BTN.com staff, BTN.com staff, June 10, 2015
Ohio State announced Wednesday that former football coach Jim Tressel and 13 others will be enshrined in the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame.
The class, consisting of two coaches and 12 former student-athletes, will be inducted Sept. 18 and introduced to the public at halftime of the football game vs. Northern Illinois on Sept. 19.
In addition to Tressel, the 2015 class includes Tim Anderson (football), Justin Cook (men's soccer), Terence Dials (men's basketball), Lara Dickenmann (women's soccer), Natalia Diea (women's diving), Annabelle Fago (rowing), Joey Galloway (football), Therese Hession (women's golf coach), J Jaggers (wrestling), Perry Martter (wrestling), Teresa Meyers (pistol), Dan Seimetz (baseball) and Paul Tilley (men's hockey).
Here's what Ohio State says about Tressel in the school release:
Jim Tressel coached Ohio State from 2001-10 and guided the Buckeyes to an overall record of 94-21 with nine bowl appearances (including seven BCS games), six 10-win seasons, six Big Ten titles and a national championship all while posting an 8-1 record against rival Michigan. His 2002 team captured the Big Ten's first consensus national title since 1968, posting a 13-0 regular-season record and then defeating top-ranked Miami in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in a 31-24 double-overtime thriller, becoming the first Division I-A school to record a 14-0 campaign in the process.
Tressel, 229-78-2 in 24 years as a head coach, also guided Ohio State to national championship game appearances in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, Ohio State opened the season at No. 1 in the polls and held that ranking throughout the course of the regular season, becoming the first team to go wire-to-wire at the top spot. In 2007, 11-2 Ohio State won another outright Big Ten title and carried the No. 1 ranking in the polls for five weeks. The 2009 season was another memorable year for Ohio State, as the team won a sixth consecutive Big Ten crown, became the first school to defeat five 10-win teams in one season and capped the 11-2 campaign with a win over Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
Prior to coming to Ohio State, Tressel spent 15 seasons as head coach at Youngstown State, where he also served for a time as athletics director and now serves as university president. He guided the Penguins to four national championships, an overall record of 135-57-2 and was a four-time pick as the Division I-AA National Coach of the Year.
Tressel, a native of Mentor, Ohio, will be enshrined into the National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2015 in December.
