1955 Heisman Trophy winner Hopalong Cassady had his number retired November 18, 2000.Since Ohio State began retiring numbers back in 1999, a total of seven legendary Buckeyes have had the honor bestowed upon them. The list is certainly an impressive one featuring the likes of Archie Griffin, Vic Janowicz, Hopalong Cassady, Les Horvath, Eddie George, Chic Harley and most recently, Bill Willis.
All that group did was combine to collect six Heisman Trophy's, 13 First Team All-American selections, six inductions into the College Football Hall of Fame (Eddie's will come) and one Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement, setting the bar for any future honorees.
So, that begs the question...Who's next?
Personally speaking, here's my short list of potential candidates. Do you think one of them is worthy of being next or are you going off the board?
Jack Tatum The Assassin was my Pop's favorite Buckeye growing up and between that and his incredible resume, I think Tatum's at the top of my list of Who's Next. The headhunter was recruited as a running back but switched to safety where he became a two time All-American and National Defensive POY known for laying wood with even more tenacity than Peter North.
Ohio State went 27-2 and won a national title with Tatum patrolling the secondary and his legendary status is cemented by the fact he was named a captain on the OSU All-Century Team.
Chris Spielman If not Jack Tatum, then my next choice is Chris Spielman. Others LB's like CFB HOF'er Randy Gradishar probably have a more impressive resume but this is my list and I have to put him in my top three.
Spielman did rack up two All-American selections and captured the '87 Lombardi Award while creating the template for what every true Buckeye should be. The maniac from Massillon still serves as a great ambassador for the university and no player before or since can say they love the program any more than Spielman. Plus, dude used to play tackle Smear the Queer on blacktop as a kid.
Orlando Pace The last of my top three candidates has to be Orlando Pace. He made the tackle position sexy on his way to an Outland Trophy and back to back Lombardi's before becoming the #1 overall selection in the NFL Draft. Bucknuts says the two time All-American registered 80 pancakes his junior year and I certainly can't argue.
Pace was the most dominating lineman to ever come out of Ohio State and that's saying something considering the names Hicks, Parker and Stillwagon also suited up for the Scarlet and Gray. In fact, he might be the best college lineman of all time. Oh, and he can hoop, too.
Comments
The practice of retiring numbers was initially intended for the Heisman winners at Ohio State. It expanded to Harley, who is the "Babe Ruth" of Ohio State football and Bill Willis who is the "Jackie Robinson" of all of football.
The next number to be retired will be #10 in honor of Wolverine killer, Troy Smith (sticking with the original Heisman theme). I doubt others will have numbers retired. I'm hoping it is Beanie's #28 after that.
This kind of sucks for the guys playing defense and O-line, but it seems the theme the University has chosen.
If I could put one defensive players number up in the stadium it is definitely Spielman.
Well, you left off the obvious addition, Troy Smith... while there could be an arguement for any of the three over Troy, he DID win a Heisman which before Bill Willis was the *unofficial* qualification for having your number retired.
Opps, got beat while I was reading / typing.
Agreed, BB...If they stick with the script it will be Smith but I'm hoping they eventually look at all players with more loose criteria as there are many worthy candidates and I think having our own "ring of honor" around C-Deck would be beautiful...Give the new guys something to aspire to and remind our opponents of our greatness.
I left out Smith only because I think it could be a good 10 years before he gets retired - if only to make sure he doesn't rob a bank or anything over the next decade...not a crack on smith, just sure the university wants to make sure they never have to take a number/plaque down...
They've got to retire #10 next. They've done all the Heisman winners, and no offense to Chic Harley or Bill Willis, but come on...show some consistency with retiring the numbers!
Hey Chris,
on Tressel's website, they actually have criteria on which jerseys can get retired:
http://www.coachtressel.com/tr...
"To have a number retired, a player must have graduated from Ohio State, or have been in good academic standing upon departure from OSU, in the case of leaving early for a professional career. He also must have won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Associated Press Player of the Year Award, the Football Writers Player of the Year Award, or the American Football Coaches Player of the Year Award."
For some reason, I thought it used to say that there had to be a 5-year span between when the player stopped playing for OSU and the retirement of his jersey. I think given that Eddie's number was retired 6 years after he left, I would say Troy is due in 2012. But none of the people in the post will ever have their jersey retired based on the criteria, the way I read it. However, they obviously made exceptions for Harley and Willis, maybe they would for others.
Doug...I saw that but to me the criteria can only be used as a guide for exactly the reasons you stated...Harley and Willis.
My post is more about who would you like to see up there regardless of what the university will do...I was hoping for comments about why folks feel strongly about a player such as me wanting Tatum because my pops always glowed when telling stories of Tatum wacking dudes coming over the middle...
Finally, Hamby got a vote!
I want to see Spielman up there. He was the first player I can truly remember on the football field. I was a pre-teen at the time and it seemed as if he was in on every play and the passion he played with made me a Buckeye fan. As Chris said in the post, one would be hard pressed to find a player that loves Ohio State as much as Spielman does.
I know Troy is a popular pick and he won the Heisman, but he still got suspended and it cost us the Texas and Penn St. games that year. I still have a bitter taste from the NC game, in which he forgot to show up.
I also think it would be a brilliant idea to develop the ring of honor, there is plenty of room for Buckeye greats up there.
If I'm not mistaken, they waited for Eddie to graduate before retiring his number. Troy is already a graduate.
I'd love to see the names of the greats surrounding the stadium. It would add an extra chill of history to what is already the best stadium in the country.
They can put the names up without retiring the numbers. There's already a lot of duplication of numbers distributed to ~105 players and only 93 available numbers. It's a math issue as much as anything.
I feel like I'm peeing in your Cheerios Chris. I think you intended this to be a discussion of who is worthy not a technical breakdown of the rules for numbers being retired.
It's gotta be Lydell Ross next, right?
It's all good, BB...I like the idea of putting up names without retiring numbers for some of the other folks that may not fit the university's ever-changing criteria if it had to come to that...I still think OSU could get away with adding about 12 names/jerseys to the permanent list and still keep the integrity/value of getting your jersey retired without running out of uniforms...
At least we'll never have to worry about the "Ring" getting watered down like Cooperstown has over the years...
Corey's comment is a good example of why, if I were Troy Smith, I wouldn't have my number retired anytime soon.
The title game was hardly Smith's fault. Granted, he played poorly, and showed little of the awareness and - most damning - leadership skills that had brought the team to that game. The title game was a massive failure on the part of the offensive line, the entire defensive gameplan, the "come-down" from the m*ch*g*n game, the abominably long layoff, a very, very talented opponent and - yep! - ludicrously bad coaching.
Troy should have his number retired when he's in his forties, or even fifties. Life has a funny way of short-circuiting things, so I wouldn't wait until I was retirement age, on the off chance of being hit by a bus. I would wait until the bad memories of one bad game get out of people's heads, and we remember Troy for who he was: arguably the best quarterback ever to play at OSU, and sure death to anything wearing corn-color and blue.
Woody would tell you Jack Tatum. He is the most feared safety in the history of football.
I'm all for waiting a good long while before retiring numbers. Even Eddie's number should have waited longer, IMHO. Then, we get to judge them along the lines of the "Pay Forward" criteria, in addition to athletic accomplishments. Of course, we then run the risk of more than one outstanding player wearing the same number as another outstanding player.
If I were one of these honored fellows (in my dreams), I'd prefer to see my old number on the field of play, instead of being used as wallpaper anyways. Besides, there are so many worthy candidates, we'll have to expand the number system to base16 so we can have 256 jersey numbers instead of just 100.
Looks like Mark Schlabach thinks tOSU will be playing for another title!!!
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/...
I gotta side with Woody/Chris and go with the Assassin. Although before my time the old footage is scary to put it mildly. I understand the rules that are in place today with horse collars and closelines, but that dude threw every at his opponent to take them down. In my lifetime I gotta go with Spielman.
The comments on the Schlabach article are comical. Those SEC fans go insane seeing OSU in the title game again. They say the big10 sucks and OSU has no chance making it to the game again. I'm not sure if people understand those are contradictory statements. One reason OSU has an edge is that the big10 is not very good. They might have backed into last year's game, but they backed in as the BCS #1 ranked team. Now whether they were good enough is a different story, but the BCS system (of late) is clearly giving them an advantage.
See that's the thing. It has to be a slow, deliberate process. I don't want to look up one day and see a team wearing shitty numbers because all of the good ones have been retired. Lord knows if they wanted to, they could retire about 50 of them.
I only have two Jack Tatum games in my possession (1969 Rose Bowl, 1970 Michigan). For those who haven't seen any real footage of Tatum, his tackles can best be described as flying forearm smashes. A lot of his play was vile and filthy...
...and by God I loved it.
To be honest, I'd like to adopt something similar to what the Kansas basketball team does, where they retire your jersey, but not your number.
Tatum has a lot of love in Columbus and Oakland, but not much outside of it. Another one of those guys that you love if he's on your team, but despise if he's on another (Clemens, Bonds, etc.).
No love for one-time (way)underground Heisman candidate Richard McNutt?
The All American Buckeye Grove already honors many of the players you guys mention. The school ought to do more about THAT. (Nicer plaques more publicity)
Hello? Anybody? I think the obvious choice is Kenyon Rambo...pfft...obviously!
I almost got into a fight with Lydell Ross on two separate occasions...
Weird.
Where at, Pure Platinum. Still, I doubt Diana could beat too much ass.
Troy Smith should have his number retired today. All Heisman winners plus Willis and Harley.
THAT'S IT.
Love Tatum, but others can wear the number.
They can't retire Smith's number today. On what grounds do you base that statement?