Archie Griffin – 50th Anniversary Heisman Trophy Profile
Before Archie Griffin made history, he made history. Many, many times. Records fell quicker in Columbus than the yellow Mulberry leaves in autumn when Griffin blew through in Scarlet and Gray.
That’s just the way it went with The Arch, a Columbus native and favorite son celebrating this year the 50th anniversary of his 1974 Heisman Trophy.
Griffin is, of course, the only man who won two Heismans. A year from now, he’ll become the only Heisman winner to twice celebrate the 50th anniversary of winning the bronze statue.
But we’re going to focus on Heisman 1.0. Heisman 2.0 was just as exciting, but it’s hard to beat the original, right?
Griffin was born on Aug. 21, 1954 at what is now The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, a mere one-mile walk from Ohio Stadium, where he was re-born as a Buckeye legend a couple decades later.
One of eight children with six brothers and a sister, Griffin was raised by his parents James Sr. and Margaret Griffin, who moved the family to Ohio from West Virginia not long before Archie was born.
His father, a standout athlete and boxer as a young man, juggled three jobs — sunrise to midnight — to support the 10-person household. His mother ran a small market attached to their first Columbus home while working equally hard at home juggling their eight children.
The family had moved to Linden, a short commute from campus, when Griffin started at Eastmoor High and helped the Warriors to a pair of Columbus City League championships.
As a prep senior, Griffin rushed for 1,787 yards and scored 29 touchdowns in 11 games, including 267 yards on 31 carries in the title game against Linden-McKinley High.
Archie Griffin was not an athletic outlier in the household. In fact, all seven Griffin boys earned football scholarships while his sister, Krystal, earned a track scholarship. All eight earned college degrees, too.
Griffin was initially leaning toward attending Northwestern but chose Ohio State so his parents could more easily see him play. They had already been driving to Louisville, Muskingum and Akron to watch his older brothers play and if Griffin played at Columbus, well that eased the burden a bit. A dinner with Woody Hayes during the recruiting process helped sealed the deal as well.
1972 marked the first year freshmen were allowed to play and Griffin burst onto the scene with a then-Ohio State single game rushing record with 239 yards against North Carolina in his second career game. That was a big chunk of his 867 yards gained as a freshman, helping the Buckeyes to the first of four straight Big Ten titles and Rose Bowl appearances.
In 1973, Griffin became the first Buckeye sophomore to rush for over 1,000 yards, gaining 1,577 yards while earning All-American first team honors. Ohio State, ranked first most of the season, pounded USC in the Rose Bowl and finished 10-0-1. But a 10-10 tie to Michigan in the earlier Big Ten finale cost them a national title.
Griffin finished fifth in the 1973 Heisman voting while linebacker teammate Randy Gradishar was sixth. Of the top 10 finishers, only Griffin and third-place Texas junior Roosevelt Leaks returned in 1974. But Leaks was injured during spring ball and limited as a senior, leaving Griffin a strong Heisman favorite.
He did not shrink from the pressure.
Ohio State opened 1974 on the road, the first time it didn’t start a season at home since 1912. It didn’t slow the No. 4 Buckeyes, who defeated Minnesota, 34-19, on Sept. 14 in what would be the Buckeyes’ closest game for two months.
Griffin kicked off the Heisman campaign with 133 yards and a score on the game’s first possession, breaking Jim Otis’ school record (2,542) for career yards in the win. It was his 12th straight 100-yard effort, a streak that would reach an NCAA record 31 the following season.
Ohio State hosted Oregon State a week later in its home opener and trounced the Beavers, 51-10. Griffin gained 134 yards on just 16 carries and scored once as 10 Buckeyes ran the ball for 386 yards. One was Archie’s younger brother Ray, who made his freshman debut with 37 yards and two fourth-quarter scores.
SMU visited Columbus on Sept. 28 and Ohio State, now ranked No. 1, downed the Mustangs, 28-9, with Griffin running for 156 yards on 24 carries, scoring twice.
OSU made a rare trip west for an Oct. 5 date against Washington State, defeating the Cougars, 42-7, in a game played in Seattle. Griffin posted a season-high 196 yards on 21 carries, scoring once.
That set up the Buckeyes’ first big test of the season as they returned to Columbus for an Oct. 12 home date against No. 13 Wisconsin in front of a record crowd of 87,717. But after a Badgers score to open the game, it was all Ohio State, which won 52-7.
The only drama in the game was whether Griffin would maintain his 100-yard streak, which he clinched in the fourth quarter, finishing with 112 yards on 18 carries.
Indiana visited the following week and Ohio State remained a rude host, dismantling the Lee Corso-coached Hoosiers 49-9. Griffin rolled again, rushing for 146 yards on 22 carries and scoring twice, breaking Purdue running back Otis Armstrong’s Big Ten career rushing mark in the process, moving to 3,321 career yards.
Griffin and the Buckeyes closed October with a 55-7 road win at Northwestern where the junior rushed for 173 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown.
Ohio State moved to 8-0 with a 49-7 home win over Illinois on Nov. 2. The uneventful blowout was noteworthy for two reasons. Hayes earned his 200th career coaching win and Griffin became the first player to rush for at least 100 yards in 18 straight games with 144 yards and two scores.
The following week, the Buckeyes traveled to East Lansing to take on a 4-3-1 Spartan team that was four-touchdown underdogs.
In a controversial game dubbed the Bizarre Bowl by Sports Illustrated, Michigan State upset Ohio State, 16-13, that Nov. 9. Griffin had 140 yards on 23 carries but failed to score for the first time of the season.
The Spartans scored two touchdowns in the game’s final six minutes to take a late lead.The Buckeyes tried to rally and marched to within a half yard of the end zone in the game’s final seconds as the clock ran. A controversial and frantic final play in which Ohio State appeared to score off a bobbled snap that may or may not have been snapped late was ultimately disallowed after a 46-minute delay — adjudicated by the Big Ten Commissioner who was in attendance.
The Buckeyes dropped to No. 4 but took out their frustrations a week later with a 35-10 road win at Iowa to move to 9-1. Griffin powered to 175 yards on 23 carries with a score.
All attention soon turned to the regular-season finale against Ohio State’s big rival — That Team Up North — set for Nov. 23 with No. 3 Michigan visiting Columbus with the Big Ten title on the line.
Without scoring a touchdown, the No. 4 Buckeyes downed the Wolverines, 12-10. Griffin ran for a game-high 111 yards though it was Buckeye kicker Tom Klaban who accounted for all of OSU’s points thanks to four field goals.
Griffin’s Heisman credentials were unrivaled. He finished the regular season with 1,620 yards and 12 scores on 236 attempts, averaging 6.86 per carry while leading Ohio State to its third straight Rose Bowl.
Davis became the Heisman’s 40th winner and Ohio State’s fourth recipient in a runaway, finishing with 1,920 points (including 483 first-place votes), more than twice that of USC’s second-place Anthony Davis (819). Oklahoma running back Joe Washington was third (661).
Griffin was the fifth junior to win the award and the first since Navy quarterback Roger Staubach 11 years earlier. He also won the first of two Walter Camp Awards and the second of two Big Ten MVP honors.
The ensuing Rose Bowl was a matchup of the Heisman winner and runner-up as Griffin’s Buckeyes met Davis’ Trojans in Pasadena.
In a back-and-forth game for the ages, USC defeated Ohio State 18-17 on a late fourth-quarter Pat Haden TD pass and two-point conversion. Neither Heisman Top 2 finisher cracked 100 rushing yards or scored, Griffin finishing with 75 yards to Davis’ 67.
A year later, Griffin became the first and still only person to win consecutive Heisman Trophies after another brilliant season, but more on that next year.
Excluding bowl games, Griffin finished his NCAA career with 5,177 yards on 845 carries with 26 touchdowns. He remains Ohio State’s career rushing leader and still owns two spots in the Buckeyes’ top 10 charts for most yards in a season and most yards in a game.
Griffin, who graduated with a degree in industrial relations, became a first-round pick of Cincinnati in 1976, kicking off a seven-year career with the Bengals, which included reaching the 1981 Super Bowl.
He joined the staff at Ohio State following his pro career and worked in the Athletic Department for two decades. He was also president of the Ohio State University alumni association for 11 years.
Griffin was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986 and into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1990. He saw his No. 45 officially retired by Ohio State in 1999 on the quarter-century anniversary of his first Heisman.
Griffin, still active in the Ohio State community, was honored this year with a statue unveiling outside Ohio Stadium on Aug. 30. A day later at the Buckeyes’ season-opener, he became the first Ohio State player to ever “Dot the i” in the Buckeyes’ band pregame performance.
Perhaps no one but Woody Hayes himself summed up better Griffin’s contributions to Ohio State, once saying: “He’s a better young man than he is a football player, and he’s the best football player I’ve ever seen. He’s also the most popular player we’ve ever had, by far.”
Congratulations to Archie Griffin, the Heisman Trophy 50th Anniversary winner. See you again next year!