The only two-time Heisman Trophy winner in college football history nearly never got the opportunity to see the field again after his first series.
Next Friday, Archie Griffin will have a new statue of himself unveiled outside of Ohio Stadium on the day before Buckeye football opens its 2024 campaign in Columbus. That will serve as the second sculpture representing one of the most legendary running backs in college football history after the one unveiled earlier this month by the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation outside the iconic venue's Court of Champions.
But such a decorated career nearly never got started because Woody Hayes held the same appetite and patience for fumbles that Bill Belichick did as head coach of the New England Patriots.
A little under 52 years ago, Ohio State kicked off the 1972 football season against Iowa. The Buckeyes shut out the Hawkeyes 21-0 at home in a game that featured only one forward passing play all afternoon. On the final series with the result in no doubt, Woody opted to put the reserve offensive players in to give them some experience. An 18-year-old Archie Griffin took the field for the first time in an Ohio State uniform weeks before he would even attend his first class on campus.
Griffin did not receive any carries in what technically served as his Buckeye debut. However, according to the play-by-play from Ohio State's University Archives, backup quarterback Dave Purdy received credit for a fumble on a pitch attempt that otherwise would have served as Griffin's first rushing attempt as a Buckeye. The play lost five yards, but Purdy stayed in the game because Woody seemed to attribute the cause of the fumble to a mistake made by Griffin.
Woody further punished the blunder by demoting Griffin to fifth string ahead of Ohio State's next game against North Carolina. An account from Sports Radio 97.1 The Fan's football commentator Jack Park to NCAA.com notes that Griffin did not make the usual Friday night off-campus hotel trip normally performed by the first three units at each position, cementing his residency in Woody's turnover doghouse. Park also recalled that Griffin, "wondered if he would ever see the ball again in his career" in wake of the fumble, given the ire Woody held for such gaffes.
The Buckeyes had a rough beginning to their contest against the Tar Heels. A pair of three-and-outs on the first two possessions preceded a punt block returned for a touchdown that put UNC up 7-0 barely five minutes into the game.
As Ohio State prepared to retake the field after a disastrous start, assistant coach Rudy Hubbard got in the ear of Woody. Hubbard was one of the rare folks on the Buckeye staff that could reason with the notoriously hard-nosed head coach, partially due to routinely giving Hayes car rides home from practice featuring stops for pecan rolls and hours of one-way conversation. He had also recently convinced Woody to entrust him with play design for the halfbacks.
Hubbard also helped recruit Griffin to Ohio State after serving as a student-teacher beneath Griffin's former head coach Bob Stuart at Columbus' Eastmoor High School. Hubbard recognized the potential Griffin had if given an opportunity to succeed, and after the Buckeyes fell behind the Tar Heels early, he advocated for Woody to give Griffin a chance at redemption and jump the new line on the depth chart.
"The reason I got in that North Carolina game is because [Rudy Hubbard] spoke up for me. He had to skip over some other backs to put me in the game and in those situations, you better be right, because otherwise, you put your job on the line when you're dealing with Coach Hayes." — Archie Griffin to Cleveland.com
Griffin handled the first carry for Ohio State on the next series and never looked back. By halftime, he had already amassed 16 rushing attempts and over 100 yards on the ground. He finished the afternoon with over 250 total yards of offense and scored his first career touchdown on the Buckeyes' final visit to the endzone that day to seal a 29-14 comeback victory.
At the time, Griffin's effort served as the greatest rushing performance in 82 years of Ohio State football. His 239 yards on the ground eclipsed the previous high of 229 set by fullback Ollie Cline in the Buckeyes' 1945 game against the Pittsburgh Panthers that ended in a 14-0 win. Griffin went on to break his own record in a 246-yard performance against Iowa the following season. Only seven Buckeye running backs have since passed him — most recently TreVeyon Henderson (277 yards) against Tulsa in 2021, and most notably Trey Sermon (331 yards) versus Northwestern in the 2020 Big Ten Championship.
On Monday, to begin the celebration of 50 years since his first Heisman campaign, Ohio State published an account from Griffin recalling the events from the end of the Iowa game through his record-setting day against North Carolina. The video includes footage from the 1972 season opener of Griffin's fumble on the final series that previously did not exist online.
Archie Griffin
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) August 26, 2024
Celebrating years of his 1st Heisman pic.twitter.com/LId6Yn0Cmz
The breakout performance from Griffin against UNC foreshadowed what would become one of the most decorated individual careers for any running back in college football history. Over a half century later, Griffin will soon have a pair of stadium statues honoring his legacy to match his tandem of Heisman Trophies.
