Buckeye Madness: The Glorious, Tumultuous, Behind-the-Scenes Story of Ohio State Football

The Ohio State Buckeyes, one of the most storied college football programs in the nation, have a rich and colorful history that spans more than a century. In Buckeye Madness Ohio native Joe Menzer tells the exhilarating story of the Scarlet and Gray from the days of Woody Hayes in the late 1960s to Jim Tressel and OSU's recent national championship.

In the fall of 1968, Hayes's Buckeyes went 10-0 and won the national championship — a feat that the Buckeyes wouldn't repeat until January 2003, when an underdog OSU team upset the heavily favored Miami Hurricanes in an epic double-overtime national title game. In between those championships, scores of outstanding players took the field in Ohio Stadium, such as the legendary Archie Griffin, the last (and likely the only) player to win the Heisman Trophy twice. Ohio State fans will enjoy Menzer's descriptions of such Buckeye greats as Rex Kern, Chris Spielman, and Heisman winner Eddie George, among many others, along with his accounts of some great, and not-so-great, Ohio State teams in recent decades. Menzer explains how the game has changed in the years since Woody Hayes called the plays, and especially how the coaches themselves have had to change as concerns about off-the-field activities grew in importance. Hayes's immediate successors — Earle Bruce and John Cooper — were very different personalities from the incendiary Hayes; Tressel is a throwback to the Hayes era in many ways, yet he must deal with different issues as dictated by the changing times.

But as Buckeye Madness makes clear in some unforgettable anecdotes, one thing will never change: the Ohio State-Michigan game remains the greatest rivalry in college football, a date circled months in advance on calendars in Columbus and Ann Arbor.

The Ohio State Buckeyes, one of the most storied college football programs in the nation, have a rich and colorful history that spans more than a century. In Buckeye Madness Ohio native Joe Menzer tells the exhilarating story of the Scarlet and Gray from the days of Woody Hayes in the late 1960s to Jim Tressel and OSU's recent national championship.

In the fall of 1968, Hayes's Buckeyes went 10-0 and won the national championship -- a feat that the Buckeyes wouldn't repeat until January 2003, when an underdog OSU team upset the heavily favored Miami Hurricanes in an epic double-overtime national title game. In between those championships, scores of outstanding players took the field in Ohio Stadium, such as the legendary Archie Griffin, the last (and likely the only) player to win the Heisman Trophy twice. Ohio State fans will enjoy Menzer's descriptions of such Buckeye greats as Rex Kern, Chris Spielman, and Heisman winner Eddie George, among many others, along with his accounts of some great, and not-so-great, Ohio State teams in recent decades. Menzer explains how the game has changed in the years since Woody Hayes called the plays, and especially how the coaches themselves have had to change as concerns about off-the-field activities grew in importance. Hayes's immediate successors -- Earle Bruce and John Cooper -- were very different personalities from the incendiary Hayes; Tressel is a throwback to the Hayes era in many ways, yet he must deal with different issues as dictated by the changing times.

But as Buckeye Madness makes clear in some unforgettable anecdotes, one thing will never change: the Ohio State-Michigan game remains the greatest rivalry incollege football, a date circled months in advance on calendars in Columbus and Ann Arbor.

Publishers Weekly

This history of the Ohio State Buckeyes opens with their national championship in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, then backtracks to the glory days of the team's greatest leader, Woody Hayes. With the volatile, demanding coach front and center, the story has its strongest momentum-but Menzer is careful to show that it wasn't all upbeat. The legendary undefeated team of 1968 and the consecutive Heisman trophies of running back Archie Griffin in '74 and '75 are matched by Hayes's physical abuse of his players during practice and encouragement of the dangerous "chop-block" tackling technique. Hayes was eventually fired for attacking an opposing player during a game, and his successors found it hard to live up to his reputation or his skills, especially when it came to the school's rivalry with the Michigan Wolverines. Though Menzer, a sportswriter (The Wildest Ride) and Ohio native, tries his best, the second half of his chronicle falls just short of the standard set by the first. Recruiting scandals and boorish behavior by star athletes, even when well reported, just don't have the same dramatic impact as Hayes's obsessive discipline of his players. Buckeyes fans, however, will likely be satisfied just to relive that era. B&w photos. Agent, Shari Wenk. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Joe Menzer is the author or coauthor of four previous books, including The Wildest Ride: A History of NASCAR and Four Corners: How UNC, N.C. State, Duke, & Wake Forest Made North Carolina the Center of the Basketball Universe. He has written for such publications as Sporting News and Inside Sports. Since 1995 he has covered the Carolina Panthers and the NFL for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina. He lives with his wife and four children in Charlotte, N.C.