|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
September 26, 2004The story behind the stories in Hayes' filmProfile of Ohio St. coaching legend airs today on PBSByRecord-Eagle staff writer PETOSKEY - A few years ago, David Crouse walked inside Ohio Stadium on a beautiful June day and started thinking about all the football games he saw Woody Hayes coach there. As he looked around, the filmmaker wondered if an in-depth profile on Hayes - spanning his 28 years on the Buckeye sidelines - existed. "The short of it," the Lima, Ohio native said, "no." Thus begun Crouse's quest to document the life of the legendary coach - "warts and all." Tonight at 5 p.m. the 55-minute film "Beyond the Gridiron: The Life and Times of Woody Hayes" will be aired on CMU public television. It will be repeated at 10 p.m. Tuesday. Crouse, who lives near Petoskey, teamed with Chip Duncan to produce the biography on the domineering Hayes, one of the game's most successful and controversial coaches. Alision Rostankowski wrote the script. The project took two years to complete. But in order to get it off the ground, Crouse had to convince Duncan the story line had appeal outside Columbus. "He (Duncan) was, I don't want to say skeptical, but he was less enamored with Woody than I was," said Crouse, the executive producer of the film. "I had to convince Chip, that in order to move the project forward, that Hayes was more than a football coach. He transcended his era in his ability to integrate black players, his out front support of the Vietnam war, his close relationship with Richard Nixon." Once Duncan became convinced the film could target a national audience, funds had to be raised to finance the project and research conducted to develop the story. "There were probably 2,000 football players out there, 1,000 coaches and scores of friends," Crouse said. "We had to determine who we were going to interview and that required massive amounts of research. It took months to do." They also had to create a "treatment" for the piece. The No. 1 criteria: "Objectivity, warts and all," Crouse said. That included the infamous punch in the 1978 Gator Bowl that ended Hayes' coaching career. Hayes hit a Clemson player after he intercepted a Buckeye pass, sealing Ohio State's fate in the loss. By the time the Ohio State plane landed in Columbus, Hayes was the ex-coach. To many, that moment tarnished his legacy that included 13 Big Ten Conference titles and five national championships. "When you think of Woody Hayes you think of the punch," Crouse said. "We had an internal debate about how we were going to handle it. We decided to make it part of the story, not the story." Making sure the film stayed objective took work and perseverance. "We had to deal with politics at Ohio State," Crouse said. "There was also an entrenched protectiveness of Woody from players and friends, who in many respects were unwilling to talk in front of the camera because they had been burned so many times before. Many of the stories (about Hayes) to date have been fairly one-dimensional - not one-sided, one-dimensional. "That he was a bombastic, tyrannical, out-of-control football coach. If that was the case, he would have lasted two years at Ohio State. How do you last 28? There had to be another side to the man, to the persona, and there was. "That's what we were after." To gain trust, Crouse and his colleagues developed relationships with many of those who were interviewed. "We established a rapport with virtually everyone that appeared on this show," Crouse said. "Once the camera began (rolling), their guardedness melted away. In fact in two instances, we were absolutely unprepared for the raw emotions still attached to this man." One of those emotional interviews was with Bo Schembechler, the former Michigan coach who played and coached under Hayes. "I asked Bo part way through his interview, 'Coach, in listening to you describe Woody it's almost as if you were describing your father,' " Crouse said. "He said, 'I am. I am.' Then he stopped and his chin started to quiver and his eyes started to mist. He had to take 30 seconds. He couldn't go on." Crouse credits current Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel with breaking down barriers at Ohio State. He said reception to the project was "lukewarm ... and that's putting a positive spin on it," prior to Tressel's arrival. After one troubling meeting, Crouse remembers stopping at a Columbus coffee shop. "I walked in and here on the wall is a picture of the Pope and right next to it a picture of Woody Hayes," he said. "I think that sums up the feelings for this man in Ohio." When Tressel took over as coach, he didn't distance himself from the Hayes legacy, he embraced it. "After Jim Tressel became head coach every door opened," Crouse said. It's a past that Tressel wants his current players to be aware of, too. "Tressel has a painted picture of Woody in his office," Crouse said. "Every player has to walk by his office to get to the locker room. He said, 'I want everyone when they walk by here to be reminded of whose shoulders we're standing on.' " Tressel and Schembechler are two of the coaches who help tell the story. Former players Daryl Sanders, Rex Kern and Archie Griffin reflect on their former coach. Jack Nicklaus and Mary Hoyt, Hayes' niece, share insights as well. "Mary Hoyt was a find," Crouse said. "She had never been interviewed before. She had a close relationship with Woody. Her father was Woody's brother - and her father died at a very young age. Woody helped raise her." Kern, a former quarterback, is the "common thread" throughout the film, Crouse said. "He, in many respects, epitomizes the player who bought into Woody's program in how he lives his life," Crouse said. Crouse said it was difficult whittling the film to 55 minutes - although the entire transcripts can be found on www.duncanentertainment.com. It was also difficult locating footage from the Hayes era. Much of it, Crouse learned, no longer exists. "Mind-boggling," he said. They were, however, able to "unearth" the eulogy Nixon gave at Hayes' funeral. "It's an emotional end to the story," Crouse said. Crouse called Hayes "fiercely independent." "He came from very humble beginnings to achieve incredible success," he said. "He rose to the pinnacle coming from a tiny farming community in Ohio. He was so proud that he was able to do that." But there was a perception, Crouse said, that Hayes lacked smarts, particularly when it came to his offensive schemes on the football field. "They say he had 10 plays," Crouse said. "Ohio State players knew it. Opposing teams knew it. And he ran them, and ran them. He practiced them so hard, so long, that they ran them to perfection. That was Hayes." At times, though, he also ran his staff ragged. "Since he was not perceived as being smart, he always felt he had to work that much harder," Crouse said. "His work ethic was legendary. That created tremendous pressure on the coaching staff because they couldn't keep up. They had families. That caused conflict throughout his 28 years." Hayes preached discipline. He controlled every aspect of his players' lives, Crouse said. Not all liked him. But Crouse said he was "unprepared" for the impact the coach had on his players' lives after football. "It was extraordinary," he said. Schembechler, although a bitter rival once a year, was one of his closest friends. The two took the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry to a new level. Four times in their first six meetings, both teams were ranked in the top five with Big Ten and possible national titles on the line. Through it all, they remained close until Hayes' death. "Late in Woody's life, Bo was being honored in Dayton, Ohio," Crouse said. "He called Woody to tell him. 'I'm coming down to Ohio,' Schembechler said. 'They're honoring me down there, Woody.' " "Of course, Bo was born and raised in Ohio," Crouse said. "But Bo told Woody that whatever you do, do not come to this event. Woody's health had deteriorated that much. "So this banquet begins and there are hundreds of people there. Suddenly, the doors open and here in a wheelchair, being pushed in, is Woody Hayes. It electrified the room because many had not seen Woody in a long time because of his health. Bo was overwhelmed that he had done this. I don't think he spoke. He was just there to lend his support to the student he had mentored. When they met afterwards to say their good-byes, Bo told Woody he would come down to Columbus to see him and they would have lunch together. "But two days later Woody died. It was the last time anyone saw Woody Hayes." The film documents the rise and fall of Hayes - and includes' Hayes' journey to regain his credibility after the Clemson incident. "He was the school's No. 1 ambassador," Crouse said. "The university did a wonderful thing. It did not shun him. It embraced him. He gave the commencement address shortly before he died. He called it the happiest moment of his life - and he was asked by the same man who had fired him."
|
|
