Ohio State Buckeyes put their past and present on the same field on Saturday. Before and during the season opener against Ball State, the Buckeyes honored their seniors and then lifted the name of former coach Jim Tressel onto the Ohio Stadium Ring of Honor.
Tressel, 73, coached Ohio State from 2001 to 2010 and won the 2002 national championship. He now stands with Woody Hayes and Paul Brown as the only Buckeye head coaches on the ring that runs the C-Deck of the Horseshoe.
Sweater vest, then the name
The ceremony came after the first quarter. Until then, a banner printed with Tressel’s famous sweater vest hid the “Jim Tressel” placard next to Hayes. When the cover came down, the crowd rose.
Tressel wore the same vest he once used on the Ohio State sideline.
“I thank God every day that he made me a Buckeye,” Tressel told the crowd after the first quarter.
He later added, “It just reminds you what great players you had and coaches, and great fans, and band, and media and everyone else. We’re just blessed.”
The honor had been 16 years in the making. Ohio State last added a name in 2014, when Tressel’s former quarterback and 2006 Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith was enshrined. Tressel is the first new addition since then.
The record that put Jim Tressel next to Hayes
Jim Tressel finished 106-23 at Ohio State. His teams won six Big Ten titles and went 9-1 against Michigan, though the NCAA later vacated his final win over the Wolverines in 2010. He reached three BCS title games and produced 67 NFL Draft picks, including 14 first-rounders. The College Football Hall of Fame inducted him in 2015.
He left the program after NCAA violations tied to the 2010 season. Time, and a second career as Ohio’s lieutenant governor, did not erase what those 10 seasons meant in Columbus.
Current coach Ryan Day met privately with Tressel before kickoff. Day has often pointed to how Tressel treated players as much as how he won games.
“Coach Tressel's success on the field was remarkable, but what stands out most to me is how he invested in people,” Day said. “He understood that coaching is much more than the game as it is about developing leaders, building character, and preparing young men for the challenges they'll face in life after football.”
Senior Day moved to Week 1
Ohio State also changed a long-standing ritual. Senior Day usually falls on the home finale against Michigan. This year the program moved it to Saturday and introduced the seniors before kickoff against the Cardinals.
Tressel’s name now sits where fans in the southeast corner of the Shoe can see it every home Saturday. For a coach who grew up in Ohio admiring Brown and Hayes, that is the point.
“Growing up in Ohio, Ohio Stadium was about as special a place as there could be for a Buckeye fan,” Tressel said when the honor was first announced. “To be recognized alongside these men is truly humbling.”