Many people associate legends Archie Griffin, Eddie George and Woody Hayes with the history encompassing Ohio State football. However, one lesser recognized Buckeye icon helped lay the groundwork for the world-renowned football program that the Scarlet and Gray represents today.
Photo Courtesy of Todd Wessell
Ohio State legend Chic Harley, left, stands with former OSU coach Woody Hayes following a 1957 game against Iowa."In 1916, Harley's sophomore year and first with the varsity squad, he led OSU to its first Big Ten Championship with an undefeated season. Harley ran the ball, passed the ball, caught the ball, intercepted the ball and even kicked the ball for the Buckeyes. His well-rounded play spoke volumes to his versatility, which was common for elite athletes of that era, said OSU commentator Jack Park.
"That was more the nature of the game back at that time," he said. "You played both ways and did everything. Usually your best athlete was your best runner or your best passer, and he was also your best punter. The game has become so specialized today that you've got specialists come in and handle all of that now."
The undefeated season placed OSU on the map in terms of rising athletic departments. Harley was honored as OSU's first consensus first-team All-American. His outstanding play on the field brought national exposure to the football program, Park said.
"As far as the people that have really been the driving forces behind Ohio State football, Harley's the guy that got it started," he said. "He brought national attention to Ohio State football."
For the first time, there was a buzz surrounding Buckeye athletics. The local kid from East High School in Columbus generated excitement that attracted more and more fans. By the end of the 1916 season, capacity crowds routinely filed into undersized Ohio Field to watch Harley and the Buckeyes.
"He created, with his play on the field and his personality, this euphoria about football," said Harley's great-nephew, Todd Wessell. "In 1916, they were drawing about 4,000 people per game. By the end of the year, they had no more room at old Ohio Field."
The surge in attendance triggered the idea for a new football stadium. The plans for Ohio Stadium, which would be constructed in 1922, demonstrated yet another way that Harley's Buckeyes revolutionized the OSU football program, Park said.
"[Before Harley played], they probably had more people attending some of the big high school games than they did attending Ohio State games," he said. "By the time Chic Harley was done at Ohio State, old Ohio Field wasn't big enough. Athletic director L.W. St. John saw this as a way to capitalize on that momentum, and eventually build a much bigger stadium."
Though the new stadium was built after Harley's college career ended, larger crowds continued to show up each Saturday. Harley led OSU to another undefeated season in 1917, at 8-0-1. After spending the next year fighting in World War I, he returned to OSU to lead the Buckeyes to a 6-1 record in 1919.
Despite its current elite status among the nation's football programs, OSU has rarely enjoyed the success it did during Harley's reign. However, he and his teammates are often overlooked among the Buckeye greats, Wessell said.
"Today's teams don't rank with what they did in those years," he said. "Yet, you don't hear about it now. The excitement and the euphoria that Chic was mainly responsible for got everyone so whipped up."
Harley used his celebrity-like status around Columbus to help raise money for the new stadium. He was a quiet, soft-spoken man, but his presence alone attracted people to contribute to the university's development, Wessel said.
"When people were asked to donate, they would gladly reach into their pockets," he said. "People would come out in large numbers, just because it was Chic Harley. He generated the euphoria so that people would enroll and give money to the university so they could hire better professors and have better athletic facilities. That was very important in developing Ohio State as it is today."
During Harley's time, professional football players weren't as highly regarded as today's multimillionaire, superstar athletes. George Halas had to beg Harley to join the Decatur Staleys, which later became the Chicago Bears.
Toward the end of the 1921 season, Harley began to suffer from a mental illness. The ailment derailed his career, and led to his admittance to the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Danville, Ill., where he would spend the majority of the rest of his life.
At certain times, he was healthy enough to visit with his family in Chicago, including nephew Richard Wessell, Todd's father. Despite his impairment, Harley never lost his personal charm, Todd said.
"There was something about him that attracted people to him that remained implanted in them for as long as they would live," he said. "It was his personality. That's what makes the story of Chic Harley such a great story. It's not just the football player; Ohio State has tons of great football players. There's only one Chic Harley. I want people to know the story of him, as a human being, and never to forget it."
After Harley passed away in 1974, it became nephew Richard's ambition to write a book detailing the story of his uncle, the former OSU icon. That way, as generations elapsed, he could help keep Harley's name entrenched in the endless history of OSU football, Todd said.
"My father was afraid that people at Ohio State would forget," he said. "People have forgotten. A lot of people don't know him. Most people don't know anything about him other than that he was a good football player. But he was so much more than that."
Richard Wessell died in 2003, so his son took on the task of documenting Harley's tale. This year, Todd finished writing the book, which will be released in June. He said he shared his father's drive to spread the word about Harley, to prevent his impact on OSU from being lost over time.
"If it was just a book about a great athlete, I probably would not write it," he said. "But this is a book about a great person who possessed the kind of qualities that most of us dream about but don't really meet as human beings. Those who know of Chic Harley still love him to this day."
Not only did Harley's production on the field aid the development of OSU's football program, but his charismatic personality left a major impact on those around him, Wessell said.
"Sure, he was a fabulous athlete, a four-sport letterman, three-time All-American, Ohio State's first consensus All-American," he said. "But the thing that was implanted in people's minds and psyche is the kind of person he was."
Along with spreading the details of Harley's story, Wessell hopes the book stimulates discussion about a tribute to the Buckeye legend.
"Hopefully, it creates a buzz, and creates an interest that will last a long time," he said. "Hopefully the people at Ohio State, students as well as faculty and the administration, will recognize what is being done here and provide a fitting tribute to him."
Although OSU began retiring jersey numbers in 1999, Harley's number 47 wasn't retired until 2004. Even when given the opportunity, OSU administrators have failed to recognize Harley among the all-time greats in the program's history, Park said.
"I'm not sure Ohio State has really done enough to recognize Harley," he said. "They've finally retired his number, but they could have done more to publicize and recognize the tremendous value that Chic Harley brought to Ohio State football. He's the guy that helped put Ohio State on the national map, probably more than any other player."
Wessell wants more than just a prized uniform top to represent what Harley accomplished for OSU football. He deserves to be acknowledged among the university's most esteemed alumni, he said.
"What I want, and what I think Chic deserves, is a fitting tribute," he said. "There are many ways of giving a fitting tribute. One way is a statue. There are other ways too. They have all kinds of buildings and plazas named after people. That's what I want to explore with university officials."
Wessell claimed that, without Harley, OSU would have faced a much longer, more challenging road to athletic prominence.
"Something honorable and tasteful and fitting should be done for him," he said. "People need to remember, without Chic, so much of what we know at Ohio State would not have happened. Or it may have happened, but would've taken a much longer time to occur."
Harley's legacy is defined by his versatility on the field, leading OSU to new heights that weren't even dreamed of at the time. Similar to Griffin, Hayes and George, Harley's impact on the football program sparked interest in the university as a whole.
But Wessell worries that what Harley did for his school has been forgotten as time has elapsed. Unfair as it is to Harley, Wessell knows that it's tough to expect people to appreciate those who laid the school's foundation nearly a century earlier.
"Nowadays, it's asking a lot for people to go back in time and see where they came from," he said. "I don't expect everybody to do that. But hopefully enough people will take the interest and see where Ohio State had its beginnings, at least as far back as 1916. To get where they are today, there had to be a beginning, and they owe something to that beginning. It's just recognition, that's really all I can ask of people. If they do that, I'll be happy with it. I'll have completed my task of honoring my father's wish and honoring my great uncle's legacy."
Zack Meisel can be reached at meisel.14@osu.edu.
Be the first to comment on this article!