| Ohio State Buckeyes Football News: |
| A year before Jackie Robinson famously donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, Bill Willis' passion for football conquered the barriers of discrimination and changed the course of the game forever.
The world knows the story of the baseball legend as the desegregation of professional sports, but outside of football circles, the history of the former Ohio State standout and NFL Hall of Famer is far-reaching but almost unknown. Raised by his grandfather and mother in Columbus, Ohio, the future all-around football star was more interested in track than football when he attended Columbus East High School. "I had a brother, Claude, who was about six years older than me," Willis said. "He was an outstanding football player, a fullback in high school and I was afraid I would be compared with him." When he did finally decide to give the sport that would become his destiny a hearty try, he became a three-year starter and won honorable-mention All-State honors as a senior. But Willis was skeptical of a future in football. Claude had tried to play in college but was told to look elsewhere, a "black school." After taking a year off to work, Willis enrolled at Ohio State in 1941 and new head football coach Paul Brown took note. The two-way tackle with track-star speed quickly earned his way into the lineup as a sophomore for the 9-1 Buckeyes, who went on to win the 1942 Western Conference championship and were named the best team in the nation. |
| Event | Date | Tickets | Venue |
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Ohio State Buckeyes Football
vs. Youngstown State Penguins Football
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11:59 pm
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Ohio Stadium
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Ohio State Buckeyes Football
vs. Ohio Bobcats Football
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11:59 pm
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Ohio Stadium
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USC Trojans Football
vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Football
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11:59 pm
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Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
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Ohio State Buckeyes Football
vs. Troy State Trojans Football
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11:59 pm
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Ohio Stadium
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Ohio State Buckeyes Football
vs. Minnesota Gophers Football
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11:59 pm
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Ohio Stadium
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Wisconsin Badgers Football
vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Football
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11:59 pm
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Camp Randall
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Ohio State Buckeyes Football
vs. Purdue Boilermakers Football
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11:59 pm
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Ohio Stadium
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Michigan State Spartans Football
vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Football
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11:59 pm
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Spartan Stadium-MI
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Ohio State Buckeyes Football
vs. Penn State Nittany Lions Football
|
8:00 pm
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Ohio Stadium
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Northwestern Wildcats Football
vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Football
|
11:59 pm
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Ryan Field
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Illinois Fighting Illini Football
vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Football
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11:59 pm
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Memorial Stadium- IL
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Ohio State Buckeyes Football
vs. Michigan Wolverines Football
|
11:59 pm
|
Ohio Stadium
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| More Ohio State Buckeyes Football News: |
| Buckeyes Football Tickets. We outlined what we were going to do this past week, and I think we followed through and made some progress. We had a light workout last Tuesday and spent most of our time studying the Northwestern video. Then on Wednesday and Thursday, we had two good padded practices, got a chance to work on a lot of inside drill and a lot of things that teams that we had been facing had not been doing against us. And so it was a good opportunity for our offensive guys up front and running backs and our defensive guys on the attack force to have a little bit more of their inside work than they\\'d been getting to this point in the season. Friday was a little bit lighter workout, and the guys that could, got to sneak out of there a little bit early and go see their high schools play and take Saturday and Sunday off. Ohio State Buckeyes Tickets. |