Sid Gillman, Paul Brown, and Woody Hayes are three of the most influential football coaches in the history of the game. All three got their football coaching start in Ohio. All three lived together in the summer of 1936. Paul Brown had established himself as a very successful coach at Massillon High School. Sid Gillman had just started his coaching career at Dennison University. Woody Hayes hadn't settled on coaching just yet. He had enrolled in the graduate school of education at Ohio St. He had plans to become a principal or school superintendent. That summer might have gone a long way in steering him toward football. As they worked and studied, all three were housed temporarily in the Sigma Chi fraternity house on the Ohio St. campus. All would impact each other and the game of football.
Gillman and Brown had come to Ohio St. that summer to learn from innovative Buckeyes coach Francis Schmidt. They learned from Schmidt while Hayes took his education classes. In the evening, the three would come together at the fraternity and talk football. Sometimes they would argue. Sometimes they would "steal" each other's ideas. For Hayes it was the equivalent of a football laboratory. Much of his coaching philosophy can be traced back to those evenings at Ohio St. If nothing else, Hayes dropped the education path and picked up the football path.
Many consider Sid Gillman the "father of the passing game." His innovations changed offensive football. He was the first to make significant use of game film. Paul Brown revolutionized the position of head coach. His organization, testing, and use of assistant coaches changed the game. He certainly changed the structure of coaching in the NFL. Hayes, while not the innovator of Gillman and Brown, was one of the greatest college football coaches.
Ara Parseghian had some decent success as a football coach. He also has perhaps the best perspective on the three housemates. He played for Gillman at Miami University, played for Brown at Great Lakes Naval Training Center during World War II and with the Cleveland Browns, and coached with Hayes at Miami (OH). He saw the three like this:
"Paul Brown was a constant organizer with a terrific ability to place the personnel, motivate the personnel, and innovate. Sid was so passionate about the game, and he was still an innovative guy. And Woody was a people person. He was a great recruiter and he could talk football stuff with anybody. I wouldn't rate him up with Brown and Sid, but he got things done with his ability to deal with people....I was the beneficiary of playing or coaching with all three of them. You talk about doing post-graduate doctoral work."
Despite spending that summer of football together in 1936, the coaches didn't get along too well. More accurately, Brown and Hayes didn't get along with Gillman. With his intense focus on football and his "win at all cost" ways, Gillman pissed off a lot of people throughout his coaching career. When Gillman and Brown later faced each other as professional coaches the games had extra meaning. They did not get along. Their families did not get along. Unfortunately, it would never change. Gillman and Hayes would become coaching rivals in the college game. Recruiting rivals too. Gillman at Cincinnati and Hayes at Miami (OH), and later at Ohio St. Many years after the football and recruiting wars, Gillman and Hayes would make amends. They just happened to run into each other and Hayes asked his past rival to explain the Gillman passing offense. Eight hours later they left as something closer to friends, certainly no longer enemies. Hayes said later of their talk, "You know, I still don't know what the hell he was talking about."
I love hearing about the intersecting paths of influential football coaches. Most of these intersections aren't as fleeting as three coaches living together for a short while during a summer long ago. Most of these intersections involve working together for a year or more. Seeing as Brown, Gillman, and Hayes all got their coaching starts in Ohio, it shouldn't have been too much of surprise that their paths crossed. I still find it fascinating that this summer spent living together so early in their respective careers might have been the launching point for all that would come. I grew up hearing about those three coaching giants. As exciting as it was to hear of this time that they spent together it was as disappointing to learn that their continued relationships weren't exactly peachy. At least Gillman and Hayes made amends. Gillman and Brown never really tried. It seems that Paul Brown, Sid Gillman, and Woody Hayes, at one time, got along well enough to live together and talk football. For a brief time in the summer of 1936 the future of football was greatly impacted at a fraternity house on the Ohio St. campus.
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