Ohio State to induct Jim Tressel into hall of fame
Ohio State will induct former football coach Jim Tressel into its hall of fame along with 13 other new members this fall, the school announced Wednesday.
Tressel, currently the president of Youngstown State University. coached the Buckeyes from 2001 to 2010, leading the team to a 94–21 record with nine bowl appearances (seven BCS games), six Big Ten titles and a national championship in 2002. That national championship secured the Big Ten’s first consensus national title since 1968 and made Ohio State the first Division I-A school to record a 14–0 season.
Ohio State also made national championship game appearances in 2006 and 2007 under Tressel.
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Tressel resigned in May 2011 after a NCAA investigation found Ohio State players had a financial agreement with the owner of a local tattoo parlor in Columbus, Ohio. As part of the sanctions it levied on Ohio State, the NCAA imposed a five-year show-cause penalty on Tressel, meaning that any NCAA school that subsequently hired him could face severe penalties if additional violations arose. Tressel’s show-cause penalty stands until December 2016.
Tressel joined the Indianapolis Colts as a consultant on Sept. 2, 2011 and was hired by the University of Akron in a non-athletic-department position in February 2012.
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In May 2014, Youngstown State hired Tressel as university president.
Over his 24 seasons as a head coach, which also includes a stint at Youngstown State from 1986 to 2000, Tressel is 229–78–2.
The 14 new members of the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame will be inducted at a dinner on Sept. 18 and introduced at halftime of OSU’s Sept. 19 game against Northern Illinois.
- Mike Fiammetta
