Ohio State’s Firing of Bruce Is Criticized by Coaches, Fans

Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler said Tuesday the firing of Ohio State Coach Earle Bruce has done “irreparable harm” to the college football coaching profession.

Schembechler, whose club ends the season against the arch-rival Buckeyes on Saturday, was one of several Big Ten coaches who spoke out against Monday’s dismissal of Bruce.

“It has done irreparable damage to the profession,” Schembechler said. “I wish we could do more to control this thing. There’s no justification in what happened.”

Schembechler, a close friend of Bruce and the late OSU Coach Woody Hayes, said Bruce did everything a top football coach could do with “honesty and integrity.”

“The first thing I thought of was what Woody’s reaction would be. I think he would be disappointed with the university,” Schembechler said. “Ohio State used to be the graveyard of coaches. Woody changed all that.”

Bruce said he is determined to stay in coaching.

“I’m a coach and a doggone good coach. I’ll coach some place I guess for five, six or eight more years,” Bruce said.

Bruce, 56, was fired Monday by Ohio State President Edward Jennings after three consecutive losses that dropped his team’s record to 5-4-1. The school’s athletic director, Rick Bay, resigned in protest.

Jennings, who found himself at the center of the controversy over Bruce’s dismissal and Bay’s departure, refused to discuss his reasons.

“There’s no question we had a winning program for a number of years under Coach Bruce’s leadership, and that this is not a win-lose type of situation,” Jennings said. “This was a judgmental call that it was best to make a change at this stage.”

While Jennings said there was no question of wrongdoing by Bruce and that he would recommend him for another position, the university president’s actions caused an uproar.

Sixty-nine percent of the respondents to a Columbus radio station call-in poll said Ohio State had lost its integrity over the firing. And in a television station poll, with more than 12,000 people paying 50 cents per call, 90% of those calling said that Ohio State should not have fired Bruce.

The Columbus TV station reported 6,600 calls from viewers in the poll’s first 30 minutes.

“Those are not scientific polls,” Jennings said, adding that the polls do not “represent a sampling of the community at large.”

Other coaches deplored the university’s action.

Bowling Green State University coach Moe Ankney opened his weekly luncheon by saying the firing was “a disgrace to college athletics” and that Jennings’ decision was “a cowardly act of bending to pressure from outside influences.”

Minnesota Coach John Gutekunst agreed with Schembechler that the dismissal of a coach who “had such a strong record as Bruce’s would hurt” the coaching profession.

Iowa Coach Hayden Fry said he wanted to control his statements because he was afraid of what he would say.

“I’m afraid I might have to clean up my language for what I might say,” Fry said. “I went through it personally at SMU years ago and I don’t want to really get into it.”

Wisconsin Coach Don Morton questioned whether universities were heading toward choosing coaches like presidential candidates.

“I think it’s very tragic for the coaching profession and a tragedy for Ohio State,” Morton said. “We talk about integrity, grades and running the program. His record was impeccable.”

Michigan State Coach George Perles said Bruce will get another job, possibly with less pressure than following a legend like Hayes.

“The biggest problem Earle will have is choosing the best job,” Perles said. “He may look back and see it might be a blessing in disguise.”

Illinois Coach Mike White was puzzled by Bruce’s firing.

“It’s very, very unfair. In any business, there has to be criteria for success,” White said. “In this case, I didn’t see any area where he didn’t measure up. I’ve talked to players who all speak very highly of him.”

Indiana Coach Bill Mallory’s name has been mentioned as a successor to Bruce. He didn’t comment on the speculation but spoke out against the firing.

“It’s too bad, particularly when the season isn’t completed,” said Mallory. “Naturally he had a rough year this year and losing (Cris) Carter was tough. But I know he’ll rebound and come back.”

Politicians joined coaches in commiserating with Bruce. At Des Moines, Iowa, Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste said the firing sends a message to young athletes: “Don’t go into coaching.”

And Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, during a joint news conference with Celeste on another matter, said Iowa State University “would probably love to have (Bruce) back” where he coached before joining the Buckeyes.

Bruce said he was upset about the timing of the dismissal coming before the school’s game with Michigan.