Lisa Leland: Woody Hayes and more

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Woody Hayes

To go on with my testimony from Ohio State: During my sophomore year I applied for a job at the Faculty Club and got it. I was a waitress/busser for their lunch shift and as a result I saw some of the real bigwigs of the university.

For instance, I helped serve lunch more than once to OSU President Edward Jennings (who served from 1981-1989) as he held a closed-door meeting.

I was still in my “movie star realm” to some extent and so when he left behind half of his club sandwich (with turkey breast and bacon) after one such meeting, I took a big bite out of one section before putting it on the bussing cart! I would then go on to bragging to friends about doing this!

Another time, and this is a story I loved to tell people when informing them about my time at Ohio State (in Chicago, NYC, etc.), I took a pen Woody Hayes (then a history professor) left behind one afternoon as he sat in his usual spot at the end of a long dining table specifically designated for seasoned professors eating alone. He was eating a bowl of chili that day. I remember so strongly about how he was "holding court," as he often did, with all of the professors on his end intently listening to him.

Everyone has always asked me, “Do you still have the pen?” The answer is no.

The funniest thing about Woody Hayes, though, is I actually met him in high school at some republican donors event held at Ashland College (now a university). My best friend Marcy’s father was the vice president of the college (which has attracted many top conservative leaders to its campus to speak and, in fact, had its public affair school dedicated by none other than Ronald Reagan in 1983, the year after I graduated high school) and so she got the two of us into the event with Woody.

Afterward, I went up to Woody to introduce myself and I remember clearly what a sincere man he was. He asked me if I was going to college and even gave me a little pep talk about succeeding in life! He signed his name on the program I had from the event (and I do still have that, currently in my storage unit), writing in ball pen ink, “Lisa, Good luck to you. YEA, OHIO!”

The thing about Ohio State is I feel like I got the best it could offer me and, by the time I left, I had an incredible resume, including paid summer internships at the Cincinnati Enquirer (as a copy editor and feature writer) and the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a sportswriter who actually broke a front-page national story (including on Dan Rather’s newscast) all through my own doing!

I have written about this before so I am going to go into my archives to try and find it. In the meantime, I found this online a bit ago:

Hayes coached the Ohio State football team for 28 years and took General George Patton as his model of leadership. His hard-nosed discipline gained him a reputation for being fiery. He was very difficult to please, had little tolerance for failure, and sometimes crossed the line when disciplining a player. Over his career, Hayes amassed an incredible win-loss record, but he also created a long list of offenses against players, parents, fans, and sports reporters. During the 1978 Gator Bowl, an opposing player intercepted an Ohio State pass and wound up on the Buckeyes’s sideline. Infuriated, Woody Hayes slugged the boy, nearly knocking off his helmet—all on national television.

Appropriately, Ohio State fired him the next day. But in the weeks that followed, the nation raged, reporters mercilessly piled on, and anyone with a grudge vented his spleen on the humiliated coach. He retreated in silence and shame behind drawn drapes and locked doors.

During that time, Coach Tom Landry was to attend a prestigious banquet in New York and he was free to ask a guest to join him. Normally, he would have taken his wife, Alicia. But this time he appeared with Woody Hayes. Landry’s poignant act of grace lifted Hayes out of his shame and silenced his tormenters. Grace has a way of doing that.

I asked Coach Landry about it at our next board meeting. He said, “I figured that since everybody else was beating up on him, he needed somebody to put an arm around him and tell him he still loved him.” Can you imagine how that felt for Coach Woody Hayes? When he was bent low, feeling ashamed . . . deserving nothing, Landry bent down, lifted him up, and embraced him.

*****

Revelation 7:9: [9] After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

"Here are the people who get through that 'great day of His wrath' and go into the kingdom. It's talking about the Believing Remnant in Israel and they come from every part of the nations out there and God gathers them all back together.

"That's who you see in Nahum 1:7: [7] The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

"That's what you read about in Revelation 7 and Nahum is picking up on what Micah told you--what Revelation ultimately explains.

"There are only three verses in all of Nahum that have any brightness in them and verse 7 is the first one. You've got 6 verses of helter-skelter, wrath, indignation and vengeance and now you got a verse-- 'Oh, there are going to be some Believers.'

"Talking about the kingdom, Verse 15: [15] Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

*****

"He's talking to Nineveh in Nahum 2:13: [13] Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

"God's intention is to bring a complete end to the idolatrous system that gives birth to the rebellious nations against His people. In Nahum, you see the Antichrist show up and be a part of that system that comes out of Assyria.

"Just like Obadiah talked about Edom, and the ancient hatred that the tents of the Edomites have against Israel, now He's going to talk about Assyria, and not just that ancient hatred that they had, but the source of it. It goes all the way back to Nimrod.

Nahum 1: [8] But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

"Now you're back in Genesis 1:2. That's God's judgment on rebellion.

"Talking about Nineveh, Nahum 1:11: [11] There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counseller.

In II Thessalonians 2, Paul says about the son of perdition: [8] And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

"Wicked is that proper name given to the Antichrist. He counsels against the Lord. Daniel 11 says he takes the kingdom by flatteries. In other words, he's got a philosophy that he's putting out.

Daniel 8: [23] And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

[25] And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

"What you have there is the future of Greece and the Greek empire takes over the Media-Persia empire and then the Greek empire is destroyed. Notice that description of the Antichrist as the king of the north:

"He understands dark sayings. He has some wisdom. He knows some things. He's going to attempt to counterfeit God's ability to reveal secrets.

Verse 24: [24] And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

"From Revelation 13 we know he's going to be standing in the power of Satan.

"Notice this guy comes in with a peace policy. He's going to do what Nahum's talking about. He's going to imagine evil against the Lord as a Wicked counselor. He's going to counsel the world about how to bring in peace.

Daniel 11: [21] And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

[22] And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.
[23] And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.

"The guy knows how to talk. With good words and fair speeches he deceives people. When it says it's a 'small people,' it's talking about how the Antichrist is that 'little horn'; he isn't going to need thousands of people to take over.

"By the way, you don't need millions of people to take over a nation. Just take over the government. When you have a coup, you just need to have people in strategic points and places.

[24] He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.
[25] And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him.
[26] Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow: and many shall fall down slain.
[27] And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

"I love that thing about how 'they shall speak lies at one table.' They're having a counsel; they're having a negotiation and they're lying through their teeth to one another. The way the Antichrist takes over is with a policy book.

"It's funny, the Democrat and Republican parties, during a presidential election, spend millions in their conventions and they draft a party platform. Now nobody that ever gets elected pays any attention to the party platform.

"They don't follow those things, but this guy has a party platform that he's going to put forth and when he gets it across, he's going to do it! And it's a plan of wickedness."