The perspective of history reveals how very special the 1942 Buckeyes were (and are). Among them were five All-Americans: Chuck Csuri, Gene Fekete, Lin Houston, Paul Sarringhaus and Bob Shaw. Six other members of the team earned All-America honors in subsequent years: Warren Amling (twice), Jack Dugger, Bill Hackett, Les Horvath, Cecil Souders and Bill Willis (twice).Horvath went on to win the 1944 Heisman Trophy.
Three of those players -- Amling, Horvath and Willis -- have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Amling, who also played basketball for Ohio State, is the only member of that Hall who also started an NCAA Final Four game.
Dante "Glue Fingers" Lavelli became a star in the NFL. Willis broke pro football's "color barrier" a year before Jackie Robinson did the same in major-league baseball. Both of those former Buckeyes are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The head coach of this stellar squad was Paul Brown -- yes, that Paul Brown. Yesterday he became only the second OSU coach permanently enshrined in Ohio Stadium. (Woody Hayes was the first.) A large plaque honoring Brown was unveiled during yesterday's ceremonies. Its subscript reads, "Ohio's Coach 1932-1991."
For those of us who grasp the breadth of Brown's contributions, the title captures the man perfectly. From Massillon to Ohio State, the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, he truly was Ohio's coach. On a personal note, my father often told me of cheering on his high-school classmates as they barreled toward their sixth straight state championship, a certain nattily dressed coach prowling the sideline.
The coach was a 32-year-old Paul Brown. The high school's stadium now bears his name.
It's all part of Ohio gridiron history and well known, I suppose. Now here's something that even the most rabid Buckeye fans probably aren't aware of.
On the back of OSU players' helmets yesterday was a sticker bearing the image of a military medal and the letters "CC." The initials are those of All-American tackle Csuri, who also was his team's and the conference's MVP.Like many of his teammates, Csuri left OSU after the 1942 season to fight in World War II. While a forward observer with the 69th Infantry, helping to direct artillery fire during the Battle of the Bulge, communications went down and the barrage ceased. The young Army corporal volunteered to run dispatches through snow-covered terrain back to Allied headquarters. For his bravery under fire, Csuri was awarded the Bronze Star.
If his story ended right then and there, Chuck Csuri would be worthy of respect. It doesn't.
This celebrated athlete and decorated combat veteran returned to Ohio State after the war, in 1948 earning a Master's Degree in art and joining the university's faculty a year later. He embraced emerging technology, sought ways to apply it to his discipline and in 1964 created what's considered the first computer art.
Today, Dr. Charles A. Csuri is universally regarded as the father of digital art and computer animation. He's still a Professor Emeritus at The Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design at The Ohio State University -- at age 88.
As football stories go, Ohio State's 1942 national-championship team is a good one. Unwrapping the familiar tale, however, tells us more -- a whole lot more.
I can't help but wonder about the richness and texture that may hide behind all of the other stories I think I know.
