Thirty-six inches: One yard, and mail from an Ashland legend, impacted Tressel’s OSU career

ASHLAND — Basketball icon Bob Haas was four years into his Hall of Fame coaching career at Willard when a young man, fresh out of Baldwin-Wallace College, interviewed for the football post at the high school.

His name was Jim Tressel.

Puff out your chest, preferably while wearing one of his signature sweater vests, if you already knew that.

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“I applied for a million jobs and the only one where I got an interview was Willard High School,” Tressel said. “And I remember preparing, and all the stuff I brought (with me), and I sat in front of (the selection committee) and I thought, for sure, I was going to Willard.

“Then they gave the job to a guy named Don Graham. I don’t know what they saw in Don that I didn’t have.”

Tressel, who led the Ohio State football team to seven Big Ten titles and a national championship in 2002, joined former Ashland University football coach Lee Owens on the AU campus recently to speak at a luncheon program called “Lessons in Leadership, From the Gridiron to the Board Room.”

Tressel’s tongue was firmly planted in his cheek when he teasingly brought up Don Graham’s name. Graham, who was seated not far from the stage, has been president of the AU Gridiron Club since its inception in 2006. He was a fine coach in his own right, leading Willard to the school’s first outright Northern Ohio League championship in 33 years in 1979.

Graham played at Ashland for Fred Martinelli, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. What better time for Tressel to evoke Martinelli’s name than while speaking at a banquet in the shadows of Martinelli Field?

Tressel brought up a letter he received from Martinelli as Michigan Week arrived in his first season at Ohio State in 2001.

“It got to the point where they brought in the box of ‘suggestions’ and I’d push it in the corner,” Tressel joked. “We’re getting ready to play Michigan, we’re 6-4 and going up there, and they’re supposed to kill us, and people are questioning why I’m even there. I happened to notice a stack of mail and I noticed a letter from Fred Martinelli. I knew that would be (positive). I needed a letter like that. Fred was the greatest.

“It started with him telling me to hang in there, and then in the last paragraph he said, ‘And just so you know, when you play Michigan, it’s going to come down to fourth and 1. It might be that you need a yard. It might be that you need to stop them from getting a yard. But the outcome of the game – and the trajectory of your career (laughter from the audience) – will be a fourth and  1 in Ann Arbor.”

Tressel read the last part of that letter to the Buckeyes, and just as prophesied, they found themselves facing fourth and 1 from the Michigan 46, leading 7-0 in the second quarter.

Normally, Tressel would never think of going for it there. Everyone knows his mantra was “The punt is the most important play in football.” He should have had it embroidered on his vests.

“All of a sudden, as I’m getting ready to call for the punt team, I hear this voice from one of the players,” Tressel said. “‘Hey, that coach from Ashland said it was going to come down to fourth and 1. Go for it.’

“I said, ‘We’re going for it!’ And then I had a heart attack.”

Tressel waited for the laughter to die down before continuing.

“Now, I’m thinking, oh my gosh, if we get stopped, the place is going to go crazy, the crowd is going to take over, (the Wolverines) may turn the whole momentum of the game,” Tressel said. “We ran the play, score a (46)-yard touchdown (on a run by tailback Jonathan Wells), and we’re up 14-0.”

The convocation center exploded in applause.

The Buckeyes built the lead to 23-0 at halftime and hung on for a 26-20 victory, giving Buckeye Nation the win Tressel had so famously promised when he took over as coach 310 days earlier.

“The point is, not only did I use what coach Martinelli said and internalize his advice, obviously, my guys listened,” Tressel said. “Here’s an expert – not one of those experts who loves to tell you what happened after it’s over – here’s an expert telling you what’s going to happen. It’s amazing the bond that created with our team.”

Even though Martinelli had a legendary coaching career and will never be forgotten in north central Ohio, it was Owens, a 1974 Madison High School grad, who led AU to its first three playoff wins, six playoff appearances, four conference championships and 137 victories in 18 seasons. In 2022, his last year at the helm, his Eagles won the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and finished 11-2 with a playoff victory.

He just wishes the way he and Tressel were introduced together at the luncheon could have gone differently.

“Did you listen to his resume? They had to go and read ours at the same time. That’s just not fair.” Owens, laughingly, said to the crowd, referring to the five national championships Tressel won between Youngstown State (four) and Ohio State. “I said to my wife, I don’t think I’m worthy to be on stage with coach Tressel. She said, ‘You’re not.’”

After the banquet, whose guests included young scholars from area high schools, Tressel and Owens spoke to coach Doug Geiser’s AU football team at the indoor facility.

“If you look at coach Tressel’s track record, a lot of what’s overlooked is the impact he’s had on the game overall, in the country, not just Ohio,” Owens said. “This guy was involved in promoting high school football, every opportunity he got. As a (former) high school coach, I can attest to that. He was very involved in divisional football, whether it be at Baldwin-Wallace or Ashland or Akron or Youngstown State.

“Very few people advanced the game like he did. We had coach Tressel actually write the paper we put together, trying to promote the building of (AU’s $23 million athletic complex). He does those kinds of things over and over.”

Tressel retired in 2023 after nine years as president at YSU. University president probably wasn’t a box he thought he’d check off back when he was in high school.

“My guidance counselor when I was going into my senior year sat me down and said, hey, you have to start thinking about your future,” Tressel said. “I said, ‘I am, we have a game next week.’ That to me was the future. He said, no, have you thought about what you want to do for life?”

The counselor noticed Tressel’s math scores were high and wondered if he had considered a career in engineering.

Tressel’s reply: “You know, I don’t like trains that much.”

He ultimately decided to follow his dad, Lee, a College Football Hall of Fame coach, and brothers into education. He played quarterback for his dad at Baldwin-Wallace before setting out for his first teaching and coaching job.

Alas, a marriage between Tressel and the Willard Crimson Flashes wasn’t to be. He ultimately ended up wearing a different shade of red.

“As fate would have it, Akron had an opening (for a graduate assistant coach) a month later and I never got to (realize) my dream of coaching in high school,” Tressel said. “I ended up coaching forever in college. I just finished 48 years in higher education, and it was a blessing.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: One yard, and mail from an Ashland legend, impacted Tressel’s OSU career