Ever look at someone and suddenly, unbidden, the thought "Old School" emerges from the depths? Not old school in the sense of Dr. J with a huge Afro or a helmet-less Bobby Orr, but rather a sense of pervading dignity and honor in the mold of Dean Smith or Joe Paterno. These heroic figures (for heroes they are) stand unwavering in the stream of professionalization in major college athletics, holding onto principle and honesty that is increasingly lacking from collegiate athletic departments (see Bob Huggins, Jerry Tarkanian, anyone associated with Alabama football).
Enter Jim Tressel, a quiet, dignified man who happens to be the head coach of the newly crowned college football national champion Ohio State Buckeyes. For those of you who hadn't watched him pace the sidelines all season in his patented red sweater vest you had no basis for comparison, but it is hard for his resolve, kindness and dignity not to be apparent to even the most casual viewer of the Fiesta Bowl. This is not a facade erected in the eye of a national audience by the second-year head coach. For proof, one needs look no further than his immediate past at Youngstown State where he spent 15 years as the head coach.
Tressel's football credentials are impeccable. He led the Penguins to four Division I-AA national championships, appeared in two other national championship games and left with a record of 135-57-2. And now in only his second season in Columbus he has guided OSU to a high not felt since 1970.
But this is not an article about the golden boy of a football-crazed state, for Jim Tressel is more than just an accomplished coach. He came to a program that was certainly no paragon of virtue. Just a few short years prior to his arrival Andy Katzenmoyer had proclaimed that Ohio State was providing him with job training. While this may be true in most major programs, neither he nor the program made any attempt to even pretend that he was completely literate.
Tressel brought with him the same academic expectations that he had upheld at Youngstown. In his last two years there he coached more than 67 players with better than a 3.0 GPA. The Big Ten is no stranger to honorable coaches stalking the sidelines in traditional garb. While this description has long belonged in Beaver Stadium, The Horseshoe has recently been welcomed into this tradition.
For those skeptics who have heard similar platitudes countless times before, Tressel himself provides the counterpoint. He graduated cum laude with a B.S. (he got his masters in 1977) in education from Baldwin Wallace, where he was also an all-conference quarterback. An eerie resemblance can be seen in his plucky signal-caller, Craig Krenzel, who is a molecular genetics major hoping to join his older brother in medical school. MEDICAL SCHOOL?? Can you imagine Katzenmoyer, the leader of the '98 version of the team, aspiring to higher education, much less to complete the "Dick and Jane" anthologies?
This attitude is a direct reflection of the changes that Tressel has wrought in his short tenure: "We want our fans to be proud of us in the classroom, in the community and on the football field." He is well on the road to this goal.
Tressel was confident enough in his ability to enact change that he even has a clause built into his contract of a bonus of more than $100,000 if his players achieve certain academic goals. Nor is he one to forget the road he traveled to glory. He recently pledged $125,000 to Youngstown State, more than 15 percent of his salary, toward construction of a new student center.
Sadly, there are far too few coaches of such principle (Miami coach Larry Coker chortled when hearing of the aforementioned clause) and the line between college and professional will continue to blur in the foreseeable future. While there is little he can do to stop this trend, you can be assured he will work his hardest to arrest its development in his program. Lucky is OSU to have Jim Tressel; luckier still are the STUDENT-athletes in his tutelage.
On taking OSU job he prophetically proclaimed, "Our goal will be to uphold and build upon the great tradition that is Ohio State, and to develop each of our student-athletes to their fullest potential both on and off the field. We will stress academics, athletics and community responsibility. The two greatest days in our student-athletes lives should be the day they walk across the stage to receive their diploma and the day they slip a championship ring on their finger." Thanks to Jim Tressel many of his charges will be lucky enough to achieve both.
