Fire to Win The Life And Times of Woody Hayes

Chapter One Newcomerstown Woody Hayes was entirely a small-town man. None of the national championships, the bowl games, fame, glory, and power that came from lording over college football would ever shake Hayes's firm believe that all that was right in the world came from rural America, where love of country, hard work, and loyalty made America great. It was this philosophy that would send Hayes to speak at nearly every Elks club, Masonic lodge, and Moose hall that asked, giving him the chance to lecture his audience on the virtues of small-town life. In return Hayes would be honored with a key to the city, a chicken dinner, and a modest speaking fee. The fee invariably would never see the inside of his pocket. Instead, he often would donate the money back to the club, or sign the check over to the local high school football team that was invariably in need of new equipment. Even when the speaking fees increased well into five figures, he would quietly sign the money over to a hospital or a charity. Sometimes he simply tucked the check into his jacket, where it would be forgotten until the garment was sent to the dry cleaners. "I speak at a lot of banquets in small towns, because small towns have so many great people," Hayes said during those boilerplate speeches. "All the presidents came from small towns. The largest town that a president came from was in that state up north," he said, referring to former president Gerald Ford, who hailed from Grand Rapids, Michigan. The standing joke would always bring a chuckle. So deep was his disdain for rival Michigan, that even during these friendly talks Hayes, who counted Ford as a friend, would refuse to mention the state of Michigan by name. Hayes's own tenets were forged in rural Ohio, first in Clifton, a tiny mill town along the banks of the Miami River some seventy-five miles southwest of Columbus. It was there that he was born on Valentine's Day in 1913, the third and youngest child of Wayne Benton and Effie Jane Hupp Hayes. Woody was eight years younger than his sister Mary and two years younger than his brother Ike. Unlike his more independent older brother, young Woody was doted upon by both his sister and mother and stayed close to the women in the house. "As the youngest, I don't think there was any doubt I was spoiled," Hayes said. In 1915 Wayne Hayes moved his family to nearby Selma, where he took a job as school superintendent, another step in his career as an educator. Wayne was the visionary of the family, an intense man who, with his eleven brothers and sisters, was expected to work the family homestead in Noble County, Ohio. The family had deep Ohio roots. Woody's great grandfather David Hayes was a blacksmith and joined the Union army during the Civil War. He was killed during the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, leaving Wayne's father Isaac an orphan at eight years old. Wayne was bright, ambitious, and resourceful, and the family farm wasn't enough to hold him. Most nights after chores and dinner, Wayne's mother would sit him down and school her son in reading and arithmetic, building the foundation for his future for a life off the farm. Wayne saw teaching as a way to better himself. During the early 1900s Ohio was still primarily a rural state, with small, unincorporated towns and hamlets dotting the countryside. High schools in these areas were either distant or absent altogether, so kids who completed the eighth grade could take the Boxwell Examination, that, if successfully completed, could serve as a substitute to a high school diploma. Wayne passed the test, posting a score high enough to qualify him to teach the eighth grade---beginning his long, slow march toward becoming a college graduate and a school superintendent. TLombardo, John is the author of 'Fire to Win The Life And Times of Woody Hayes', published 2005 under ISBN 9780312325183 and ISBN 0312325185.