A Cross Between Music and Cannon Fire
BallerLast week, in honor of the Ohio State-Illinois game, we took a look at the Illini’s “Galloping Ghost,” Red Grange. This week, in honor of the Ohio State-Michigan game, we’ll take a look at a player who was better than Red Grange: Ohio State’s Chic Harley.
In 1950 the Associated Press named its All-Star College Team for the first fifty years of the century. Red Grange was named to the second team. The first team halfbacks were Jim Thorpe and Chic Harley. When asked to explain his vote, one AP writer said:
“Red Grange was a great runner, but that’s all he was. Chic Harley was a great runner, a great kicker and a great defensive back. That’s why he made my first team. He could do it all.”
In truth, Harley could do anything athletically. The first time friends took him to play golf, he shot an 82. He bested Willie Hoppe, a legendary pool player, in a game of billiards at a downtown Columbus restaurant. During his years at Ohio State (1916-1917, 1919) he started at guard on the Buckeyes basketball team and played well enough in the outfield on the baseball team to be offered professional contracts by the St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox. During his sophomore year, he was asked to help out the OSU track team; he set a conference record in the 50-yard dash that stood for decades. There simply wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.
Chic was born in 1895 in Chicago – the town that gave him his nickname. His family moved to Columbus in 1912, and Harley starred at East High School. His exploits became the stuff of local lore; East’s games regularly drew more fans than Ohio State’s games at Ohio Field. Harley lost only one game while at East – his last, to North High School. A campus fraternity recruited Harley for Ohio State, and the program was never the same.
Harley exploded onto the scene in the 1916 season. Only 5’ 7” tall, and barely weighing 150 pounds, Harley did everything for the Buckeyes. In the season’s first conference game against defending champion Illinois – a rain-soaked game played in a muddy slop – Harley scored a tying touchdown on a play fake. He returned to the bench, slipped on a clean shoe, then kicked the winning PAT to beat the Illini, 7-6. It was only a glimpse of things to come.
The site of Ohio Field (Source)Before Harley’s arrival, Ohio State struggled to draw 2000 fans to Ohio Field; now spectators packed Ohio Field with overflow crowds of 12,000 to see the hometown hero from East High play. Tens of thousands were routinely turned away for lack of tickets. Those lucky few who did get to see Harley in the flesh were stumped for superlatives. James Thurber wrote:
“If you never saw him run with a football, we can’t describe it to you. It wasn’t like Red Grange or Tom Harmon or anybody else. It was kind of a cross between music and cannon fire, and it brought your heart up under your ears.”
Harley led the 1916 Buckeyes to a 7-0 record and their first Western Conference championship; he became Ohio State’s first consensus All-American. So impressive was his play as a passer, runner, punter, place kicker and defensive back that Walter Camp came to Columbus personally to see him play, then named him to his all-star team (Harley was the first sophomore to ever make the team). In 1917, the Buckeyes again went unbeaten with a record of 8-0-1, and Harley was again named a consensus All-American. Harley then suspended his career at Ohio State to serve his country as a fighter pilot in World War I.
If the conference (now called the Big Ten) thought they were finished with Chic, they were wrong. Harley returned from his military service in time for the 1919 season and starred on what was probably the Buckeyes’ best team of his tenure. The Buckeyes fell only once – to Illinois, on the last play of the last game of the season – but the 1919 season was a complete success, because it was the first year that Ohio State beat Michigan.
Michigan had rejoined the conference in November 1917 after a brief absence, and most observers thought the 1919 Wolverines were a shoe-in for league champion. But so loud was the buzz surrounding Chic Harley, and so great the threat posed by his Buckeyes, that former Michigan coach Fielding Yost came out of retirement specifically to coach against the Ohio State. Fans sent the Buckeyes off with a massive pep rally at the old Armory, and 28,000 came to Ann Arbor’s Ferry Field, only to leave in stunned silence as Harley and Ohio State beat the Wolverines for the first time ever, 13-3.
Harley’s House serves notice that #47 is unavailableHarley did it all. He scored a 50-yard touchdown run, but what still stand in the Ohio State record book were his four interceptions – still a single-game record at Ohio State.
So impressed was Yost with Harley’s play that he asked - and was granted - permission to address the Ohio State locker room after the game. His comments were recorded by a Columbus Dispatch reporter:
“After congratulating Dr. Wilce and Director of Athletics St. John, Yost said to the team: ‘You deserve your victory; you fought brilliantly. You boys gave a grand exhibition of football strategy and while I am sorry – dreadfully sorry – that we lost, I want to congratulate you. And you, Mr. Harley, I believe are one of the finest little machines I have ever seen.”
Chic Harley left Ohio State having scored 23 touchdowns, kicked 35 PATs and 8 field goals for a grand total of 198 points – a record that would stand until “Hopalong” Cassidy’s Heisman Trophy season of 1955.
After his graduation, a great sense of excitement surrounded Ohio State football. University officials elected to capitalize on Harley’s exploits by proposing a new stadium to house the Buckeyes. At a cost of $1,300,000 – all of which was raised privately, through donations – Ohio Stadium was constructed, and became the Buckeyes’ new home. Chic Harley never played on the field, but he worked tirelessly to raise money, and the stadium quickly earned the moniker “The House that Harley Built.”
Chic’s years after football were difficult. He was cheated out of a share in the professional football franchise that eventually became the Chicago Bears. He suffered from deep bouts of depression, probably resulting from an injury suffered in his one professional season, wartime trauma, and a sense of displacement following the end of his collegiate career. His depression resulted in the White Sox and Browns rescinding their contract offers, and he lost out on a standing offer to become the head football coach at Tennessee. Lost, but never abandoned by his friends, Harley eventually resided permanently at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Danville, Illinois.
In 1948, Chic responded well to new treatment by his doctors, and felt well enough to attend three Buckeyes road games. That same season, he decided to return to Columbus to watch Ohio State play Michigan. The city, made aware of Harley’s return, feted him with a ticker-tape parade, radio appearances and press interviews. There were dinners, awards and official ceremonies – all of which surprised the laid-back, quiet man. At halftime of the Michigan game, the Ohio State Marching Band opened the “Os” in Script Ohio to spell out “Chic” – the only time the formation has been so altered.
A modest marker is now a fitting monumentChic Harley died in April of 1974, aged 78. His last wish was to be buried in Columbus, and he was laid to rest in Union Cemetery.
The pallbearers were the 1974 Ohio State football captains, including Archie Griffin and Neal Colzie. Among the mourners were university officials, former teammates of Chic’s, coach Woody Hayes, and Bill Daugherty, the man who penned “Across the Field.” Thousands lined the processional route.
“Everybody knew about Chic Harley and how great he was, because Woody would tell stories about him,” Archie Griffin remembered. “And for me, being from Columbus, I heard all the stories growing up, too. He really was the first player to attract people to Ohio Field.”
Remember Chic Harley when you watch the best rivalry game in college football this weekend. It’s because of Chic Harley that you have the Buckeyes as you know them, and it’s because of that amazing 1919 victory over Yost’s Wolverines that the game means what it does today. Without question, Chic Harley was the single most important Ohio State player who ever took the field. He was so great that Thurber commemorated him in verse:
“You can name the brilliant players from the year the game began,
You can say that someone’s plunging was the best you ever saw –
You can claim the boys now playing stage a game without a flaw –
But admit there was no splendor in all the bright array
Like the glory of the the going when Chic Harley got away.”
Joe, these get better every week. I know who to nominate for OSU historian when Jack Park no longer wants to do it.
I feel like that lazy guy at work, who tells you to slow down, because you are making me look bad. LOL
goose bumps
That is a great read!!! Thank you for putting it together.
I appreciate it, Corey. The article gave me a chance to really appreciate all Harley did for Ohio State. The Buckeyes were a mediocre also-ran before he came, and grew into a juggernaut after he left.
I used to think Archie Griffin was the most important player we ever had, but - and even Archie would agree - if there was such a thing as “program MVP,” it’s Chic Harley, without a question.
The folks who played with him just loved him, and the reporters who covered him simply could not come up with words to describe him. He was something special.
Oh yea? Well……we have the block M and the most wins ever! Even if our first 20 seasons WERE played against pick up teams from the YMCA….yea so there!
Joe,
Thanks for the article; great read, very touching. Go Bucks!
Ken
Chic was the first of many great players to run thru tOSU
Fantastic work, Joe. I remember when they retired his number, my friends in my section were mostly saying, “Who’s this Harley dude?” I knew a bit about him, and I assured them he was awesome, but I wasn’t aware of just how awesome. So I learned something today. Great read.
Awesome Joe, well worth the wait. Out of curiosity, when was Harley’s number retired? It must have been sometime after AJ Hawk donned #47, correct? I know that players are allowed to keep the jersey number they start with even if the jersey is subsequently retired during their tenure at OSU.
Nice read, Joe.
I call hax on this Chic Harley fella.
And not to nitpick, but is that a typo with the double the in the Thurber verse?
retired in October of 2004. Was at that game, pretty cool.
Great job, Joe. I love these things. I’m amazed reading stories like this and then comparing them to today’s pampered athletes. Dude went to war and came back played some more college football. Nowadays guys get million dollar insurance policies in case they blow a knee.
A true warrior!
This series is awesome… keep up the good work
Its amazing how much this sport has come. Harley was 5′ 7” 150 lbs wet most likely and was a do it all player. You never see guys that small playing the game anymore. They would get destroyed.
That was an awesome read Joe, thank you for that. This is the first time I’ve ever read anything about Harley and thought it was great. Its to bad he fell to depression and post-draumatic war syndrome. Cant ask anything more from a guy then that. One guy I wish i could have watched and met.
Good points Travis-
Ray Small is complaining about having to go to class and park in the students lot, Chic Harley was laying his life on the line flying planes, only to come back and play again…..
Fantastic Read.
Quick comment about getting offers to play professionally with the White Sox. No offense to Harley but I am sure after the 1919 season (presumably when he was offered the contract) there were a lot of guys getting offers. I know the White Sox had just recently been forced to make a few rather dramatic roster moves.
God Damn. I thought the Better Know a Buckeye Recruit series was the best stuff ever, but these Better Know a Buckeye Legend posts are fantastic. this may very well be among the best tOSU-related things I’ve read. The story is a great, to be sure, but Joe, you did a fantastic job of telling it.
“And not to nitpick, but is that a typo with the double the in the Thurber verse?”
Yes. I committed two typos, after having checked it three times before sending. Lovely.
“Harley was 5? 7” 150 lbs wet most likely and was a do it all player. You never see guys that small playing the game anymore.”
Sources on his size differ. A few reports put him at 5′9″, and 165 pounds, but the majority go with the smaller figures, so I went with those, too. Either way, he made Darren Sproles look like a gamer.
“No offense to Harley but I am sure after the 1919 season (presumably when he was offered the contract) there were a lot of guys getting offers. I know the White Sox had just recently been forced to make a few rather dramatic roster moves.”
Everything I looked at seemed to indicate that his mental condition precluded the offers being honored. His condition was certainly a major factor in his inability to take up Tennessee on their coaching offer.
Woah! not to go off topic boys but Heacock just saved his job, and I now know why Boeckman is always so laid back and doesnt care about not playing…..check out the link
http://manofest.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=THE-10-HOTTEST-2008-COLLEGE-FOOTBALL-GIRLFRIENDS.html&Itemid=1#comments
Heacocks daughter is SLAMMIN!
Great post on Chic, incidentally, following the 1919 baseball season, the White Sox weren’t looking for a bunch of players, the Black Sox scandal didn’t surface until late in the 1920 season– in fact– of the 8 men eventually suspended, 7 played for the White Sox in 1920.
wow…. Tebow’s Girlfriend is loaded… wonder if his faith allows him to make use of her attributes!
Damn - amazing read, great work. My dad bought me a #47 jersey the year they retired the number for Harley - at the time I thought it was because Hawk was wearing it. Then he told me some stories and I realized the history behind Harley - truly a Buckeye legend.
No doubt, BuckeyeSki…we actually referenced this back in January. She’s definitely on fire:
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/2008/01/boeckman-working-on-deep-balls.html
Laurenitis’s frosh girlfriend is smokin
“a cross between cannon fire and music” - wow, that is one of the greatest lines ever written.
marvelous work. so great to get to know the legends of Buckeye football better. thanks so much!
Animal Jr dipping into the fresh meat.
Just like that 1919 Buckeyes team (finished 2nd in Big Ten) beat UM (finished 7th in Big Ten), this team will do the same.
Somewhat surprisingly, in 20 times throughout the rivalry where the teams were separated by 4 spots or more in the conference standings, only once did the lower standing team win the game. That was in 2004, when the Bucks (finished 5th) defeated UM (finished 1st).
When separated by 8 spots, like this year, the higher standing team went 3-0, shutting out the other team each time.
The moral of the story is you will get your tail kicked every time if you come into this game struggling, because it game is too intense for it to happen. That’s the position this UM finds itself in.
Correction: UM (5) did it to the Bucks (1) in 1990 too (4 spots).
Stephen Schilling might be out for the Ohio State game. I hear they are going to have open auditions…
Ok I’m back. This time I want your input. HAHA I’m getting hated on at mgoblog by my own fans. Artis Chambers decided to leave the team before THE GAME. What would you call him? I said he was a quitter. How would you all react to something like that? Cater to him and say you don’t know the reasons why and don’t call him a quitter cause that’s an attack on his character. Oh and these guys are actually defending Boren. I’m ready to change this name from GO BLUE to GO OSU
Did you mean ‘hero’?
Great article.
Excellent piece. It’s amazing how immortalized his name is simply because he won a Heisman, yet most everyone, myself included, probably didn’t know a thing about the man’s tremendous life.
Gets me thinking, how many superbly amazing athletes (and people), who were heroes at Ohio State in their time, have faded from memory or who’s lives went unknown simply because they weren’t Heisman winners? Wish there was more footage of Chic.
Go Bucks!
Nice work, Joseph! Chic was the man, fo sho.
Man, I’m so glad we aren’t playing Central Michigan.
Desperado would do us in.
http://www.cmuchippewas.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46374&SPID=4199&DB_OEM_ID=10500&ATCLID=1060780&Q_SEASON=2008
@Steve:
“Excellent piece. It’s amazing how immortalized his name is simply because he won a Heisman, yet most everyone, myself included, probably didn’t know a thing about the man’s tremendous life.”
Chic Harley never won a Heisman. He played ball before the Heisman memorial trophy existed. So I guess you weren’t kidding when you said you didn’t know a thing about Harley’s life.
Very nice addition to the site these past couple of weeks.
Great read!
Great read. I wish some film footage of him had survived, so we could see the “cannonfire and music” blend.
That one photo of him with him grinning, hands on hips…what a badass!
Good call, Matt…I’m a little embarrassed by that. I guess in my head, I always assumed all the names on the stadium were Heisman winners. Shame on me.
No worries man, I thought the same thing (the Heisman requirement) about retired numbers until last season, when we retired Bill Willis’s jersey.
The basic requirements: 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.
Of course, Chic Harley played at a time before awards like these were handed out; in fact, he was contemporaries with some of the players and coaches for whom these awards are named. At the same time, it appears that Willis never won any of these awards; I think his retirement was more about his pioneering and breaking of the color barrier than the awards he garnered. So it appears that Ohio State doesn’t really stick to their own ‘requirements’ for retiring a jersey.
It’ll be interesting to see who is retired next. Troy Smith makes the most sense and I think he is deserving given the Heisman, michigan-killing, and his moving personal story; but old timers might argue that Rex Kern is both the best OSU QB ever and the best to wear #10, so there could be some opposition to Smith.
I think Smith will probably be next, but if I were Troy, I would ask the university to wait a few years - maybe a decade or so. It’s risky, since there’s no assurance he wouldn’t be hit by a bus and thus be unable to attend his enshrinement, but in the interests of history, I’d advise him to wait until the taste of the Florida game is out of people’s mouths. It’s still too fresh at this point.
In time, folks will stop remembering the crashing thud that team made in the title game, and remember only how dazzling a player Troy was.
(And I’m a huge Kern fan.)
i agree, it’s too early to enshrine Troy, no matter how good he was.
Too bad Hawk wore 47 because he was good enough to be retired eventually…..my personal all-time favorite other than Spielman
what a wonderful read - thanks for having the best buckeye blog on the internets, bar none. keep kicking ass, taking names, and being completely out of hound.
Great article, Joe.