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Tressel voted into College Football Hall of Fame
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Tressel Inducted
Video
Youngstown State President, Jim Tressel was inducted into the College Football Hall Of Fame.
For Jim Tressel, there is one downside to being selected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
“In some ways, it makes you feel old,” said Tressel, the longtime Youngstown State and Ohio State coach who now serves as YSU’s president. “That shouldn’t be one of the feelings. You look at the Hall of Fame and think, ‘Oh, that was back in the day.’”
That doesn’t mean he’ll be returning to the sidelines, though.
“They might take me out of the Hall of Fame because I’ll still be active,” he said. “I can’t afford to do that. And I’m having too much fun doing what I’m doing.”
Tressel joined Kansas State’s Bill Snyder as the two coaches selected for this year’s 17-member Hall of Fame class, which will be inducted on Dec. 8 in New York City. Tressel got the news earlier this week and had to keep it a secret until Friday’s official announcement.
“I’m sure it hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “I think back to all the extraordinary people that have entered the Hall and the thought of being in with this class is humbling to say the least.”
Tressel credited his players and fellow coaches for his success and specifically thanked Akron football coach Jim Dennison for giving him his first coaching job (as a graduate assistant from 1975-78), former YSU athletic director Joe Malmisur for giving him his first head coaching job (in 1986) and former Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger for giving him his first Big Ten head coaching job (in 2001).
“That’s not why anyone gets into coaching, that maybe someday you’ll be in the Hall of Fame,” he said. “It happens to be a byproduct of a lot of good fortune, a lot of great help, a lot of great staff, a lot of great fans, bands, family and a lot of luck.”
Coaches become eligible for the Hall three years after retirement or immediately after retirement if they are 70 years old. Active coaches are eligible at 75. Candidates must have been a head coach for at least 10 years, won at least 100 games and finished with a .600 winning percentage.
Tressel went 229-79-2 as a head coach of the Penguins and the Buckeyes, advancing to nine national championship games and winning five. He was inducted into YSU’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013 and is also a member of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall and the Baldwin-Wallace Athletics Hall.
When asked if one is more special than another, he said, “I don’t spend any time ranking accomplishments. Sometimes you run into a student you’ve never heard of and think you might have made a difference in their life. That’s as exhilarating as something very public.”
Tressel’s selection was not without controversy. He resigned at Ohio State in wake of the “Tattoogate” controversy in 2011 and still has two years remaining on his punishment from the NCAA. Another of this year’s selections, Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth, was also a controversial choice since Bosworth was suspended for his last college game for failing a test for performance-enhancing drugs.
Tressel will enter the Hall as part of its Divisional Class, meant to honor players and coaches outside college football’s top level, now known as FCS but once called I-AA.
National Football Foundation chief executive operator Steve Hatchell said Tressel’s missteps were carefully considered by the panel that reviews nominees.
“It was not hidden,” Hatchell said. “Frankly, the people that are involved know all about the NCAA issues. So it was openly discussed. The feeling was what he had done coaching-wise at Youngstown State was strong enough.”
Tressel believes he is the only university president to be chosen for the College Football Hall of Fame — “That’s a trivia question where I probably have a good chance of being right,” he said — and grinned when he was (jokingly) asked if he expects Bosworth to join him on that list.
“I haven’t seen Boz lately, but based on what I remember, probably not,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.