Woody Hayes was many things to many people — tyrant to the press, fiery critic to referees, overbearing taskmaster to many who worked with and for him. But to Ohio State football fans, he was the greatest coach in school history.

Hayes’ colorful career followed an intriguing interstate highway to his 1983 induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

It began in Clifton, Ohio, where Hayes was born on Valentine’s Day, 1913. While Woody was still an infant, the Hayes family moved to Newcomerstown, in the eastern part of the state. Wayne Hayes became superintendent of schools in this small town of 3,500, and his youngest son spent his formative years here.

Woody was the youngest of three highly successful children. Mary, the oldest, was a Broadway actress who became a radio personality. Older brother Ike was an All-American lineman at Iowa State and went on to become a veterinarian.

Hayes was the hard-nosed captain of the Newcomerstown football team. He graduated in 1931 and went off to Denison University in Granville. Hayes continued his athletic career as a tackle on the football team and an outfielder for the baseball squad. He graduated in 1935 after majoring in English and history.

The next fall he started his coaching and teaching career at Mingo Junction High School, on the southeastern border just across from West Virginia. After a two-year stint, Hayes was hired as an assistant at New Philadelphia for head coach John Brickles.

While in town, Brickles introduced Hayes to his future wife, Anne Gross. It took four years to convince Gross to marry him, but it would be a 51-year union that produced a son, Steve, who would become a judge in Columbus. Meanwhile, Gross would carve out her own niche in central Ohio, where she became a popular speaker.

Hayes’ apprenticeship at New Philadelphia lasted just one year. In 1938 Brickles took a job in Huntington, W.Va., and Woody was hired as the Quakers new head football coach. He would stay for three successful seasons, but sensing the impending U.S. involvement in World War II, Hayes enlisted in the Navy. He was eventually promoted to lieutenant commander and commanded two destroyers in the Pacific.

Upon his discharge in the spring of 1946, Hayes landed a job as head football coach at his alma mater, Denison. His first year was an utter disaster. The school won just one game as Hayes’ stringent discipline was resisted by a number of the team’s returning war veterans.

Yet Woody learned from the campaign, and his next two seasons yielded 8-0 football teams and another job.

Hayes’ 19-6 record at Denison was a springboard to Miami of Ohio, where he replaced Sid Gillman. A number of Gillman’s players followed him to the University of Cincinnati, crippling a promising Redskins’ squad in 1949.

Yet one who stayed was future Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, an individual who would become a very important factor in Hayes’ career. Schembechler and his teammates carved out a 5-4 season. The following campaign started with an upset loss to Xavier, but Miami quickly rebounded to win nine straight including a 34-21 Salad Bowl upset of Arizona State.

That was the resume Hayes carried when the Ohio State job opened in late 1950. Three-year coach Wes Fesler, an OSU All-American player, resigned shortly after the 1950 Snow Bowl loss to Michigan. The search for his replacement took an incredible 70 days and included a long and varied list of candidates.

Among those interviewed for the job were Hayes, Gillman, Missouri coach Don Faurot, former OSU coach and future Cleveland Browns founder Paul Brown, Drake coach Warren Gaer, Ohio State freshman coach Harry Strobel, Massillon High School coach Chuck Mather and Springfield High School coach Jim McDonald.

According to Ohio State football historian Jack Park, Faurot was offered the job, tentatively accepted it, but later turned it down. Finally, the 38-year-old Hayes was hired on Feb. 18,1951.

Again, his first season was a trying one. Despite returning Heisman Trophy winner Vic Janowicz, the Buckeyes had trouble adjusting to Woody’s personality and his Split-T formation. Janowicz dominated from the Single Wing the previous year, but he and the team struggled to a 4-3-2 record.

The Bucks made seemingly little progress in 1952 and 1953, recording back-to-back 6-3 records and finishing no higher than third in the conference.

In 1954, OSU was picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten by preseason prognosticators. But Hayes’ mammoth recruiting efforts were about to pay huge dividends. The Buckeyes shocked second-ranked Wisconsin 31-14 and used a key goal-line stand to thwart 12th-ranked Michigan 21-7. Those victories catapulted Ohio State to the conference title and a Rose Bowl bid. The Buckeyes thumped USC 20-7 in Pasadena to win the first of five national championships under Hayes.

In 1955, star halfback Howard “Hopalong” Cassady captured the Heisman Trophy and the Buckeyes again won the Big Ten with Jim Parker (1956 Outland Trophy winner) anchoring the line.

Just before the 1956 season, the Buckeyes were hit with one-year probation when Hayes admitted to a reporter that he had loaned small amounts of money to players “in emergency situations.” The scandal eventually led to football scholarships at Ohio State and the Buckeyes have not been placed on probation since.

OSU began the 1957 season with an 18-14 upset loss to TCU. But the Bucks recovered quickly. A bruising ground attack led OSU to another Big Ten title and a 10-7 win over Oregon in the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes claimed the UPI national championship with a 9-1 mark and Hayes was selected national coach of the year, one of two times he won that honor at Ohio State.

The Buckeyes were loaded yet again in 1961, featuring a backfield of sophomores Paul Warfield and Matt Snell and two-time All-American fullback Bob Ferguson. After a season-opening 7-7 tie with TCU, Ohio State ripped off eight straight wins, including a 50-20 pounding of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

However, OSU was denied a Rose Bowl trip when the school’s faculty council voted 28-25 to reject the bid. The council said that football had started to overshadow academics at Ohio State and the Rose Bowl itself had become too commercialized.

Hypocritically, Ohio State accepted its Rose Bowl share from the conference after Minnesota accepted the bid and played the game. This Buckeye squad won the Football Writer’s Association of American national championship, but it remains the most underrated team in school history.

Hayes felt the vote of the faculty council did incredible damage to the program. For years other schools would use this decision as a recruiting tool against Ohio State and the Buckeyes went into a seven-year drought without a conference championship. In fact, Hayes felt his job was in jeopardy late in the 1967 season. But OSU rebounded to win its final three games.

With recruiting in Ohio suffering, Hayes turned his attention outside Ohio and in 1968 those efforts would be rewarded.

Jack Tatum arrived from New Jersey, tight end Jan White was from Pennsylvania, and defensive back Tim Anderson was from West Virginia. All would become All-Americans. They were also part of a class that included a dozen sophomore starters in 1968.

It was a team that upset No. 1-ranked Purdue 13-0 and destroyed No. 4 Michigan 50-14 in the regular-season finale. At the Rose Bowl, Ohio State watched O.J. Simpson go 80 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter as USC built a 10-0 lead. But the Bucks battled back to a 10-10 tie at the half. Sophomore quarterback Rex Kern won the game’s MVP honors and helped OSU dominate the second half in a 27-16 victory over the second-ranked Trojans. This is still considered one of the greatest victories in program history. Ohio State was the consensus national champions.

The Buckeyes should have won a second straight national crown, but Hayes absorbed his most costly and shocking defeat in 1969 when his greatest team lost to two-touchdown underdog Michigan at Ann Arbor. The No. 1-ranked Buckeyes coughed up eight turnovers and fell 24-12. OSU shared the conference title, but its 22-game winning streak had been snapped, including 17 straight in the conference.

That merely set the stage for an emotional 1970 campaign. Again the Buckeyes went undefeated going into the Michigan contest. This time the fourth-ranked Wolverines were undefeated, but Ohio State won the most emotional game ever played in Ohio Stadium, 20-9. The Rose Bowl trip resulted in a shocking 27-17 upset loss to Stanford, but the Bucks were still crowned national champions by the National Football Foundation.

From 1972 to 1977, Ohio State enjoyed an era of success that has not been equaled since.

The Buckeyes won at least a share of six straight Big 10 titles and produced two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin. The Bucks finished in the top 10 all but once in that stretch and were 11th in 1977.

Some say Hayes would have retired had the Buckeyes won the 1975 Rose Bowl. It could have been one of his best teams. Led by Griffin and Big Ten MVP quarterback Cornelius Greene, OSU took the No. 1 ranking and an 11-0 record to Pasadena to meet UCLA, a 41-20 victim earlier in the season. However, the 11th-ranked Bruins under coach Dick Vermeil rallied from a 3-0 halftime deficit to record a shocking 23-10 upset.

The next two Buckeye teams captured conference titles, but Hayes could not bag another national championship.

In 1978, the coach moved returning starter Rod Gerald to receiver to make room for true freshman QB Art Schlichter. Ohio State went into the Michigan game with a chance to win the Big Ten title again, but dropped a 14-3 decision. At the Gator Bowl, Schlichter’s final pass was intercepted by Clemson’s Charlie Bauman to clinch the Tigers 17-15 win. As Bauman was run out of bounds, Hayes grabbed the Clemson player and slugged him. The scene was captured on national television and Hayes was fired the next day.

His career ended with a 238-72-10 record, including a 205-61-10 slate at Ohio State. His teams won 13 Big Ten championships and five national championships. OSU was unbeaten four times in this stretch and five other OSU squads lost just one game. The Bucks finished in the top 10 13 times in the final wire service polls and set a conference record with 17 straight league wins in two separate stretches.

Ohio State players won three Heisman Trophies, three Outland Trophies and Two Lombardi Trophies during Hayes’ watch. In 28 years he coached 56 first-team All-Americans.

Hayes recovered from the firing and became a popular speaker, giving the commencement address at Ohio State in 1986. He died on March 12, 1987 as the most beloved coach in Buckeye history.

He is still considered one of the most legendary figures in all of college football.