Position: Offensive Tackle
Years: 1970, 1972-1973
Place of Birth: Cleveland, OH
Date of Birth: Mar 21, 1951
Place of Death: Columbus, OH
Date of Death: Oct 29, 2016
Jersey Number: 74
Height: 6-2
Weight: 258
High School: Cleveland, OH (John Hay HS)
John Hicks, a 2001 College Football Hall of Fame inductee and a two-time First Team All-American and undeniably one of the most outstanding Ohio State football players of all time, died Oct. 29, 2016, after a long illness. Born March 21, 1951, he was 65.
An offensive guard from Cleveland’s John Hay High School, Hicks was a three-year starter for Hall of Fame Coach Woody Hayes at tackle on teams that won Big Ten Conference championships in 1970, 1972 and 1973 and advanced to the Rose Bowl in each of those seasons.
Freshmen were ineligible in 1969, Hicks’ first year on campus, but in 1970, he helped the Buckeyes to a 9-1 record, a 7-0 mark in the Big Ten, including a 20-9 win over Michigan. The National Football F0undation named the 1970 Buckeyes national champions, presenting them with the coveted MacArthur Bowl Trophy.
Ohio State went 3-1 in 1971 before a knee injury sidelined Hicks, causing Hicks to miss the final six games of what would become a 6-4 campaign. He returned stronger than ever, and in 1972 he was a First Team All-American for an Ohio State team that went 9-2 and 7-1 in the Big Ten with a 14-11 victory over Michigan. It was also the year that he began paving the way to greatness for a freshman running back from Columbus named Archie Griffin.
In 1973 the Buckeyes were 10-0-1 with Hicks earning unanimous First Team All-American honors. The Buckeyes were awarded the Rose Bowl berth after a 10-all tie with Michigan, and Hicks’ last game as a Buckeye was a 42-21 dismantling of USC in the 1974 Rose Bowl game. Hicks was the first player to start in three Rose Bowls, and in 2009 he was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
Hicks made history in 1973. Not only was he a unanimous All-American, but he won both the Lombardi Award and the Outland Trophy as the best interior lineman in the nation, and he finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to Penn State’s John Cappelletti. Teammates Griffin and linebacker Randy Gradishar were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Heisman voting that year.
Hicks would go on to become a first-round NFL Draft pick of the New York Giants, who he played for from 1974 to 1977. Hicks was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Ohio State Sports Hall of Fame in 1985. His careers after football included running his real estate development company and “paying forward” through community service initiatives such as the Boys and Girls Club of Central Ohio and the Central Ohio Diabetes Association.
