After spending years of my life as an American in both areas, I have gradually observed several ties between Central Ohio and South Florida. Jeremiah Smith probably comes to mind at the moment as the most high-profile link between the two baskets of football talent, but there are many more examples of overlap that extend well beyond even Ohio State athletics. One of the best examples of that remains the life of Col. Donn F. Eisele — a proud son of Columbus and one of three astronauts that launched on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968 a day before the Buckeyes hosted No. 1 overall Purdue.
The legacy of the Apollo 7 mission has layers of complicated emotions and events surrounding its materialization, the tensions between its on-board crew versus the ground control, and public perception of NASA at the time. Even so, the mission still proved to be an effective success and often receives memory for Eisele emceeing alongside his crewmates Walter M. Schirra and R. Walter Cunningham in the first television broadcast ever from space. Their orbital check-in proved so popular after the first transmission aired on October 14th that NASA made them a daily reoccurrence for the remainder of the mission to the great annoyance of Eisele and the crew.
In October 1968, Apollo 7 became the first crewed Apollo mission, taking off from the Kennedy Space Center, one of this years Americas Field Trip destinations!
— America250 (@America250) October 30, 2025
Students can enter for a chance to visit this historic site.
Submit your entry now at https://t.co/UI9LGj5p6b pic.twitter.com/0Me93W3SWE
Two days prior to the initial transmission, the team that would eventually earn legendary distinction within college football as the "Super Sophs" prepared to play in their third football game of the season. Ohio State had risen from outside the preseason top 10 to No. 4 overall after two games, but would now need to take down the top team in the country if Woody Hayes and the bunch were to realize their destiny as eventual national champions.
This game almost certainly lives fondly in the memories of several readers in the Eleven Warriors audience. You can find comments sprinkled across Buckeye sports forums online of fans insisting they attended the showdown between top-five teams that day and witnessed the incubation of Jack Tatum becoming an institution within the magnificent lore of football's hardest hitters.
Bearing that in mind, I will defer to former 11W contributor Joe Beale in recalling the on-field details of this 13-0 victory as he did for the site all the way back in 2009 on the game's 41st anniversary.
"To start the game, OSU took over after receiving the kickoff and immediately started running a no-huddle offense. Hayes had felt that the Purdue linemen were slow and out of shape, so he wanted the offense to move at a quick pace to keep them moving. They would call three plays in the initial huddle and then run them consecutively without huddling. On the first drive, the Buckeyes moved relentlessly down the field as Brockington repeatedly gashed the Purdue defense with his hard running style. But the drive stalled at the Purdue 4-yard line, and then OSU missed the field goal. Other drives in the first half would end in similar fashion, but the defense was giving Purdue all they could handle. Tatum focused on stopping Keyes and wherever the star halfback tried to go, 'The Assassin' was waiting for him.
The entire first half was a defensive struggle that ended in a 0-0 tie. OSU had controlled the tempo and had numerous opportunities, but they were unable to punch it in or even convert a field goal. But the Buckeyes were much more opportunistic in the second half. Purdue started with the ball, but on their 4th play from scrimmage Phipps would make a critical error. The previous play, Tatum had jumped an out pattern and nearly intercepted the ball. On the next play, Tatum and fellow DB Ted Provost switched assignments, and Phipps read it as a change in coverage. He attempted the same out pattern as before, but this time Provost jumped the route and made the interception. He returned it 35 yards for the touchdown and Ohio State was suddenly holding a 6-0 lead (after a missed PAT).
Later that same quarter, Phipps would compound his error with another interception as the future Cleveland Browns QB would be picked by Stillwagon. Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, Rex Kern would be injured on a QB keeper to the right sideline, thus forcing Hayes to go with little-used senior backup Bill Long. Ohio State had the ball at the Purdue 14-yard line, and Hayes had always been averse to passing. But he crossed up the defense by calling a pass play. Seeing all of his options covered, Long tucked the ball and ran through the confused defense and into the end zone. After the successful PAT kick, OSU held a 13-0 lead. The defense continued to thwart the Boilermakers on offense, and Ohio State held on for an improbable 13-0 victory." — Joe Beale, Eleven Warriors
Immediately following the victory, The Lantern reached out to then-Ohio State professor of military science Col. Arthur von Rohr about relaying the score of the game to Eisele, figuring he would appreciate the information as a native of Columbus that had just left Earth the previous day. Von Rohr laughed off the request at first before ultimately realizing it was offered up in earnest. He then had to do some of his own convincing towards the duty officer stationed at the Lockbourne, OH Air Force Base — now known as Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, today — before the request could reach the tracking station in Colorado Springs, CO.
From the Front Page of The Ohio State Lantern — October 14th, 1968 Edition
In an amusing twist, The Lantern recalls Cunningham was by far the most enthusiastic and grateful of the crewmembers to receive an update on the college football landscape despite the intended recipient being Eisele. Upon hearing of OSU's shutout win, he reportedly remarked, "eat 'em up, Buckeyes!" Cunningham then booed the result of the UCLA vs. Penn State game that saw his alma mater PSU lose by two scores.
Eisele returned to his home world 10 days later and continued to represent Columbus brilliantly across the globe, but particularly in South Florida just a few hours drive away from where he fashioned an enduring legacy for himself at Cape Canaveral. In 1972, he became the director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Thailand shortly after retiring from NASA and the Air Force. Wilton Manors, FL commissioned one of area's many beautiful and well-maintained residential parks in Eisele's name and honor after a year of service in 1981 on the city's commission.
In 2007, two decades after his death, Eisele's wife — Susan Eisele Black, acting on his behalf — donated a moon rock sample to the Broward County Library in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Nearly another 20 years later, the contribution remains the only one of its kind in the United States that has allowed a library to display a lunar rock, a distinction often only bestowed upon public buildings such as schools or museums.
Eisele passed away after suffering a heart attack while visiting Tokyo, Japan in 1987 on a Space Camp-related business trip. He was cremated abroad before having his ashes returned to the United States, where he remains interred with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery alongside over 400,000 additional American heroes.
