Where Are They Now? 1981 coaching staff edition
Admittedly, I’m struggling for content as my vacation winds down. The bowl games themselves don’t merit anything other than a passing comment in the delicious.com feed and I don’t get the Big Ten Network, prohibiting me from making serious observations about the men’s basketball team. To compensate, I decided I’d go with this.
For those unaware, my old man was a Buckeye himself, and moved out to Southern California (where I’m from) in 1979 after getting his degree. This happened to be just in time for a few trips out west by the Buckeye football team. Consequently, he’s collected a few game programs from his travels, including the 1981 Ohio State-Stanford game pitting all-everything QBs and future Baltimore Colts draft picks Art Schlichter and John Elway against each other. Ohio State won the game 24-19, but not before the prospects of a possible John Elway-led game-winning drive gave my dad nightmares for years to come 1. The game program he saved gave me pause, because if my understanding of Earle Bruce’s coaching staff is correct, there should be a few names to discuss on the coaching staff. Sure enough, there is. If you wanted to, you can read the article this image is attached to here.
Standing, Left to Right
- Earle Bruce (head coach). Alumnus of The Ohio State University and successor to Woody Hayes at the position. If you have any knowledge of Ohio State football and this blog, you should A) already know that and B) already know that I mention his name because I’m still trying to get his attention.
- Dennis Fryzel (defensive coordinator). Stanford’s game program misspelled his name, FYI. Fryzel was hired at Ohio State when Bruce took over in 1979. He had previously replaced Bruce as head coach at the University of Tampa in 1973, the last coach for the football program at the University of Tampa. When Tampa dropped football, Fryzel rejoined Bruce at Ohio State. The relationship betwen Bruce and Fryzel soured after the 1981 season. Ohio State finished the 1981 season with a December 30th Liberty Bowl victory over Navy. Fryzel was fired the next day and I’m not sure he ever returned to coaching again.
- Bill Myles (tackles and tight ends). Myles comes from a time when college coaching positions weren’t as specialized as they are now. He and Glen Mason were the only holdovers from Woody Hayes’ 1978 staff. Myles himself came to Ohio State from Nebraska after the 1977 season and was initially given the task of coaching offensive lines and coordinating all recruiting. When Bruce came in, his roles remained the same. Eventually, Myles retired to the front office at Ohio State, becoming an associate athletic director. Chief among his accomplishments in this role is the implementation of Title IX in the athletic program at Ohio State. He currently has an eponymous athletic scholarship endowed in his honor at The Ohio State University.
- Fred Zechman (quarterbacks and receivers). Zechman came to Ohio State along with Earle Bruce, and I think he — like Pete Carroll — came to Ohio State from Iowa State, where Bruce was previously head coach. Zechman remained the quarterbacks and receivers coach until the 1983 season, when he took the head coaching job at New Mexico State. His record was far from impressive, going 8-25 in just 3 seasons. His departure from Ohio State left open a vacancy at the QB-Receivers position. It was filled by a young assistant from Syracuse. His name: Jim Tressel.
- Glen Mason (offensive coordinator). Mason has his own Wikipedia entry, so I invite you to read that in lieu of me having to expand on his time at Ohio State much further. He got his first head coaching gig in 1986 at Kent State, eventually making stops at Kansas, Georgia (almost) and Minnesota. He is now an analyst for the Big Ten Network.
- Robert McNea (administrative associate). I’ve only been able to gather that he’s a hall-of-famer in the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association. Any additional information here would be appreciated.
Kneeling, Left to Right
- Bob Tucker (outside linebackers). Tucker rejoined Bruce at Ohio State, having been his defensive ends coach at Iowa State. He left Bruce’s staff after the 1984 season to take the head coaching job at Wooster. After the 1997 season, he left Wooster to serve as an assistant (defensive coordinator and special teams) under Jim Tressel at Youngstown State. He followed Tressel to Ohio State in 2001 and currently serves as the Director of Football Operations.
- Nick Saban (secondary). You might have heard of him. Nick Saban came to Ohio State in the 1980 season, and, though I don’t know for sure, I’m almost positive he was the replacement Pete Carroll at the secondary position. Carroll left Ohio State after one season. Saban came to Ohio State from WVU, but served only two years under Bruce. He, like Fryzel, was fired the day after the Liberty Bowl win over Navy. Unlike Fryzel, Saban wasn’t done coaching. He served a year at Navy the year after his departure from Ohio State. He left for Michigan State where, for all intents and purposes, he really established himself. He eventually became a head coach at Michigan State, and is responsible for one of the all-time dick moves in Ohio State football history (revenge, I guess). If I ever run into him in my travels in Tuscaloosa, I’m getting a damn apology for that dick move. He’s now head coach of the Crimson Tide.
- Steve Szabo (tackles and middle guards). Szabo has been a college coach for what seems like forever. He, like Zechman and Fryzel, left Iowa State for Ohio State when Bruce, former Cyclones head coach, replaced Woody Hayes. Szabo’s tenure at Ohio State didn’t end particularly well. He, like Fryzel and Saban, was sacked the day after the Liberty Bowl win over Navy. Informally, this round of sackings was referred to as “the New Year’s Eve Massacre” in Columbus, though I think we should be careful not to overuse this idiom. Szabo bounced around, and… wait for it… last served as the linebackers coach at… wait for it… Michigan. Rodriguez did not keep him and I think he’s currently not coaching.
- Wayne Stanley (running backs). My knowledge of Stanley is somewhat incomplete. I believe he’s an Iowa State alumnus, and a former quarterback for the Cyclones. He followed Bruce from Iowa State to Ohio State in 1979, indicating that he must have started out as a graduate assistant in Ames. In fact, since he graduated from Iowa State in 1976, Ohio State might have even been his first real coaching job. If the last name sounds familiar, it should: he is the father of former Buckeye wideout Dimitrious Stanley.
If you’ve read this blog any period of time, you should know we are fervent fans of the Buckstache. Indeed, I myself am trying hard to collect any and all Buckstaches and chronicle them in a Buckstache Hall of Excellence of some kind. Earlier this year, we found a young Urban Meyer sporting a Buckstache on the sidelines of the the 1987 Cotton Bowl. I was more than thrilled at the prospect of opening up this Stanford game program and finding a Buckstache on Nick Saban. Saban, in all his selfishness, opted not to sport a Buckstache in 1981. However, that won’t stop me. As with Urban Meyer, if you were an assistant coach at Ohio State and had a Buckstache, I will find it and expose it…
…even if I have to Photoshop it.
- I guess Elway got his revenge against the Great State of Ohio 6 years later… f*ck! [↩]
Written by: Vico |
Fred Zechman arrived at Ohio State from Miami Trace High School. He was Art Schlichter’s high school coach.
Coach Steve Szabo is currently coaching linebackers at Eastern Michigan University.
Bob McNea was the head of recruiting for Earle Bruce. Bruce was Bob McNea’s assistant at Mansfield High School.
Mr McNea passed away on March 6, 2010 – http://reviewonline.com/page/content.detail/id/524715.html?nav=5010
Here is a summary of that story…
Former East Liverpool football coach Robert N. McNea, once an Ohio State assistant football coach and a 1988 inductee to the Ohio High School Football Coach’s Hall of Fame, died at 10:10 a.m. Saturday, March 6, 2010, at Lakewood Hospital after falling at his home three days earlier. He was 87.
McNea was a native of Cleveland, where he was graduated from East High School. He served as a naval officer in World War II and then obtained his college degree from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. It was here that he studied under Sid Gillman, a Hall of Fame football coach who was light years ahead of his peers. Gillman put both a scientific and academic emphasis on the game, and it didn’t take a young Bob McNea long to pick up on this approach, which would one day develop into a style that became known in coaching circles as the West Coast Offense.
He began his coaching career as an assistant for five years at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He then served two seasons as the head football coach at Leetonia, where his 1954 team was undefeated.
It was then on to Mansfield in central Ohio where McNea had outstanding success, also serving as director of the Ohio High School All-Star game before an old Miami classmate, Ara Parseghian, hired him as backfield coach at Northwestern University. It was here (1958-62) that the Wildcats defeated Notre Dame four consecutive times, but salary differences caused McNea to move on to Kent State as an assistant in anticipation of being named head coach to replace 18-year veteran Trevor Rees. The call never came; instead he was hired to come to East Liverpool.
From 1964-68, McNea completely revolutionized the program at East Liverpool High School, winning 37 games while losing only 10, the best percentage in school history. As athletic director, he developed a sound financial foundation and was deeply involved in the passing of the levy that led to the construction of the new high school during his time in the community. To this day, his revolutionary and cerebral approach to the game has been carried on by a great number of followers, some of which never met him.
From East Liverpool, McNea made coaching stops at Massillon Jackson High School (1970-72) and South Range High School (1973-78) when Ohio State coach, Earle Bruce, a former assistant to McNea at Mansfield Senior High School, called on his old boss naming him recruiting coordinator for the Buckeyes from 1979 until his retirement in 1987.
During his time at The Ohio State University, McNea was instrumental in the design of the Woody Hayes Indoor Sports Complex and a major influence in the coaching career of Women’s Basketball Coach Terra Vandervehr who went on to coach the 1996 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team.
McNea was named to the Ohio High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 1988 and to the East Liverpool High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004. His final coaching record was 120-49-6.
Through the East Liverpool High School Alumni Association, he and a former assistant coach, the late Frank Moss, established a scholarship fund currently valued at $50,000 for deserving seniors at ELHS. Some 20 students have been assisted with their college expenses through the gift. The same amount has been placed in an endowment at Washington (Pa.) High School where Mr. Moss was graduated.
Funeral services and burial will take place in Clevealnd.