Ohio State's 1955 Rose Bowl MVP: "Tressel seems like a calmed-down Woody"

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on December 17, 2009 at 2:08 AM, updated December 17, 2009 at 2:15 AM

Dave Leggett, the former Ohio State quarterback and MVP of the 1955 Rose Bowl, started his career in Woody Hayes' first recruiting class and ended his career on Hayes' first Rose Bowl and national championship team. Speaking by phone last week from his home in Colorado, Leggett nearly broke down several times while talking about his old coach. Hayes is gone, but Leggett's respect for his coach lives on.

Leggett was featured in today's Buckeyes Rose Bowl Rewind, talking about that 1954 national championship which was completed in the Rose Bowl. But Leggett, 76, had more to say than fit in the Rewind. Here's more of his lookback on his career and that season.

"I had been recruited by Southeastern Conference schools. Vanderbilt was one I could have attended, and also Army and Navy. I had no intention of going to Ohio State until Woody took over as coach. His wife was born and lived about five blocks from my house. And so Woody came to New Philadelphia and recruited me because he knew people in New Philadelphia.

"We had quite a few [future] professional people - there were people in dental school and medical school and law school. It was just a bunch of guys that Woody molded to play together. He was a guy who produced by making you play your best. He would do anything to see you graduate. If you had a lab, you went to the lab instead of practice. He put education ahead of football. Woody would say you go to your classes, you go to your labs and you come to practice when you can. I get choked up talking about him because he was such a good guy.

"After the Rose Bowl, he had speaking engagements all over Ohio, for high schools and colleges and banquets. I went with him to several of them. The first one I went, we got in the car, and I said, 'Turn on the radio.' And he said, 'I don't have a radio.' And I said, 'You don't have a radio?' He said, 'Nope. I got a basic car. The money I saved might help another kid get through college.'

"Woody said, and we tended to believe him, and I think the sportswriters tended to agree, that winning the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl saved his job. We turned things around in '54.

"I would guess everybody on the team wanted to win for Woody. I know that he helped a lot of the people get through school. Tressel seems to be such a neat guy, I would hope the players would play for him and win the game for him. Tressel seems like a calmed-down Woody."