In death, he’s still a winner

Twenty years ago today -- March 12, 1987 -- Woody Hayes finally stopped fighting.

It wasn’t by choice. The legendary and cantankerous Ohio State football coach often preached, “Paralyze resistance with persistence,” but even persistence will take you only so far when Death is the last opponent on your schedule.

Hayes lost that one, which somewhere probably galls him still.

How important was winning to Hayes?

“Without winners, there wouldn’t even be any civilization,” he once said.

And: “If you show me a good guy that the players love all the time, I will show you a loser.” And: “The minute I think I’m getting mellow, I’m retiring. Who ever heard of a mellow winner?”

Hayes never mellowed, and he never retired. He was fired in late 1978 after his pathological hatred of losing caused him to punch Clemson middle guard Charlie Bauman in the throat after Bauman made a late, game-deciding interception.

And to Grantland Rice’s famous line, “When the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, He writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the game,” Hayes had only one word:

“Rubbish.”

Trivia time

Hayes once said, “The only meaningful statistic is number of games won.” Where does he rank on the all-time list for coaching victories?

No mercy ruled

Hayes hated Michigan almost as much as losing.

After routing Michigan in 1968, Hayes was asked why he went for a two-point conversion with a 34-point lead.

“Because I couldn’t go for three,” he said.

Buckeye Planet

While listening to former Notre Dame great Paul Hornung discuss Irish football with a college professor, Hayes interrupted, “Now that’s enough of that! To hell with Notre Dame. Let’s talk about our own university.”

Hayes was good at that. Forever on the recruiting trail, Hayes once rattled off his roster of the world’s greatest athletes -- all of whom attended Ohio State.

“Who is the greatest track man in history?” he said. “Why, it’s Jesse Owens! He won so many gold medals that Hitler left the stadium in Berlin because he didn’t want to recognize that this great athlete from Ohio State was superior.

“And who is the greatest college football player? Why, it’s [Archie Griffin]. Nobody else in the history of football has ever won two Heisman trophies.

“And who is the greatest golfer of all time? Why, it’s Jack Nicklaus. Nobody can touch him. He’s the best.

“And who is the greatest in basketball? Why, it’s John Havlicek. He’s Mr. Basketball.”

Phoning them in

In the recruiting wars, as on the football field, Hayes was never satisfied with his latest triumph. He always obsessed over the next one.

After receiving a commitment from star high school quarterback Rex Kern, Hayes said, “Great. I’m excited. Now here’s a list of kids I need you to call and get them to come to the Ohio State University.”

Give him rewrite

Hayes was notoriously conservative as a coach. He claimed he had his reasons.

“I used to say that three things can happen on a forward pass, two of them bad,” he said. “I don’t say that anymore, because I found out four things can happen on a forward pass. The fourth thing is, you can get fired.”

Trivia answer

Ninth, with an overall record of 238-72-10.

And finally

A noted history buff, Hayes was once asked about the origins of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry.

“How did our great rivalry get started?” he said. “Well, the real fight started back in 1836 when Andrew Jackson, that wily old cuss, took Toledo away from that state up north and gave it to us.”

mike.penner@latimes.com