American football coach at Ohio State University. Like an angry, charging bull, Hayes was noted for his temper and tyrannical behavior during Ohio State games. He was considered one of the most colorful and controversial coaches in the history of college football. He was twice named Coach of the Year and received eight trips to the Rose bowl. During televised games, he lashed out at cameramen, kicked his players’ posteriors for making mistakes, physically attacked the metal and cloth sideline marker over bad calls, ripped off his glasses and crushed them in his bare hands because of a bad play. A Big Ten commissioner called Hayes, “indomitable in defeat and insufferable in victory.”
Hayes was the son of a school superintendent in rural Ohio. He attended Denison University in Ohio and was a brilliant history and English major. After coaching football for Miami, he arrived at Ohio State University in 1951. Hayes had the third-longest coaching tenure at a major school with 27 seasons. He turned out more All-Americans than any other college coach and coached more players into the pros than any coach in history. With his leadership, Ohio State dominated the Big Ten in the mid-’70s winning four years in a row from 1973-1976. In 1978, he had 189 wins, 54 losses and 9 ties. He was second to Alabama’s Bear Bryant for total career victories. He wrote three best-selling books on football.
The only film Hayes ever took his wife Anne to see was the Ohio State-University of Michigan game film. Football was the major focus of his life. For 50 weeks a year, seven days a week, he worked on perfecting the Ohio State football game. The education of his football players was another concern of his. Nearly 90 percent of his players received their college degrees, a fact that Hayes considered one of his greatest joys. When he recruited high school seniors to Ohio State, he rarely talked to their parents about football but made the pitch for their son’s college education. Players felt the sports media concentrated on the outlandish behavior of their head coach and never knew the kindness and fatherly concern he lavished on his players behind-the-scenes. On the road, he discussed history, philosophy and literature with his athletes. Hayes was a life-long student of military history. He took two weeks off in the year to enjoy hiking or mountain climbing alone in June. He was one of the lowest paid coaches, preferring that any extra money to be given to his assistant coaches.
In the mid-’70s, Hayes suffered a serious heart attack.
Like his hero, General George Patton, Hayes saw himself as the Supreme Commander only his war was a college football game. Unable to adapt to the updated game methods of the modern athletes, Hayes became more vitriolic. He finally ended his career when he punched a Clemson player on national TV during the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State University fired the tempestuous coach shortly after the incident in 1978.
Hayes died March 12, 1987 in Upper Arlington, OH. He was 74 and the cause was heart failure..
Link to Wikipedia biography