Greggdrinnan.com Website Review

Gregg Drinnans take on things mostly hockey-related, but not always. ..    A lot of people were surprised to hear that Woody Hayes suffered a heart attack last spring, because they didn’t think he had one.   When a stranger wanted to know if the incident had mellowed the old coach, the answer was, “Well, he called off practice for the   When a Woody Hayes squad was circled around him at the start of a game once, a youngster in the press box asked an old-timer what he thought Woody was telling them. “Not to take prisoners,” was the cynical response.   Woody Hayes’ Ohio State squad is not a team, it’s a horde. It is going through the Big Ten like Attila the Hun through the gates of Rome. When someone wanted to know which way the team got back from the Rose Bowl practice session each day, an observer said, “The usual   Lots of guys lock the press out when their team loses 42-17, as Woody Hayes did in the Rose Bowl once. But Woody locked the TEAM out.   Coach Hayes, whose idol is Gen. Patton, also slaps his troops in the heat of battle. He throws projectors at as*istants, stomps on his wristw*tch and once crumpled a pair of eyeglas*es in a bare hand. George C. Scott gets the role if they make a movie.   There are new books about him in the stalls this fall, ‘Woody Hayes and the 100-Yard War,’ by Jerry Brondfield, and ‘Buckeye, a Study of Coach Woody Hayes and the Ohio State Football Machine,’ by Robert Vare.   Brondfield’s is a little more on the advocacy side, but he points out that to understand Woody you have to understand Columbus, Ohio, a place where, if you buy a piano at a certain music store, they throw in a free shotgun.   Hayes’ success is no secret. He leaves no coal mine unturned in his search for players. He goes after great players like a playboy after chorus gi*ls. Millionaires like John Galbreath and Jack Nicklaus help the program. You couldn’t throw a handful of birdseed in any direction in Ohio without hitting a crack football player. The state even raises them for export. Millionaires are not supposed to lure