Ohio State

For helmet lovers 1960 began a series of extremely interesting and unique Ohio State helmets with slight variations that made paying close attention to them worthwhile and enjoyable. In 1960 Hayes adopted the externally padded MacGregor “square bubble-ear” helmet. This unique appearing helmet consisted of a clear shell that was internally painted light gray at the factory. A wide padded panel in scarlet red was added, the external foam covered by naughahyde. The padded panel which gave the appearance of a wide, red stripe was slightly tapered at the front and rear and extended to approximately four-inches from the bottom rear of the helmet. To finish this beautiful and distinct helmet, Hayes again used the black two-inch “NCAA-style” player numerals on each side and a white plastic Adams mask, with most players choosing the two-bar model. The new substitution rules would play well in Columbus and with Tom Matte at QB and All American Bob Ferguson at FB Hayes had the offense he liked. Ferguson shared the Big Ten scoring title with Iowa's Wilburn Hollis, and ran the ball 160 times. Matte rushed 161 times while the halfbacks ran a paltry total of sixty! Matte moved on to a Colts career as their first-round draft choice, that spanned 1961 through '72 and in that time played QB when they needed him and was almost always an effective halfback. HB and co-captain Jim Herbstreit finished his career primarily on defense and his son Kirk would in the future, be a fine OSU QB and college football analyst. The excellent backs ran behind T Jim Tyrer who was effective with the Chiefs Super Bowl teams and played pro football for fifteen years and a young but solid twosome in Daryl Sanders and Bob Vogel. Vogel was a High School All American end but adapted well inside. With only a loss to Purdue going into the last two games, the Buckeyes were in line for the conference title but prior to the Iowa game, thirty players suffered with dysentery and the Hawkeye Wing-T burned them by 35-12. The 7-2 mark left State at number-eight nationally.

THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON OF 1961

When the Buckeyes went 9-1 in their co-National Championship 1957 season, their only loss was to TCU in the opener. Shades of '57 in 1961 as Ohio State faced pesky TCU in the opening game and the Fort Worth Horned Frogs produced a 7-7 tie. This was the only negative mark on an otherwise perfect 8-0-1 season that saw them finish number-two in the UPI and AP polls to their National Champion Alabama. However, the highly respected and influential Football Writers Association Of America Poll voted the undefeated Buckeyes as the deserving National Champions. The strength of the team again was with the tackles, Daryl Sanders and Massillon's Bob Vogel, and the entire backfield. Sophs Matt Snell and track star Paul Warfield joined All American FB Ferguson with Bill Mrukowski at QB to form an unbeatable combination that ran up 2447 rushing yards, Ferguson responsible for 938 of those. Joe Sparma, another Massillon product, would come in for passing situations and he of course later starred as a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. Gary Moeller was a hard-nosed LB. The Big Ten champs were ready for the Rose Bowl but on November 28, the Ohio State Faculty Council voted to reject the bowl bid feeling that football was overwhelming academic matters. With Minnesota traveling to Pasadena as the Big Ten Bowl representative, Hayes was but mildly calmed by this turn of events when the pride of Troy, Ohio Ferguson won the Maxwell Award and took second to Ernie Davis in the Heisman voting. Ferguson's pro career was cut short before it truly began as the Steelers first-round choice suffered a severe concussion as a rookie, spent part of the next season with the Vikings, but could no longer participate. He later gained entry to the College Football Hall Of Fame and made Woody proud by earning his MA degree in sociology from Ohio State.