On December 28, 1978, Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes punched Clemson's Charlie Bauman.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Tue Dec 29, 2020: On December 28, 1978, Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes punched Clemson's Charlie Bauman ...

Clemson Wiki says this happened on December 28, 1978.

Charlie Bauman

On December 29, 1978, Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes punched Clemson player Charlie Bauman in the throat after Bauman intercepted a pass with 2 minutes left in the Gator Bowl. The next day, Ohio State fired Hayes, ending his 30-year tenure as head coach

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[Casady1]

1. I was watching that game

and could not believe Woody punched that player. At least it got rid of that asshole.

[JT45242]

2. There was a lot more to that story...

Guys on the sideline said the player threatened to rape Woody's daughter more than once during the game.

Not defending what he did, but the the Clemson player was not totally innocent.

My brother lived in the honors dorm which were basically apartments at the bottom of the football stadium and heard it from many of the players. Also heard a reporter say that the final thing the kid said was "I'm gonna make you black grandbabies with your daughter"

Woody was wrong and should have been fired. But the refs should have stopped the taunts earlier in the game. Plenty of blame to go around.

[rsdsharp]

4. You want to explain to me how a white player was

going to make black grandbabies with Hayes’ daughter?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Exactly. nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. My family was pleased that Hayes was finally fired.

Pleased that Clemson's Bauman barely even noticed the punch, and I hope he didn't experience any later difficulties caused by some authoritarian-loving Hayes worshippers.

Hayes was a violent sore loser years before the 1978 Gator Bowl.

1971 Michigan game, with Hayes ripping apart a yardage marker after running onto the field to yell at a ref:

1977 Michigan game, with Hayes punching a camera man:

Ohio was a hotbed of high school football talent in those days, and Hayes surely contributed to the loss of some that talent to schools like Michigan and Notre Dame. Similar to how Larry Bird ended up at Indiana State instead of Bobby Knight's Indiana.

Edit: My family also noticed that Johnny Carson seemed to often have a fill-in whenever Hayes was interviewed on The Tonight Show, usually before the Rose Bowl. Then Carson would return to host the show soon thereafter.

[rsdsharp]

7. Bird did attend Indiana -- for one month. He went back home

and attended a community college before going on to Indiana State. Knight refusing to acknowledge Bird on campus did play a part in his decision.

You may be reading too much into Carson. He likely took off during Christmas. If Johnny Carson didn’t want somebody on the show, they didn’t get booked.