Photo courtesy of Ohio State Athletics. Then-Ohio State linebacker Randy Gradishar lines up for a play during a game against Minnesota on Sept. 15, 1973.

During his 28 seasons at Ohio State, coach Woody Hayes saw many linebackers walk through the doors.

None of them left an impact on the longtime coach more than Randy Gradishar.

Gradishar was a force to be reckoned with and left as Ohio State’s all-time leading tackler with 320 tackles in 32 games.

Gradishar was a first team All-American in 1972-73. In 1973, he made 22 tackles in a game against Washington State and registered 134 tackles for the season. Gradishar was also sixth in the Heisman voting that year.

As the team’s middle linebacker and a three-year starter, Gradishar led the Ohio State defense between 1971-73.

During those years, Gradishar had a stable of talent by his side, and he wasn’t the only player on those rosters at the time garnering Heisman consideration. Teammate and offensive lineman John Hicks finished second in the voting in 1973, and perhaps no one was more prominent than Archie Griffin, who finished fifth in voting that year.

Upon arriving to campus, Griffin, like every other recruit, was given a conditioning test. Everyone on the team had to run a mile in a certain time, varying by position. No matter what, Griffin couldn’t reach that time, even while preparing.

Watching Gradishar clear not only the linebacker time, but the running back time with ease, had the eventual two-time Heisman winner (1974 and 1975) convinced he wasn’t going to be able to cut it on the Ohio State roster.

“I practiced running that mile, and I’m not a distance runner. I’ll sprint all day long, but I’m not a distance runner. And I practiced running that mile, and I couldn’t get 5:30 or whatever the time was. I thought I was going to come to Ohio State and flunk my very first test with the football team,” Griffin said.

“I got to training camp, and I started running the mile, and I watched the linebackers run, and I think Randy must have run a 5:15 or 5:20 and I almost panicked, because I said, ‘Man, I’m in the wrong place. We got big old linebackers running this thing at 5:15, 5:20 and I can’t get five and a half minutes. Maybe I’m in the wrong place.’ However, what happened was I started running when I ran my test with the rest of the group and I passed it with flying colors. But Randy had me thinking that I might be in the wrong place, because a big linebacker like he was, and he ran that mile so fast, it just kind of blew me away. I never forgot that.”

Griffin and Gradishar shared the sidelines at Ohio Stadium for two seasons. As a running back, Griffin got to see the two-time All-American up close in practice, but saw a different beast from the sidelines while Gradishar terrorized the opposition.

“He was a great athlete and just a great player, very agile,” Griffin said. “He always found a way to get tackles — that was Randy. He was going to get in on that tackle. He was going to make a play.”

The 1973 team, Gradishar’s senior season, was particularly special. During that season, the Buckeyes posted a 10-0-1 record and the defense allowed just 64 total points and pitched four shutouts in the process.

That lone tie came against rival Michigan, Gradishar’s final regular season game as a Buckeye.

Those last few games were some of Gradishar’s finest memories from that time.

“I was a senior. It was my last collegiate game, played in November of 1973 against Michigan in Ann Arbor,” he said. “Both teams were undefeated; Ohio State ranked No. 1, Michigan was ranked No. 4. It was a grueling game, ending in a 10-10 tie. It was nerve-wracking to hear who was heading to the Rose Bowl, but it was determined the Buckeyes would go. We kicked USC’s rear-end 42-21 — payback for the previous year when it was a different outcome (a 42-17 loss) against USC. It was a sweet way to close out my years at Ohio State.”

In Gradishar’s time at Ohio State, the Buckeyes boasted a 25-6-1 record.

Once the dust settled on that Rose Bowl victory, then came the draft.

During the pre-draft process, Denver had pinned three guys at the top of their board.

At No. 3, was Gradishar.

Rumors of a bad knee began circulating after a meeting with Detroit, which bumped Gradishar down to a “question mark” in the class.

“I guess they realized that he had an injury in his senior year,” then-Broncos linebacker coach Myrel Moore said. “He had a knee injury, I believe. I watched a lot of the film on him, and I couldn’t see any problems with it. And I called some people I know, and they said there was never any problem with him at all, and obviously it turned out well, never missed a game in his career.”

After being spurned by the New Orleans Saints on a trade up opportunity, luck bounced the Broncos’ way.

Their No. 3 prospect was available with the 14th pick. The knee issue wasn’t a real concern and the Broncos got their guy. Ironically, the Saints took Gradishar’s teammate, and fellow linebacker, Rick Middleton, the pick just before him. Hicks was picked at No. 3 by the New York Giants.

“I talked at great length with Woody Hayes,” then-head coach John Ralston said in Terry Frei’s book about the 1977 Broncos. “I knew Woody very well because we had played against them in the Rose Bowl. Woody said, ‘He’ll play ten years in the National Football League and he’ll be the best player you’ve got.’ And he was right.”

Eight players from that 1973 team came off the board that draft, three of which were linebackers.

Middleton at No. 13, Gradishar at No. 14 and Vic Koegel later on at No. 304.

While Gradishar didn’t even know where Colorado was upon his selection, as he had to look at a map, ironically, his roots were already there.

Gradishar’s father Jim was born in Pueblo, a two-and-a-half hour drive from Denver.

As the old adage goes, “the rest is history.” Hayes, who went to the Gradishar family’s grocery store to recruit the Champion linebacker, was correct in his assessment of Gradishar.

Gradishar was inducted into the Varsity O Hall of Fame and was named to the Ohio State All-Century Football Team and the College Football Hall of Fame (Class of 1998). Later on, Gradishar received the Dick Butkus Silver Anniversary Award, and in 2000, was named to ABC Sports’ All-Century Team as an inside linebacker.

With his upcoming enshrinement, Gradishar becomes the 10th football player from Ohio State to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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