Woody Hayes - Gator Bowl 1978
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Dec. 29, 1978, Gator Bowl, Jacksonville, Fla.: Hayes' Ohio State team is trailing Clemson 17-15 but threatening from the enemy's 24 in the final minute until Tigers linebacker Charlie Bauman intercepts a pass by freshman quarterback Art Schlichter. End of threat, but not of excitement.
Bauman's teammates cluster around him after he was knocked out of bounds on the Ohio State sideline — rubbing helmets, exchanging hand slaps and doing all the other congratulatory things football players do. Then so suddenly that ABC's cameras didn't pick it up clearly, a white-haired man wearing a jacket and baseball cap charges into the midst of the melee and throws a right-hand sucker punch that lands on Bauman's collarbone.
The assailant is Woody Hayes, and the moment he delivers the punch, his 28-year career as an icon in Columbus and throughout Ohio is over at age 65. By the time the team returns home the next day, Hayes has been fired after winning 205 games, two national championships and making eight trips to the Rose Bowl. At the Columbus airport, police escort him from the plane to a car waiting on the tarmac, and he is driven off — to his house and into uncharacteristic obscurity.
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Woody Hayes was LOVED by everyone in the state of Ohio. I grew up in Columbus and he was on the same level as god to some people.
I was at that game with the marching band and I thought we were going to be killed. The crowd was like a home game for Clemson and they were wild fans.
Woody went from the top of the world in College Football to obscurity.