On this date in Ohio State football history

On this date in 1978, late great Ohio State coach Woody Hayes threw a punch at a Clemson player during the Gator Bowl.
The incident happened after Clemson guard Charlie Bauman stepped out of bounds on the Buckeyes sideline after intercepting an Art Schlichter (remember him?) pass with a little more than 2 minutes to go in the game. Clemson went on to win, 17-15.
Hayes was fired the next day and never coached again.
I know we've got a few old timers who remember this game. Heck, maybe one or two who covered it.

 

If Woody had punched Art Schlichter instead, he would have coached for another 15 years.

 

Another 15 years would have been difficult, seeing as he died in 1987.

 

If you ask an Ohio State fan about Woody Hayes, he was the classiest guy in the world.

 

Schlichter would have taken a dive.

 

He would have lived longer if he had still been coaching.

 

I was a young newsroom pup but I remember the night it happened. Our slot guy said, "Hey look at this shit!"

 

I like the idea that Schilcter had a side bet going somewhere that he could Woody to punch somebody out.

 

I was 12 and I remember watching the game on ABC. Keith Jackson was the pbp guy.

Legend has it that when the team plane landed back in Columbus, Woody gave his usual "be careful driving home for the holidays" speech over the plane's PA system but he ended it with "and when you get back to Columbus I won't be the coach at Ohio State anymore."

 

Friend of mine was a prison guard at one of Schlichter's Indiana prison homes... let's just say the place had the best damn NCAA pool in the state.

 

Amazing how bad the announcing was for this game. They never said Woody threw a punch.

 

And, when Woody Hayes died, his wife asked that he be buried beneath the University of Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas, because she wanted him to rest as far from big-time college football as possible.