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What if you could learn the secrets of a two-time Heisman Trophy winner? Join us on the Be A Baller Podcast as we welcome the legendary Archie Griffin a two-time Heisman Trophy winner.
Faith, leadership, and legacy are central themes in Archie's life. Reflecting on the role of nightly prayers and gratitude, he discusses how these practices influenced his decision to play for Ohio State University. Despite initial doubts, pivotal moments with Coach Woody Hayes and a grounded approach to life led Archie to success both on and off the field. He emphasizes character, fairness, integrity, and the "three Ds" of desire, dedication, and determination.
Explore his inspiring journey from a sports-oriented family in Columbus, Ohio, to becoming a college football icon at Ohio State University. Discover the invaluable lessons Archie learned from his upbringing, his memorable experiences playing under coach Woody Hayes, and the significance of dotting the "I" in the Ohio State University Marching Band.
Family values and sports played pivotal roles in shaping Archie's resilience and determination. Listen as he recounts personal anecdotes from playing multiple sports at Blackburn Playground and how his family emphasized both education and athletics. Archie shares heartwarming stories of early sports participation, the importance of teamwork, and the lifelong lessons that athletic competition instilled. From the rigorous laps of organized football to his siblings' academic successes, he paints a vivid picture of the foundational experiences that molded Archie into a champion.
Archie Griffin's life has been committed to building a lasting legacy, his work ethic, and his desire to be remembered for his principles and unwavering dedication to helping others.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I can feel good on the inside.
I mean, sometimes you got tomake some decisions that you
know People might not like Right, but at the same time, if you
do it in a way that you wouldwant people to do it to you,
then you can feel good about theoutcome, and to me that's
that's so important.
(00:20):
That's one of the principlesthat I think of First thing when
I'm in the leadership positionMake sure that I treat people
the right way, treat people theway that I want to be treated.
If I was in that situation, andthat that always helped me out
tremendously, that's great.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome to Be A Baller Podcast where we discuss
how to build a lifelong legacy.
I'm your host, coach Tim Brown.
Today I'm excited to have instudio with me the only two-time
Heisman Trophy winner, archieGriffin.
Today on the show, archie willshare his experience growing up
in a sports family and playingfor the legendary football coach
(01:05):
, woody Hayes.
Archie is a true man of faithand we'll talk about the role
faith has helped him become thegodly and humble man he is today
.
Archie is now, and always has,been committed to paying it
forward and helping others.
Archie, welcome to Be a Ballerpodcast.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, thank you, Appreciate you having me Tim.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm excited to get you in here.
I didn't know if I could getyou in here the way you was
dancing on that feet, or whenyou dotted that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I.
I'll tell you what, man.
That was a busy day and, quitefrankly, it was a wonderful day,
I mean because I never expectedany of that to happen,
certainly with the dotting ofthe I I mean only a very few
amount of people have ever donethat outside of the band members
and then with the statuededication.
(01:48):
So that's something I neverreally expected and it ended up
being just a wonderful thing formyself, along with my family,
because I don't know if youremember, but we were out to
Pasadena, california.
Because, they did the samestatue out at the Rose Bowl and
the whole family went out andjust had a marvelous time there
in Pasadena.
(02:08):
It was really a fun time.
And then to come back here anddo it here two weeks later.
It was a rough go, but we had abunch of fun big time fun.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Good, good good.
No place like home.
No place like home, you know.
Speaking of that, I know familyis important to you.
Can you talk about growing upin Columbus and the life lessons
you learned from your parents?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Okay, look, I come from a fairly large family.
I've got six brothers and asister.
My three older brothers wereall born in West Virginia.
I was the first to be born herein Columbus at the Ohio State
University Hospital, and growingup it was fun.
I mean, having three olderbrothers to look up to really
(02:52):
made a difference in my life.
My oldest brother, jimmy, wentto East High School and you know
I can remember as a kid goingto East High School watching
Jimmy play football at HarleyField.
They had some great teams backthen and what I really remember
about that is watching East HighSchool's band.
Our band was really, reallyexciting to watch but they had
(03:16):
some good high school footballteams and they won a city
championship during the timethat my brother Jimmy was there.
And then the example that hewas when he left high school he
went on to college at MuskingumCollege, and that set an example
for all of us to follow.
(03:37):
Because as I was growing up, myfolks, they had priorities for
us.
I mean I feel really fortunatemy parents, they gave us
priorities, lived by one ofthose priorities it was.
The second priority was for allof us to get an education, a
college education and to seeJimmy go to college really set
an example for the rest of us,because after that my brother
(03:57):
Larry, who graduated from LyndonMcKinley, he went on to
University of Louisville.
Then my brother Daryl, whograduated from Eastmore same
school I went to went to KentState and then myself, raymond
and Duncan, we all went to OhioState.
And then my youngest brother,keith, went to Miami, florida,
and did some great things there.
(04:19):
And then my sister Crystal wentto Drake University on track
scholarship and all of us wentto school on scholarship because
not only was educationimportant but they also wanted
us to participate in athletics.
And they wanted to participatein athletics because they felt
that athletics it really roundsa person out.
It teaches you a lot ofvaluable lifelong lessons.
(04:40):
You know things such as thewill to win, coping with
pressure, getting along in ateam situation, and all those
things are so very importantbecause those things help you in
life.
And so they taught us all thosethings and they wanted us to
learn those things because theyfelt that they would help us be
successful in life.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's good.
That's good.
You know, growing up playingsports was football, your
favorite sport.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
People ask me that all the time but quite frankly,
the sport that I had the mostfun playing was basketball.
I always enjoyed playing.
I always enjoyed going outshooting basketball and you can
shoot basketballs by yourself.
It's kind of hard to playfootball by yourself.
So I always had a lot of funplaying basketball.
But I played all kinds ofsports.
(05:29):
I mean, I was not one to justplay one sport.
When I was in elementary school, you know, we'd go out we lived
across the street fromBlackburn Playground and we'd go
over to the playground and we'dplay football on the one field
that we had at Blackburn At thattime.
They had a field, they had abasketball court, they had a
(05:53):
swing set and they had a slidingboard and that's pretty much
all we had at Blackburn at thattime and we'd go over there and
we'd play all kinds of sports.
And one thing I do rememberthey had a tetherball tetherball
bowl.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
We played volleyball.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
But in the summertime when parks and recreation would
open up the parks, I mean I'dplay everything.
I played softball.
I played matter of fact, me anda friend.
I think we were in fourth.
I was in the fourth grade,third or fourth grade.
We won the city four-squarechampionship.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So we did all kinds of things I loved playing
tetherball and basketball and wejust did it all softball.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
As a matter of fact, columbus used to have age limits
when you could come into thepark and I was probably too
young, but they would always letme in the park because, you
know, I had older brothers andmy brothers were always in there
playing, but Lee Williams, Iremember Lee Williams would
allow me to come into the parkand he let me play on the
(06:58):
softball team, which I wasprobably too young to play on
then, but he let me play on itand I loved the experience that
I had over there at Blackburnbecause I learned a lot from
certainly my brothers, but allthe other kids that were over
there too, because we did allkind of things in Blackburn on
Blackburn Playground that reallyhelped me in growing up to be
(07:22):
an athlete and growing up to bean athlete because I felt that
those kids at that time weregood athletes and I wanted to be
able to compete with them andwas able to do that on a number
of occasions and it worked outvery, very well for me.
As a matter of fact, when I wasnine years old, I started
playing organized football forthe Maryland ACs.
(07:43):
I don't know if a lot of peopleremember Maryland ACs, maryland
ACs was a tough team I meanMaryland ACs and the guys were
usually between the ages of 11to 15, 11 to 14, somewhere in
there.
But I was a little heavy at thetime, right, right, right.
As a matter of fact, bob Rand,who was the coach a tough coach
he kind of reminded me of Woody,as tough as he was.
(08:05):
But he would make us run aroundMaryland Park and Maryland Park
man, I thought at the time itwas probably two miles in
circumference and you know what.
It's not that far off really,when you think about it, because
I went over there as we weredoing this stuff for the statue
dedication, all that.
I went over to Maryland Parkand I looked at Maryland Park
(08:27):
and it's not Saunders Park, butI looked at Maryland Park and I
said, man, that's a long way torun when you're nine years old.
And when he'd make us run aroundthe park before practice I
would always finish in lastplace.
So one day he said whoeverfinishes last is going to have
to take an extra lap.
Well, I said, look here, Ican't finish in last place.
I can barely make it aroundthis place one time.
(08:47):
I just cannot dream of havingto try to run around it twice.
Well, I remember this day wetook off and I jumped out in
front of the whole group becauseI wanted to make sure I didn't
finish in the last place.
Got to the first corner leadingthe whole pack, got to that
second corner, still leading thewhole pack, got to that third
corner.
The guy started passing me up,got to that last corner and I
ended up finishing, true to form, in last place.
(09:08):
And all I can remember is CoachRand waving me on to take that
extra lap.
And I remember taking thatextra lap, struggling, probably
walked a bit and I'm sure I did.
But when I got through withthat laughing, we lined up for
calisthenics or exercises andsome of the guys were laughing
and I asked them what they werelaughing about.
They said Archie, as you wererunning around the park, coach
(09:29):
Rand kind of gave you a nickname.
He called you Tank, he said,because you move so slow, you
look like a big German tank justslowly rolling into war.
Well, that name, tank, stuckwith me for a while and then it
became an affectionate name, tobe honest with you.
But the guys that I played withback then some of them still
call me Tank to this day and itwas a fun time Because, maryland
(09:49):
, I was too young really to beplaying for them.
I got in every game.
I didn't play a lot, but Iplayed guard on offense and nose
guard on defense and it was afun time because it made me
believe, or it gave meconfidence, that I could play
with guys older than I was.
(10:11):
So when it came time to playwith guys my own age, I felt a
whole heck of a lot ofconfidence when I came to play
with guys my own age.
But it was a great experience.
I love playing for the MarylandA's.
We never lost a football gamethere.
I'll never forget that.
I'll never forget that.
But Bob Rand and the coachingstaff there, they were great to
us as kids.
They treated us right, theyworked us hard and we won.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
We won.
You know you talked about thosebrothers quite a bit.
Can you talk about some ofthose backyard and competitive?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
battles with those brothers.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
And also who was the best athlete in the family.
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well, you know, if you had us all together, it
would be a big argument righthere, because there was
competition in the family andwhen I grew up and I'm not too
proud to say I mean I'm not sadabout saying it, but I would I
wouldn't consider myself, uh,the best athlete, uh, in the
family.
I mean I uh.
I look at my brother raymond.
(11:08):
When I was young, the kids inblackburn area, uh, we used to
race in the streets, okay, andand and and my brother raymond
used to beat me all the time.
My younger brother and I usedto get teased by the kids.
Your younger brother beat yourunning.
Well, he was pretty fast, hewas pretty fast, but they used
to tease me all the time.
(11:29):
But if you talk about athletes,oh man, but Raymond would have
been one of the ones that Iwould consider as one of the
best athletes, and I'd also haveto consider my youngest brother
(11:52):
, keith, as one of the bestathletes.
Keith didn't go to Ohio Statebut he ended up going to Miami
of Florida where they won theirfirst national championship in
Florida back in the 80s, wherethey won their first national
championship in Florida back inthe 80s.
And then he ended up gettingdrafted by the Washington
Redskins and played there andwon a Super Bowl championship.
So he had a great career.
But I would consider him as oneof the best.
(12:14):
And then I throw my sister,crystal, in there.
Crystal, she ran a racing trackthat I dreaded.
I never really wanted to runracing track that I dreaded, I
never really wanted to run it.
That was the quarter.
She was a good track athlete,ran for Drake University and did
a wonderful job.
But all my brothers were goodathletes.
I mean again, somebody elsewould consider the other ones
(12:38):
better athletes probably, butthere were a lot of good
athletes.
We competed against each other.
We had fun.
I mean we'd get in the streetsand we'd run 50 yards, 60 yards,
seeing who's the fastest.
The whole works and there was alot of fun doing that.
But I got teased a lot when myyounger brother, ray, would beat
me running and I alwaysremembered the guys teasing me
(13:02):
about that.
So it gave me a little extramotivation to do other things a
bit better.
I knew that it wasn't onlyrunning, that the counter is how
you approach the game, how youapproach how your attitude was
when it comes to the game.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, you know I know sports has been a big part of
your life, but also know thatyou are a strong man of faith.
Yes, I know that you'reinvolved with Fellowship of
Christian Athletes and otherChristian ministries.
Can you share with the audienceyour faith journey?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Well, first of all, faith has always been a big part
of my life.
It starts with my parents.
I mean, like I said, I was veryfortunate to come from a large
family and my parents were thetype that gave us priorities to
live by.
I shared a couple of themearlier, but that first priority
was for all of us to alwaystrust in God.
(13:52):
And they wanted us to trust inGod because I always said, if
God's in control of life, thenhe's going to help you in any
situation that you might findyourself in, and I
wholeheartedly believe that.
So the journey has been throughthe family all along, but I
accepted Christ in my life whenI was 13 years old.
I remember it was at Bethel AMEChurch and Reverend Jordan at
(14:17):
Bethel AME.
At the time we were at aChristian endeavor meeting and
he sat down and talked with usabout the importance of
accepting Christ in our lives,and I remember that it was at
that time that I accepted Christin my life and then next week I
got baptized and then we wenton from there.
But Christ has always been ahuge part of my life ever since.
(14:39):
But Christ has always been ahuge part of my life ever since,
and anything that I do, Ialways think of Christ first,
and how would he want me to actin these situations that I come
across?
And so it's been very, veryimportant to me to have faith.
I used to get teased by some ofmy friends in junior high school
(15:02):
when they come over and spendthe night.
You know, I always pray beforeI go to bed and I'll get out on
my knees and I do it to this dayand I'll pray before I go to
bed.
That's just something that Ialways have done and always will
do.
But they used to tease mebecause they said Archie prays
so long.
(15:27):
I said well, at that time I wascertainly trying to think of
everything I could think aboutto pray about, and so they used
to make a joke about it, butdeep down in my heart, that was
important to me.
I mean, that was important tome.
It was important to get downand give thanks, you know, for
my family, give thanks for thefact that we had food on our
table that we could eat, andthanks for my parents who
(15:47):
provided for us.
It wasn't easy, but theyprovided for eight kids.
I mean, that's not an easything to do, and so I've always
been appreciative.
And when I get down and pray onmy knees every night, that's
what I'm doing I'm thanking Godfor the opportunities that he's
given me over the years andthanking him for my family and
thanking him for the people I'vecome in contact with.
(16:10):
That's helped me along the way,and thank all the folks that
have been a part of my life,because everybody together have
made me who I am.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That's good.
That's good.
You know you chose to stay homeand play football at the Ohio
State University.
You know kind of what led tothat decision first off, and how
was it playing for the great,legendary coach Woody Hayes?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well, first of all, you know, ohio State was a place
that I didn't think I'd everget a chance to play at, because
when I was coming up, Tim,there were not a lot of kids
from the Columbus Public Schoolsthat played at Ohio State.
A guy that I knew that playedat Ohio State was a guy by the
(17:00):
name of Larry Wiggins who playedat Marion Franklin High School
and he was a year ahead of me inschool and I remember him going
to Ohio State.
But when I got to Ohio Statethere were not many kids that
were from the Columbus publicschools that was at Ohio State.
So coming up I didn't thinkthat Ohio State would really
(17:21):
recruit me.
I had some brothers who Ithought were really good.
My brother, larry, who playedat Linda McKinley, was an
All-State player and Ohio Statedidn't really recruit him.
So I figured they didn'trecruit Larry, that they
probably wouldn't recruit me,because I thought Larry was as
good as they come as far asathletes and running backs in
(17:44):
the city of Columbus and eventhe state of Ohio, because he
did make an all-state footballteam.
So I just didn't think that Iwould be recruited.
But at Eastmore under Coach BobStewart, and there were a lot of
interest.
There was a lot of interest froma lot of schools that would
come through Eastmore and lookat our athletes.
(18:06):
Indiana was one of the placesthat got a lot of Eastmore
athletes so I figured maybe I'dget recruited by Indiana.
But my senior year came alongand good things started
happening.
Schools like the team up northstarted recruiting me and, and
Indiana no, not know the namebut Purdue just about every
(18:31):
school in the Big Ten other thanMinnesota, Wisconsin, michigan
State did not recruit but allthe other schools in the Big Ten
recruited me and all the midAmerican conference schools,
pretty much the MAC ConferenceSchools pretty much recruited me
.
But I think when that team upnorth started recruiting me, I
think Ohio State got interested,a little more interested anyway
(18:53):
, and I say that because I usedto sit on a board with Bo
Schembechler, the NationalFootball Foundation, the College
Hall of Fame, and Bo used totease me all the time.
He said you know, woody wouldhave never recruited you if I
hadn't recruited you first.
And I didn't think about that.
But you know, maybe it was true,I don't know.
(19:14):
But the fact that Ohio Staterecruited me was special,
because when I was a kid livingin the Linden area, some of us
would go walk over to thestadium on some Saturdays and
we'd be outside the stadium andand go through all the pageantry
that people would go through ongame day.
(19:35):
We didn't get into the gamealthough a couple of times they
let us in but we would be there.
But it was something that Inever thought would really
happen.
But it did happen and I'm soglad that it did.
And I'll never forget whenWoody started recruiting me.
I remember I was in wrestlingseason, my senior year, and he
(19:58):
called the wrestling coach up toask if he could speak with me
over the phone.
I was in the locker room andcoach came to get me out of the
locker room and told me thatWoody Hayes was on the phone and
I didn't quite believe him.
And so I went in there, got onthe phone with coach Hayes and I
got on the phone.
We had a good conversation andthat same evening he invited me
(20:19):
to dinner at his favoriterestaurant, a place called the
Highlight that was on the northside of Ohio State's campus and
I remember how excited I waswhen he invited me there because
that told me that he was reallyinterested in me playing at
Ohio State.
I went home that night after Igot through with wrestling
practice, got dressed up, wentto dinner, had a great dinner
(20:41):
with him, had good conversationwith him.
But, to be honest with you, atthe end of the dinner I was a
little bit disappointed.
Went home that night my dad,who worked three jobs, came home
late, as he would always dobecause of those number of jobs
that he worked.
My mother told him that I haddinner with Coach Hayes.
My dad woke me up, asked me howthe dinner went with Coach
(21:02):
Hayes and I told him.
I said, daddy, you know I don'tthink he wants me to play
football for him.
He said why do you say that?
I said because he never saidone thing to me about football.
He said well, what did he talkabout?
I said all evening all hetalked about was an education
and how important it was's goingto get out on the field and run
for a lot of yards or scoretouchdowns for him.
Well, right then, I reallydidn't know, but they continued
(21:32):
to recruit me.
Coach Hayes Rudy Hubbard wasthe main recruiter, who was the
backfield coach they continuedto recruit me and they showed
that they were really, reallyinterested.
So I decided that I would go toOhio State and I'm so glad that
I did, because in the firstmeeting that we attended, the
first thing that Coach Hayestold all of us as freshmen is
that if we were in school foranything else other than to get
an education, then we might aswell get up and leave his
(21:53):
meeting.
And that told me somethingabout Coach Hayes.
He had this saying he said anathlete without an education
could be headed for a badsituation.
And when you think about thatyou know, especially at that
time, it was so true because alot of times athletes would go
to college just to get theopportunity to play in the
professional ranks, notrealizing that there's only a
(22:14):
very small few that's going tomake it from college to the
professional ranks.
I mean, if you ever look atthose numbers, I think you will
find that they're trulyastounding.
I mean, if you ever look atthose numbers, I think you will
find that they're trulyastounding.
Back, even at that time, youknow you had about 28 teams in
the NFL and at that time you had12 rounds of draft.
(22:34):
So 28 times 12, that's 336athletes, and you had about
60,000 athletes playing collegefootball.
So 336 out of 60,000, not verygood odds.
You're going to make it.
And then it even slimmed downeven a little bit more later on,
because now there's only sevenrounds of draft with 32 teams.
So you've got 224 athletesbeing drafted and you still have
(22:55):
60,000, 70,000 guys playingcollege football.
So the point that he made to uswas that you had to have
something else to fall back on,and that fallback position that
he referred to was a goodeducation, good skill.
You get out and be able toprovide for your families.
And that impressed me whenCoach Hayes talked about
education in front of football.
(23:16):
But he he really meant that andhe would always ask us about
how we're doing in the classroom.
He would keep track of what wasgoing on in that classroom.
So it meant a lot to me that hecared about what was happening
in that classroom, not only whatwas going on on the football
field, but what was happening inthat classroom, because he knew
that that was going to be ourkey to having success in our
(23:39):
future.
But he was a great man.
I mean you know you talk abouthaving to play for him.
I mean he was great to play for.
He really was.
I knew that he cared about me.
I knew that he was going togive me an opportunity.
I knew that he cared about eachand every person on that team.
But what I really liked mostabout him was that he talked to
(24:03):
us about something that reallyimpacted my life, and that's
paying forward.
I'll never forget he got it fromRalph Waldo Emerson's essay on
compensation, where it says youcan never pay back the good that
someone may have done for you,but you can always pay forward
by helping somebody else ordoing something in your
community.
And Coach A's not only talkedabout that, but he did it.
(24:26):
You know that term, pay itforward.
You know, when I was in college, from a freshman throughout my
senior year, you know he'd talkabout paying forward.
Then all of a sudden I see amovie called Pay it Forward.
Then you see all these signssaying pay it forward.
But he pushed that and I reallybelieve and I could be wrong,
but I really believe that he isthe guy and that's what he did.
(24:49):
He gave it to me as a gift andthat was a big burden off my
shoulder.
So you know, regardless of howit happened, or if it would not
have happened, I'd have beenfine with it Right, because the
Lord was going to make it right.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Well, you're in here preaching.
You're in here preaching that'sa good word.
I know it's been a busy fallfor you.
You've been out in Pasadena youmentioned earlier with the Rose
Bowl statue.
Then you come home in OhioState Rotunda, Then you get to
dot that.
I we saw you at the game.
It looked like you didn't wantto come out that field.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
We saw you at the game and looked like you didn't
want to come out that field.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
We were so happy.
What was it like being?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
back on that field.
Oh, it was great, man.
I mean you know, just to be outthere and be amongst the
players, even walking aroundthat field, I mean it's amazing,
you know you don't think aboutit while you're playing, because
you just don't think about it,because you're an athlete.
When you got them big old dudesout there, man, big old dudes.
And you wonder, man, was Itaking those kind?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
of hits.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I mean, it's all that that comes to your mind, but it
was fun being out there andwatching the guys play, knowing
that they're having a lot of funand having a good time playing
for the Ohio State University,because that's something that is
very special to have thatopportunity to do play for Ohio
(26:09):
State.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
You know, after your playing days you came back to
the Ohio State University,served in the athletic
department and then with thealumni department as director.
Can you tell the audience,particularly young people, how
important good character is All.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Character is everything I mean.
You know you want to make surethat you treat people right, and
that's one of the lessons thatmy folks always taught us.
The golden rule do unto othersas you want them to do unto you.
Treat people right is basicallywhat it says to me, and that's
(26:50):
been one of my leadershipprinciples.
You know, my main principle isif you've got an organization
like I had at the AlumniAssociation, if you've got an
organization like I had at theAlumni Association, I want to
make sure that every employeethat I had, I wanted to make
sure that they knew that I wasgoing to treat them right, that
(27:11):
I was going to be fair to them.
One of the reasons that I loveCoach Woody Hayes is that, no
matter how tough he was, I knewthat he was going to be fair,
that he was going to treat youright, and that's that's so
important.
So I always felt that if Itreated people right, then I can
(27:33):
feel good on the inside.
I mean, sometimes you got tomake some decisions that you
know People might not like Right, but at the same time, if you
do it in a way that you wouldwant people to do it to you.
Then you can feel good aboutthe outcome, and to me that's so
important.
That's one of the principlesthat I think of.
First thing when I'm in theleadership position is make sure
(27:57):
that I treat people the rightway, treat people the way that I
want to be treated.
If I was in that situation andthat always helped me out
tremendously- that's good.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
You know.
This has been great.
I'm loving these stories.
We kind of come around thecorner.
This is a legacy podcast.
You have truly built a lifelonglegacy.
So what does that word legacymean to you, and what is the
legacy of Archie Griffin?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Oh, that's a great question, tim.
Well, the word legacy means tome you know how you would want
people to think of you actually,when you're no longer around.
You know, when people hear yourname, what would you want them
to think about?
(28:43):
And when I think about that,what I just mentioned would be
one of the things that I wouldlike to leave as an exit that he
treated people right, that hetried to do the right thing.
Maybe it didn't come out theway that other people would have
wanted it to come out, but thathe tried to do the right thing.
(29:06):
So treating people right iscertainly one of those legacies
and things I would want peopleto think about me when I'm gone,
but I also want them to thinkabout my work ethic.
I think that's important.
I was so very fortunate when Iwas in junior high school at
Linn-Moore Junior High School,to come across a man by the name
(29:29):
of Oscar Gill.
He was a counselor forLinn-Moore.
He was an advisor for ourstudent council.
We called it HELP H-E-L-PHelpers Engage in Linn-Moore's
Progress and I was president ofthat organization.
But I remember him sitting downwith us at a meeting and
talking with us about somethings he thought would help us
(29:52):
be successful in life, and whathe talked about was what he
called the three Ds desire,dedication and determination.
And I remember telling us thatif we'd apply those three D's to
anything that we want to do inlife, then we can be successful.
He said desire you have to, onceout of life, set goals for
yourself.
Dedication be committed toachieving those certain goals.
(30:12):
And determination being able toovercome the obstacles that
might somehow get in your way.
And I remember him telling usthat if we'd apply those three
D's to anything that we want todo, then we can always feel good
about ourselves.
And we can feel good aboutourselves because if we use
those three D's, in essence whatwe've done is we've given a
total commitment, and nobody canask anybody to do anything more
than to give a total commitment.
(30:33):
And so when you talk aboutlegacy, I want people to know
that the things that I did inlife, I tried to give a total
commitment.
I did it those things withthose three D's that desire,
dedication and determination inmind.
I might not have had the resultthat was better than somebody
(30:54):
else's, but I did it with thosethree D's in mind, meaning that
I did the best that I couldpossibly do, and that's all
anybody can do.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Right, that's great, that's great, wow, thanks.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Thanks for that.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
This brings us to the end of this episode.
Thanks to our special guest,ohio State football and college
football great, archie Griffin,for sharing his wisdom of life
lessons learned on the field andoff the field.
Thank you, archie, for being anexample, not just in talk but
in action, an example for thenext generation on how to build
a lifelong legacy in faith andin service, to uplift others and
(31:33):
paying it forward.
So I want to thank you forbeing on the show.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, thank you.
I appreciate you having me man.
I certainly enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
That's for sure.
I want to thank the audiencefor joining us during this
enlightening and informeddiscussion on building a
lifelong legacy.
Hope this episode wasbeneficial to you, as always.
Thanks for listening to Be ABaller Podcast.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
If you enjoyed our show, please share this podcast
with family and friends.
Be A Baller Podcast isavailable on all major podcast
stations.
Be sure to come back next weekas we continue to discuss on how
to build a lifelong legacy.
Until then, don't forget to bea baller.
This podcast was created byCoach Tim Brown and produced and
edited by the video productionclass of Worthington Christian
High School.
I can feel good on the inside.
I mean, sometimes you got tomake some decisions that you
know People might not like Right, but at the same time, if you
do it in a way that you wouldwant people to do it to you,
then you can feel good about theoutcome, and to me that's
that's so important.
(00:20):
That's one of the principlesthat I think of First thing when
I'm in the leadership positionMake sure that I treat people
the right way, treat people theway that I want to be treated.
If I was in that situation, andthat that always helped me out
tremendously, that's great.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Welcome to Be A Baller Podcast where we discuss
how to build a lifelong legacy.
I'm your host, coach Tim Brown.
Today I'm excited to have instudio with me the only two-time
Heisman Trophy winner, archieGriffin.
Today on the show, archie willshare his experience growing up
in a sports family and playingfor the legendary football coach
(01:05):
, woody Hayes.
Archie is a true man of faithand we'll talk about the role
faith has helped him become thegodly and humble man he is today
.
Archie is now, and always has,been committed to paying it
forward and helping others.
Archie, welcome to Be a Ballerpodcast.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, thank you, Appreciate you having me Tim.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm excited to get you in here.
I didn't know if I could getyou in here the way you was
dancing on that feet, or whenyou dotted that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I.
I'll tell you what, man.
That was a busy day and, quitefrankly, it was a wonderful day,
I mean because I never expectedany of that to happen,
certainly with the dotting ofthe I I mean only a very few
amount of people have ever donethat outside of the band members
and then with the statuededication.
(01:48):
So that's something I neverreally expected and it ended up
being just a wonderful thing formyself, along with my family,
because I don't know if youremember, but we were out to
Pasadena, california.
Because, they did the samestatue out at the Rose Bowl and
the whole family went out andjust had a marvelous time there
in Pasadena.
(02:08):
It was really a fun time.
And then to come back here anddo it here two weeks later.
It was a rough go, but we had abunch of fun big time fun.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Good, good good.
No place like home.
No place like home, you know.
Speaking of that, I know familyis important to you.
Can you talk about growing upin Columbus and the life lessons
you learned from your parents?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Okay, look, I come from a fairly large family.
I've got six brothers and asister.
My three older brothers wereall born in West Virginia.
I was the first to be born herein Columbus at the Ohio State
University Hospital, and growingup it was fun.
I mean, having three olderbrothers to look up to really
(02:52):
made a difference in my life.
My oldest brother, jimmy, wentto East High School and you know
I can remember as a kid goingto East High School watching
Jimmy play football at HarleyField.
They had some great teams backthen and what I really remember
about that is watching East HighSchool's band.
Our band was really, reallyexciting to watch but they had
(03:16):
some good high school footballteams and they won a city
championship during the timethat my brother Jimmy was there.
And then the example that hewas when he left high school he
went on to college at MuskingumCollege, and that set an example
for all of us to follow.
(03:37):
Because as I was growing up, myfolks, they had priorities for
us.
I mean I feel really fortunatemy parents, they gave us
priorities, lived by one ofthose priorities it was.
The second priority was for allof us to get an education, a
college education and to seeJimmy go to college really set
an example for the rest of us,because after that my brother
(03:57):
Larry, who graduated from LyndonMcKinley, he went on to
University of Louisville.
Then my brother Daryl, whograduated from Eastmore same
school I went to went to KentState and then myself, raymond
and Duncan, we all went to OhioState.
And then my youngest brother,keith, went to Miami, florida,
and did some great things there.
(04:19):
And then my sister Crystal wentto Drake University on track
scholarship and all of us wentto school on scholarship because
not only was educationimportant but they also wanted
us to participate in athletics.
And they wanted to participatein athletics because they felt
that athletics it really roundsa person out.
It teaches you a lot ofvaluable lifelong lessons.
(04:40):
You know things such as thewill to win, coping with
pressure, getting along in ateam situation, and all those
things are so very importantbecause those things help you in
life.
And so they taught us all thosethings and they wanted us to
learn those things because theyfelt that they would help us be
successful in life.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's good.
That's good.
You know, growing up playingsports was football, your
favorite sport.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
People ask me that all the time but quite frankly,
the sport that I had the mostfun playing was basketball.
I always enjoyed playing.
I always enjoyed going outshooting basketball and you can
shoot basketballs by yourself.
It's kind of hard to playfootball by yourself.
So I always had a lot of funplaying basketball.
But I played all kinds ofsports.
(05:29):
I mean, I was not one to justplay one sport.
When I was in elementary school, you know, we'd go out we lived
across the street fromBlackburn Playground and we'd go
over to the playground and we'dplay football on the one field
that we had at Blackburn At thattime.
They had a field, they had abasketball court, they had a
(05:53):
swing set and they had a slidingboard and that's pretty much
all we had at Blackburn at thattime and we'd go over there and
we'd play all kinds of sports.
And one thing I do rememberthey had a tetherball tetherball
bowl.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
We played volleyball.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
But in the summertime when parks and recreation would
open up the parks, I mean I'dplay everything.
I played softball.
I played matter of fact, me anda friend.
I think we were in fourth.
I was in the fourth grade,third or fourth grade.
We won the city four-squarechampionship.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So we did all kinds of things I loved playing
tetherball and basketball and wejust did it all softball.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
As a matter of fact, columbus used to have age limits
when you could come into thepark and I was probably too
young, but they would always letme in the park because, you
know, I had older brothers andmy brothers were always in there
playing, but Lee Williams, Iremember Lee Williams would
allow me to come into the parkand he let me play on the
(06:58):
softball team, which I wasprobably too young to play on
then, but he let me play on itand I loved the experience that
I had over there at Blackburnbecause I learned a lot from
certainly my brothers, but allthe other kids that were over
there too, because we did allkind of things in Blackburn on
Blackburn Playground that reallyhelped me in growing up to be
(07:22):
an athlete and growing up to bean athlete because I felt that
those kids at that time weregood athletes and I wanted to be
able to compete with them andwas able to do that on a number
of occasions and it worked outvery, very well for me.
As a matter of fact, when I wasnine years old, I started
playing organized football forthe Maryland ACs.
(07:43):
I don't know if a lot of peopleremember Maryland ACs, maryland
ACs was a tough team I meanMaryland ACs and the guys were
usually between the ages of 11to 15, 11 to 14, somewhere in
there.
But I was a little heavy at thetime, right, right, right.
As a matter of fact, bob Rand,who was the coach a tough coach
he kind of reminded me of Woody,as tough as he was.
(08:05):
But he would make us run aroundMaryland Park and Maryland Park
man, I thought at the time itwas probably two miles in
circumference and you know what.
It's not that far off really,when you think about it, because
I went over there as we weredoing this stuff for the statue
dedication, all that.
I went over to Maryland Parkand I looked at Maryland Park
(08:27):
and it's not Saunders Park, butI looked at Maryland Park and I
said, man, that's a long way torun when you're nine years old.
And when he'd make us run aroundthe park before practice I
would always finish in lastplace.
So one day he said whoeverfinishes last is going to have
to take an extra lap.
Well, I said, look here, Ican't finish in last place.
I can barely make it aroundthis place one time.
(08:47):
I just cannot dream of havingto try to run around it twice.
Well, I remember this day wetook off and I jumped out in
front of the whole group becauseI wanted to make sure I didn't
finish in the last place.
Got to the first corner leadingthe whole pack, got to that
second corner, still leading thewhole pack, got to that third
corner.
The guy started passing me up,got to that last corner and I
ended up finishing, true to form, in last place.
(09:08):
And all I can remember is CoachRand waving me on to take that
extra lap.
And I remember taking thatextra lap, struggling, probably
walked a bit and I'm sure I did.
But when I got through withthat laughing, we lined up for
calisthenics or exercises andsome of the guys were laughing
and I asked them what they werelaughing about.
They said Archie, as you wererunning around the park, coach
(09:29):
Rand kind of gave you a nickname.
He called you Tank, he said,because you move so slow, you
look like a big German tank justslowly rolling into war.
Well, that name, tank, stuckwith me for a while and then it
became an affectionate name, tobe honest with you.
But the guys that I played withback then some of them still
call me Tank to this day and itwas a fun time Because, maryland
(09:49):
, I was too young really to beplaying for them.
I got in every game.
I didn't play a lot, but Iplayed guard on offense and nose
guard on defense and it was afun time because it made me
believe, or it gave meconfidence, that I could play
with guys older than I was.
(10:11):
So when it came time to playwith guys my own age, I felt a
whole heck of a lot ofconfidence when I came to play
with guys my own age.
But it was a great experience.
I love playing for the MarylandA's.
We never lost a football gamethere.
I'll never forget that.
I'll never forget that.
But Bob Rand and the coachingstaff there, they were great to
us as kids.
They treated us right, theyworked us hard and we won.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
We won.
You know you talked about thosebrothers quite a bit.
Can you talk about some ofthose backyard and competitive?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
battles with those brothers.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
And also who was the best athlete in the family.
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well, you know, if you had us all together, it
would be a big argument righthere, because there was
competition in the family andwhen I grew up and I'm not too
proud to say I mean I'm not sadabout saying it, but I would I
wouldn't consider myself, uh,the best athlete, uh, in the
family.
I mean I uh.
I look at my brother raymond.
(11:08):
When I was young, the kids inblackburn area, uh, we used to
race in the streets, okay, andand and and my brother raymond
used to beat me all the time.
My younger brother and I usedto get teased by the kids.
Your younger brother beat yourunning.
Well, he was pretty fast, hewas pretty fast, but they used
to tease me all the time.
(11:29):
But if you talk about athletes,oh man, but Raymond would have
been one of the ones that Iwould consider as one of the
best athletes, and I'd also haveto consider my youngest brother
(11:52):
, keith, as one of the bestathletes.
Keith didn't go to Ohio Statebut he ended up going to Miami
of Florida where they won theirfirst national championship in
Florida back in the 80s, wherethey won their first national
championship in Florida back inthe 80s.
And then he ended up gettingdrafted by the Washington
Redskins and played there andwon a Super Bowl championship.
So he had a great career.
But I would consider him as oneof the best.
(12:14):
And then I throw my sister,crystal, in there.
Crystal, she ran a racing trackthat I dreaded.
I never really wanted to runracing track that I dreaded, I
never really wanted to run it.
That was the quarter.
She was a good track athlete,ran for Drake University and did
a wonderful job.
But all my brothers were goodathletes.
I mean again, somebody elsewould consider the other ones
(12:38):
better athletes probably, butthere were a lot of good
athletes.
We competed against each other.
We had fun.
I mean we'd get in the streetsand we'd run 50 yards, 60 yards,
seeing who's the fastest.
The whole works and there was alot of fun doing that.
But I got teased a lot when myyounger brother, ray, would beat
me running and I alwaysremembered the guys teasing me
(13:02):
about that.
So it gave me a little extramotivation to do other things a
bit better.
I knew that it wasn't onlyrunning, that the counter is how
you approach the game, how youapproach how your attitude was
when it comes to the game.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, you know I know sports has been a big part of
your life, but also know thatyou are a strong man of faith.
Yes, I know that you'reinvolved with Fellowship of
Christian Athletes and otherChristian ministries.
Can you share with the audienceyour faith journey?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Well, first of all, faith has always been a big part
of my life.
It starts with my parents.
I mean, like I said, I was veryfortunate to come from a large
family and my parents were thetype that gave us priorities to
live by.
I shared a couple of themearlier, but that first priority
was for all of us to alwaystrust in God.
(13:52):
And they wanted us to trust inGod because I always said, if
God's in control of life, thenhe's going to help you in any
situation that you might findyourself in, and I
wholeheartedly believe that.
So the journey has been throughthe family all along, but I
accepted Christ in my life whenI was 13 years old.
I remember it was at Bethel AMEChurch and Reverend Jordan at
(14:17):
Bethel AME.
At the time we were at aChristian endeavor meeting and
he sat down and talked with usabout the importance of
accepting Christ in our lives,and I remember that it was at
that time that I accepted Christin my life and then next week I
got baptized and then we wenton from there.
But Christ has always been ahuge part of my life ever since.
(14:39):
But Christ has always been ahuge part of my life ever since,
and anything that I do, Ialways think of Christ first,
and how would he want me to actin these situations that I come
across?
And so it's been very, veryimportant to me to have faith.
I used to get teased by some ofmy friends in junior high school
(15:02):
when they come over and spendthe night.
You know, I always pray beforeI go to bed and I'll get out on
my knees and I do it to this dayand I'll pray before I go to
bed.
That's just something that Ialways have done and always will
do.
But they used to tease mebecause they said Archie prays
so long.
(15:27):
I said well, at that time I wascertainly trying to think of
everything I could think aboutto pray about, and so they used
to make a joke about it, butdeep down in my heart, that was
important to me.
I mean, that was important tome.
It was important to get downand give thanks, you know, for
my family, give thanks for thefact that we had food on our
table that we could eat, andthanks for my parents who
(15:47):
provided for us.
It wasn't easy, but theyprovided for eight kids.
I mean, that's not an easything to do, and so I've always
been appreciative.
And when I get down and pray onmy knees every night, that's
what I'm doing I'm thanking Godfor the opportunities that he's
given me over the years andthanking him for my family and
thanking him for the people I'vecome in contact with.
(16:10):
That's helped me along the way,and thank all the folks that
have been a part of my life,because everybody together have
made me who I am.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That's good.
That's good.
You know you chose to stay homeand play football at the Ohio
State University.
You know kind of what led tothat decision first off, and how
was it playing for the great,legendary coach Woody Hayes?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well, first of all, you know, ohio State was a place
that I didn't think I'd everget a chance to play at, because
when I was coming up, Tim,there were not a lot of kids
from the Columbus Public Schoolsthat played at Ohio State.
A guy that I knew that playedat Ohio State was a guy by the
(17:00):
name of Larry Wiggins who playedat Marion Franklin High School
and he was a year ahead of me inschool and I remember him going
to Ohio State.
But when I got to Ohio Statethere were not many kids that
were from the Columbus publicschools that was at Ohio State.
So coming up I didn't thinkthat Ohio State would really
(17:21):
recruit me.
I had some brothers who Ithought were really good.
My brother, larry, who playedat Linda McKinley, was an
All-State player and Ohio Statedidn't really recruit him.
So I figured they didn'trecruit Larry, that they
probably wouldn't recruit me,because I thought Larry was as
good as they come as far asathletes and running backs in
(17:44):
the city of Columbus and eventhe state of Ohio, because he
did make an all-state footballteam.
So I just didn't think that Iwould be recruited.
But at Eastmore under Coach BobStewart, and there were a lot of
interest.
There was a lot of interest froma lot of schools that would
come through Eastmore and lookat our athletes.
(18:06):
Indiana was one of the placesthat got a lot of Eastmore
athletes so I figured maybe I'dget recruited by Indiana.
But my senior year came alongand good things started
happening.
Schools like the team up northstarted recruiting me and, and
Indiana no, not know the namebut Purdue just about every
(18:31):
school in the Big Ten other thanMinnesota, Wisconsin, michigan
State did not recruit but allthe other schools in the Big Ten
recruited me and all the midAmerican conference schools,
pretty much the MAC ConferenceSchools pretty much recruited me
.
But I think when that team upnorth started recruiting me, I
think Ohio State got interested,a little more interested anyway
(18:53):
, and I say that because I usedto sit on a board with Bo
Schembechler, the NationalFootball Foundation, the College
Hall of Fame, and Bo used totease me all the time.
He said you know, woody wouldhave never recruited you if I
hadn't recruited you first.
And I didn't think about that.
But you know, maybe it was true,I don't know.
(19:14):
But the fact that Ohio Staterecruited me was special,
because when I was a kid livingin the Linden area, some of us
would go walk over to thestadium on some Saturdays and
we'd be outside the stadium andand go through all the pageantry
that people would go through ongame day.
(19:35):
We didn't get into the gamealthough a couple of times they
let us in but we would be there.
But it was something that Inever thought would really
happen.
But it did happen and I'm soglad that it did.
And I'll never forget whenWoody started recruiting me.
I remember I was in wrestlingseason, my senior year, and he
(19:58):
called the wrestling coach up toask if he could speak with me
over the phone.
I was in the locker room andcoach came to get me out of the
locker room and told me thatWoody Hayes was on the phone and
I didn't quite believe him.
And so I went in there, got onthe phone with coach Hayes and I
got on the phone.
We had a good conversation andthat same evening he invited me
(20:19):
to dinner at his favoriterestaurant, a place called the
Highlight that was on the northside of Ohio State's campus and
I remember how excited I waswhen he invited me there because
that told me that he was reallyinterested in me playing at
Ohio State.
I went home that night after Igot through with wrestling
practice, got dressed up, wentto dinner, had a great dinner
(20:41):
with him, had good conversationwith him.
But, to be honest with you, atthe end of the dinner I was a
little bit disappointed.
Went home that night my dad,who worked three jobs, came home
late, as he would always dobecause of those number of jobs
that he worked.
My mother told him that I haddinner with Coach Hayes.
My dad woke me up, asked me howthe dinner went with Coach
(21:02):
Hayes and I told him.
I said, daddy, you know I don'tthink he wants me to play
football for him.
He said why do you say that?
I said because he never saidone thing to me about football.
He said well, what did he talkabout?
I said all evening all hetalked about was an education
and how important it was's goingto get out on the field and run
for a lot of yards or scoretouchdowns for him.
Well, right then, I reallydidn't know, but they continued
(21:32):
to recruit me.
Coach Hayes Rudy Hubbard wasthe main recruiter, who was the
backfield coach they continuedto recruit me and they showed
that they were really, reallyinterested.
So I decided that I would go toOhio State and I'm so glad that
I did, because in the firstmeeting that we attended, the
first thing that Coach Hayestold all of us as freshmen is
that if we were in school foranything else other than to get
an education, then we might aswell get up and leave his
(21:53):
meeting.
And that told me somethingabout Coach Hayes.
He had this saying he said anathlete without an education
could be headed for a badsituation.
And when you think about thatyou know, especially at that
time, it was so true because alot of times athletes would go
to college just to get theopportunity to play in the
professional ranks, notrealizing that there's only a
(22:14):
very small few that's going tomake it from college to the
professional ranks.
I mean, if you ever look atthose numbers, I think you will
find that they're trulyastounding.
I mean, if you ever look atthose numbers, I think you will
find that they're trulyastounding.
Back, even at that time, youknow you had about 28 teams in
the NFL and at that time you had12 rounds of draft.
(22:34):
So 28 times 12, that's 336athletes, and you had about
60,000 athletes playing collegefootball.
So 336 out of 60,000, not verygood odds.
You're going to make it.
And then it even slimmed downeven a little bit more later on,
because now there's only sevenrounds of draft with 32 teams.
So you've got 224 athletesbeing drafted and you still have
(22:55):
60,000, 70,000 guys playingcollege football.
So the point that he made to uswas that you had to have
something else to fall back on,and that fallback position that
he referred to was a goodeducation, good skill.
You get out and be able toprovide for your families.
And that impressed me whenCoach Hayes talked about
education in front of football.
(23:16):
But he he really meant that andhe would always ask us about
how we're doing in the classroom.
He would keep track of what wasgoing on in that classroom.
So it meant a lot to me that hecared about what was happening
in that classroom, not only whatwas going on on the football
field, but what was happening inthat classroom, because he knew
that that was going to be ourkey to having success in our
(23:39):
future.
But he was a great man.
I mean you know you talk abouthaving to play for him.
I mean he was great to play for.
He really was.
I knew that he cared about me.
I knew that he was going togive me an opportunity.
I knew that he cared about eachand every person on that team.
But what I really liked mostabout him was that he talked to
(24:03):
us about something that reallyimpacted my life, and that's
paying forward.
I'll never forget he got it fromRalph Waldo Emerson's essay on
compensation, where it says youcan never pay back the good that
someone may have done for you,but you can always pay forward
by helping somebody else ordoing something in your
community.
And Coach A's not only talkedabout that, but he did it.
(24:26):
You know that term, pay itforward.
You know, when I was in college, from a freshman throughout my
senior year, you know he'd talkabout paying forward.
Then all of a sudden I see amovie called Pay it Forward.
Then you see all these signssaying pay it forward.
But he pushed that and I reallybelieve and I could be wrong,
but I really believe that he isthe guy and that's what he did.
(24:49):
He gave it to me as a gift andthat was a big burden off my
shoulder.
So you know, regardless of howit happened, or if it would not
have happened, I'd have beenfine with it Right, because the
Lord was going to make it right.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Well, you're in here preaching.
You're in here preaching that'sa good word.
I know it's been a busy fallfor you.
You've been out in Pasadena youmentioned earlier with the Rose
Bowl statue.
Then you come home in OhioState Rotunda, Then you get to
dot that.
I we saw you at the game.
It looked like you didn't wantto come out that field.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
We saw you at the game and looked like you didn't
want to come out that field.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
We were so happy.
What was it like being?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
back on that field.
Oh, it was great, man.
I mean you know, just to be outthere and be amongst the
players, even walking aroundthat field, I mean it's amazing,
you know you don't think aboutit while you're playing, because
you just don't think about it,because you're an athlete.
When you got them big old dudesout there, man, big old dudes.
And you wonder, man, was Itaking those kind?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
of hits.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I mean, it's all that that comes to your mind, but it
was fun being out there andwatching the guys play, knowing
that they're having a lot of funand having a good time playing
for the Ohio State University,because that's something that is
very special to have thatopportunity to do play for Ohio
(26:09):
State.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
You know, after your playing days you came back to
the Ohio State University,served in the athletic
department and then with thealumni department as director.
Can you tell the audience,particularly young people, how
important good character is All.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Character is everything I mean.
You know you want to make surethat you treat people right, and
that's one of the lessons thatmy folks always taught us.
The golden rule do unto othersas you want them to do unto you.
Treat people right is basicallywhat it says to me, and that's
(26:50):
been one of my leadershipprinciples.
You know, my main principle isif you've got an organization
like I had at the AlumniAssociation, if you've got an
organization like I had at theAlumni Association, I want to
make sure that every employeethat I had, I wanted to make
sure that they knew that I wasgoing to treat them right, that
(27:11):
I was going to be fair to them.
One of the reasons that I loveCoach Woody Hayes is that, no
matter how tough he was, I knewthat he was going to be fair,
that he was going to treat youright, and that's that's so
important.
So I always felt that if Itreated people right, then I can
(27:33):
feel good on the inside.
I mean, sometimes you got tomake some decisions that you
know People might not like Right, but at the same time, if you
do it in a way that you wouldwant people to do it to you.
Then you can feel good aboutthe outcome, and to me that's so
important.
That's one of the principlesthat I think of.
First thing when I'm in theleadership position is make sure
(27:57):
that I treat people the rightway, treat people the way that I
want to be treated.
If I was in that situation andthat always helped me out
tremendously- that's good.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
You know.
This has been great.
I'm loving these stories.
We kind of come around thecorner.
This is a legacy podcast.
You have truly built a lifelonglegacy.
So what does that word legacymean to you, and what is the
legacy of Archie Griffin?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Oh, that's a great question, tim.
Well, the word legacy means tome you know how you would want
people to think of you actually,when you're no longer around.
You know, when people hear yourname, what would you want them
to think about?
(28:43):
And when I think about that,what I just mentioned would be
one of the things that I wouldlike to leave as an exit that he
treated people right, that hetried to do the right thing.
Maybe it didn't come out theway that other people would have
wanted it to come out, but thathe tried to do the right thing.
(29:06):
So treating people right iscertainly one of those legacies
and things I would want peopleto think about me when I'm gone,
but I also want them to thinkabout my work ethic.
I think that's important.
I was so very fortunate when Iwas in junior high school at
Linn-Moore Junior High School,to come across a man by the name
(29:29):
of Oscar Gill.
He was a counselor forLinn-Moore.
He was an advisor for ourstudent council.
We called it HELP H-E-L-PHelpers Engage in Linn-Moore's
Progress and I was president ofthat organization.
But I remember him sitting downwith us at a meeting and
talking with us about somethings he thought would help us
(29:52):
be successful in life, and whathe talked about was what he
called the three Ds desire,dedication and determination.
And I remember telling us thatif we'd apply those three D's to
anything that we want to do inlife, then we can be successful.
He said desire you have to, onceout of life, set goals for
yourself.
Dedication be committed toachieving those certain goals.
(30:12):
And determination being able toovercome the obstacles that
might somehow get in your way.
And I remember him telling usthat if we'd apply those three
D's to anything that we want todo, then we can always feel good
about ourselves.
And we can feel good aboutourselves because if we use
those three D's, in essence whatwe've done is we've given a
total commitment, and nobody canask anybody to do anything more
than to give a total commitment.
(30:33):
And so when you talk aboutlegacy, I want people to know
that the things that I did inlife, I tried to give a total
commitment.
I did it those things withthose three D's that desire,
dedication and determination inmind.
I might not have had the resultthat was better than somebody
(30:54):
else's, but I did it with thosethree D's in mind, meaning that
I did the best that I couldpossibly do, and that's all
anybody can do.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Right, that's great, that's great, wow, thanks.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Thanks for that.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
This brings us to the end of this episode.
Thanks to our special guest,ohio State football and college
football great, archie Griffin,for sharing his wisdom of life
lessons learned on the field andoff the field.
Thank you, archie, for being anexample, not just in talk but
in action, an example for thenext generation on how to build
a lifelong legacy in faith andin service, to uplift others and
(31:33):
paying it forward.
So I want to thank you forbeing on the show.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, thank you.
I appreciate you having me man.
I certainly enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
That's for sure.
I want to thank the audiencefor joining us during this
enlightening and informeddiscussion on building a
lifelong legacy.
Hope this episode wasbeneficial to you, as always.
Thanks for listening to Be ABaller Podcast.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
If you enjoyed our show, please share this podcast
with family and friends.
Be A Baller Podcast isavailable on all major podcast
stations.
Be sure to come back next weekas we continue to discuss on how
to build a lifelong legacy.
Until then, don't forget to bea baller.
This podcast was created byCoach Tim Brown and produced and
edited by the video productionclass of Worthington Christian
High School.
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