting landscape is much more convoluted than in Woody Hayes' days as head coach. College football recruiting plays out over the Internet, social media and mainstream media. It includes elements that would have been completely foreign to the "old man" such as texting, Tweeting, Facebooking, Snapchatting, Instagramming, blogging and live press conferences held at all-star games and in high school auditoriums.

During Woody's days, recruiting was much more in your face and person-to-person. Those were the days when a handshake with a recruit "sealed the deal" and the art of recruiting in the candidate's home with the parents and family meant everything and Woody Hayes was terrific at closing the deal, especially with prospective players' parents. Here are what a few former players and coaches recall about Woody and recruiting:

Woody came over to our house for dinner and I was pretty nervous. My recruiting choices were down to Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan and I didn't want things to go poorly. During dinner, the phone rang and my mom answered the phone and then came to the table and said, 'Doug, the call is for you, but you should probably take this one in the back bedroom.' I left the table and went to take the call. The caller was none other than Bo Schembechler.

I was polite, but understandably short with Coach Schembechler. I then went back to the dinner table, very nervous about Bo calling, hoping it would not come up during the conversation with Coach Hayes.

No sooner had I sat down, when Woody asked, 'Who was that on the phone young man?' I stammered, 'Well coach, that was Bo Schembechler who called.'

Woody, stood up, walked to the head of the table and thrust his hand out to me and said, 'Young man, I want your commitment and handshake, here and now, that you will accept a full scholarship to play football and attend The Ohio State University.'

I shook Woody's hand and the rest is history. I had a great career at Ohio State and then went on to some good years with the Dallas Cowboys.

Doug Donley

Ohio State Wide Receiver 1977-1980

All Big Ten Wide Receiver 1980

Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver 1981- 1984

This story kind of shows what happens when you pushed Woody's buttons. When I was a senior at Ohio State, we were recruiting a big tight end from Cincinnati, named Mark Schmerge. He was a big dude and everybody was recruiting him. Since I was from Cincinnati and Mark and I went to the same high school, I was the person that was assigned to be his player host and to help recruit him.

Mark ended up going to Michigan which was decided the night we went out to dinner with Woody for sure. So we go out to dinner with Woody and Mark's dad was an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Schmerge, and for some reason he hated Woody's guts. I'm not sure why that was.

So we are sitting down to dinner and Dr. Schmerge started getting on Woody's case. He says, "You know Woody, I don't like the way that you run your offense. I don't like the way you treat the press and I saw when you tore up those sideline markers and I think your actions are disgusting.'

All of a sudden, Woody stands up and says, "You know, I don't care if you're a doctor and I don't care who your son is, cause I don't like you either you son of a b****!'

I thought, 'Well, I guess Mark isn't coming to Ohio State.

Bill Lukens

Ohio State Offensive Guard 1973-1976

Team Captain 1976

When I was assistant coach under Coach Hayes I was responsible for east coast recruiting and New Jersey was a big focus, since that is where I was from and played in high school. We were recruiting this huge offensive tackle from New Jersey who had hurt his knee, but everybody was still recruiting him, Penn State, Notre Dame, Michigan and USC.

Woody wasn't so sure we should recruit him, but everyone else thought his knee was going to be fine. In addition to that, the player's mom absolutely didn't want to have Woody come to the house. She had heard about his temper and had seen things on T.V. with referees, photographers and stuff.

I had to convince Woody to go and while we were in their home, Coach Hayes really impressed them. He knew things about their family history, he preached discipline and education and by the time the evening was coming to an end, he had them all wanting this student athlete to go to Ohio State.

The boy's mom announced she had just baked a fresh apple pie and asked if Coach Hayes would like to stay and have a slice. Woody obliged. So, we stayed and had some pie for dessert. We then said goodbyes and out to the car we went.

I was feeling pretty good that we had just succeeded with this kid, when Woody said, 'Glenn, let's cut him loose'.

I said, 'Coach are you kidding me?'

Woody said, 'No, did you see him walking down the stairs? That knee is unstable, cut him loose.'

The kid ends up accepting a scholarship to Penn State and never played a down due to his knee. 'The Old Man' just had an uncanny ability to sell the family but also to judge physical talent.

Glen Mason

Ohio State Linebacker 1970 -1971

Ohio State Assistant Coach 1978-1985

(Offensive Coordinator 1980-85)

I will never forget as a high school senior recruit having to beg my mother's permission to allow coach Hayes and assistant coach Dave Adolph to make a visit to our home.

Dan Devine of Notre Dame, Bill Mallory of Colorado, Bob Commings of Iowa, Gary Moeller of Illinois and Bo Schembechler of that school up north had all visited, but she wasn't going to let that 'heathen' into her home.

Like many people in that era she had seen the yard markers torn up, the cameramen punched and the sideline reporters pushed as well as watching Ohio State humiliate her eldest son's teams when he played at the University of Illinois.

Through my father's lobbying and my constant begging, she finally relented. coach Hayes and coach Adolph visited that next Tuesday, which I recall was a very snowy day. We had a very steep driveway and with over a foot of snow on the ground I was praying that Woody wouldn't slip and injure himself on the way to our front door.

Warm greetings were made and Woody sat down on the landing steps of the stairway to remove his snowy wet golashes on the red ceramic tile of the foyer. As we sat down, Woody began to 'wow' my parents. He read and recited passages from a famous central Illinois orator named Robert G. Ingersoll. He talked about the properties of metals and Metallurgy with my father, who was a Metallurgical Engineer for Caterpillar. He spoke of psychology with my brother John, who was currently finishing his degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota.

He then asked my mother, 'Mrs. Levenick, tell me how you raise such wonderful children.'

I could see the tears in her eyes when she answered simply, 'With a lot of love.'

By the time Woody left that night, everyone in my family, who was present, wanted me to go to Ohio State. My mom didn't want me to go anywhere else. Woody had done his magic once again.

Twenty eight years later my two brothers and I were helping my parents move to a smaller more manageable home as my dad had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. As we were moving furniture and other household items, my dad tugged me by the sleeve and said he had something he'd like to show me. We walked back into the red ceramic tile foyer and my dad stooped down to the landing steps of the stairway where there was a small oriental rug.

He slid that rug aside and there at the base of the stairs were two white footprints which were created when Woody Hayes removed his salty wet golashes that cold snowy night in January of 1977.

My dad said, 'Tom, you know your mother has never waxed this spot in the floor ever again'.

Woody authored a book titled: 'You Win with People'. And boy, did he ever.

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