Hot off the press: Buckeye football legend Coach Woody Hayes dies, March 13, 1987

Editor's note

Each Sunday, The Dispatch features a front page from this week in history to celebrate the newspaper's 150 years of publication, with a little update on what's happened since.

When "the Gipper" marks your passing, you know you've arrived. And left.

Then-President Ronald Reagan led off The Dispatch's extensive coverage of the death of former Ohio State University football coach Woody Hayes in March 1987.

Reagan played football star George Gipp in the 1940 film classic, "Knute Rockne, All-American." In one of the movie's most famous scenes, a dying Gipp — nicknamed the Gipper — urges his college teammates to win a critical football game in his honor.

"Win one for the Gipper," Reagan ays in the film.

In real life, Reagan called Hayes, 74 at his death, "a legend in college football."

"Colorful and sometimes controversial, he cared deeply about his players, his team and his school," Reagan said.

Hayes, who compiled a 205-61-10 record in 28 seasons at Ohio State after stints at Denison and Miami (Ohio) universities, was fired by Ohio State after punching a Clemson University player in the 1978 Gator Bowl.

On campus, the Woody Hayes Athletic Center opened at Ohio State in 1987 as one of the most-modern college training facilities in the nation. And the "Block O" ball cap Hayes popularized remains a favorite among Buckeye fans around the world.