Hayes was in the Navy?  Yes, he sure was.  Hayes enlisted in the United States Navy in July 1941, eventually rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander during World War II. He commanded PC 1251 in the Palau Islands invasion and the destroyer-escort USS Rinehart in both the Atlantic and Pacific operations.

He was the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University (1949–1950), before he went to Ohio State.

During his 28 seasons as the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes football program, Hayes's teams won five national championships (1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970), and his teams captured 13 Big Ten Conference titles with a record of 205–61–10.

Hayes' basic coaching philosophy was that "nobody could win football games unless they regarded the game positively and would agree to pay the price that success demands of a team."

In spite of this apparent willingness to avoid change, Hayes became one of the first major college head coaches to recruit African-American players, including Jim Parker, who played both offensive and defensive tackle on Hayes' first national championship team in 1954. While Hayes was not the first to recruit African-Americans to Ohio State, he was the first to recruit and start African-Americans in large numbers there and to hire African-American assistant coaches.

Another Hayes' recruit, Archie Griffin, remains the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner in seven decades of selections. Altogether Hayes had 58 players earn All-America honors under his tutelage. Many notable football coaches, such as Lou Holtz, Bill Arnsparger, Bill Mallory, Dick Crum, Bo Schembechler, Ara Parseghian and Woody's successor, Earle Bruce, served as his assistants at various times.

Hot head?  Yes.  Great coach?  Of course.  You are missed Mr. Hayes.

A friend of mine is an artist and does sports drawings and here is his Hayes drawing being presented to then Coach Tressel.  If anyone is interested in getting a copy I'll see if I can hunt you down one, just email me ( delsass2000@yahoo.com ).