Tressel joins his father Lee in College Football Hall of Fame

Former YSU, OSU head coach joins father Lee in Hall of Fame

Staff and wire reports

NEW YORK

Jim Tressel’s thoughts were with his late father, Lee, and others who had roles in his 25-year head coaching career as he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

The current Youngstown State President and former coach at YSU and Ohio State was part of a class of 15 former players and two coaches — the other was Kansas State’s Bill Snyder — enshrined during the National Football Foundation’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria.

Tressel coached the Penguins from 1986-2000 and led them to Division I-AA national championships in 1991, ’93, ’94 and ’97. YSU also played in title games in ’92 and ’99. He was 135-57-2 at YSU.

Tressel spent 10 seasons in Columbus. His 2002 Ohio State team won a BCS national championship and the Buckeyes also played in two other BCS title games. He was 94-22 officially at OSU before his career with the Buckeyes ended in 2011 after he failed to report NCAA violations by several players to college football’s governing body .

Lee — the head coach at Baldwin-Wallace from 1958-80 — and Jim are the only father-son combination in the College Football Hall of Fame.

“Being here as the only father and son who have ever been inducted, it’s mind-boggling,” Tressel said during a Tuesday morning news conference.

Jim Tressel played quarterback for his father at BW from 1971-74.

“There’s so many emotions that are rolling through all of our minds right now,” Tressel said. “I watched Bill Snyder do, I think, the finest coaching job in my coaching lifetime I’ve ever seen. And here I have a chance to be inducted with him. But as Bill said, when you’re inducted as a coach, it’s a lot different than when you’re inducted as a player. You’re inducted as a coach because of what everyone else did and created those extraordinary teams and accomplishments.

“And you think about those players and coaches and families and those equipment managers and those academic advisors and those fans and everyone else and to be sitting here brought by others is quite humbling and to sit here where my dad is enshrined is very special.”

Snyder has won 193 games in 24 seasons with Kansas State.

“It’s strange coming to me under any circumstances,” Snyder said of the honor while still active. The NFF allows coaches who are 75 and older to be inducted while they are still coaching. In 2006, the late Joe Paterno was inducted while at Penn State and Bobby Bowden went in while coaching at Florida State.

Former Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth was the biggest name among the players enshrined. Bosworth was an All-America linebacker and two-time Butkus Award winner for the Sooners from 1984-86. He helped the Sooners win a national title in ’85.

The players heading into the hall with Bosworth were Trev Alberts from Nebraska, Bob Breunig from Arizona State, Sean Brewer from Millsaps College, Ruben Brown from Pittsburgh, Wes Chandler from Florida, Thom Gatewood from Notre Dame, Dick Jauron from Yale, Clinton Jones from Michigan State, Lincoln Kennedy from Washington, Michael Payton from Marshall, Art Still from Kentucky, Zach Thomas from Texas Tech, Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams from Texas and the late Rob Lytle from Michigan.