Tucker isn't the retiring kind
Bob Tucker’s retired.Of course, that is in name only. Other people might make it work; for Tucker and anyone else who was or remains a part of Jim Tressel’s Ohio State coaching staff, retirement comes with a definite maybe.
“I would have retired the year before and Tress wouldn’t let me,” laughed Tucker, who really did retire June 30 of 2009 after eight years as the Buckeyes’ director of football operations.
Tucker was familiar to many in Wooster as he played football for the Scots and graduated in 1965. He has a resume that captures the eye of anyone, beginning as a graduate assistant position at Penn State under Joe Paterno. He later coached at Wichita State, where he was on staff and the second aircraft when the other plane went down, killing 31 people; and then coached at Iowa State, Ohio State and Youngstown State (YSU).
Tucker served with Earle Bruce at Ohio State from 1979 through 1984, leaving the Bucks to return to Wooster where he served as the Scots’ head coach from 1985 through 1997. From there he went to YSU with Tressel and, when Tressel was hired at Ohio State in January 2001, he wanted Tucker to come with him but in a non-coaching capacity.
Tucker wasn’t sure about that move, but it took little more than 24 hours to decide to return to Columbus and become one of the rare people to serve two separate stints as an OSU football coach.
“I’m sure if he had his druthers, he would have rather continued teaching on grass,” said Tressel, from an interview with the Columbus Dispatch. “Bob Tucker is the most unselfish team player I’ve ever met. He’s always been about whatever the team needs.”
It’s also why Tucker, even though it took him four days to clean out his office, caved in to Tressel’s request to return to the program months later.
“When Jim Tressel calls,” said Tucker. “The plan had always been to retire when I turned 65, and then Lynn and I would travel a little bit. We’re not world travelers, we’re just regular folks, but we wanted to travel some.”
But, as Tucker admitted, he’s not a “sit at home kind of guy,” so there was just so much book reading and golfing and working out or thinking about catching the occasional Buckeye practice “to wean himself away” as best he could do.
“I knew it would be tough, but that doesn’t make it any easier to sit in the stadium and not be part of what’s going on,” said Tucker.
Once his office was cleaned out, the Tuckers were busy.
“Our daughter got married the following week and then from July 15-30 we went to Big Sky country and Jackson Hole,” said Tucker. There was a visit to West Point and then to South Carolina to visit former Scot AD Bill McHenry and his wife, Joan, “who had been very good to me,” said Tucker.
Then it was home and shortly after that Tressel approached Tucker with another job offer Tucker couldn’t refuse.
“All of us as coaches and support people get asked if we can get things for people in the military,” said Tucker. “We have relatives ask, ‘My brother, my dad – someone – is being deployed. Can you send a picture?’ But what we get as assistants or administrators is nothing compared to what Tress gets.
“He’s always been a strong believer in supporting the troops. His father left Ohio State and enlisted in the military (Navy) when we were at war and that knowledge is special. Plus, Jim Tressel is the most caring, compassionate person in the world. He has an appreciation for those who serve in the military so you and I can do what we do, and if he can help them he will.”
Tressel even had one vet from the Iraq war on campus to speak to the team. Capt. Chad Fleming lost a leg and, after being fitted with a prosthesis, went back to serve twice more. He has also run a marathon, and Tressel thought his appearance would send an appropriate message to his OSU team.
So, when Tressel called, Tucker couldn’t say no.
“Jim called me in August and said, ‘I’ve got a job for you and you’ve got to do it,’” said Tucker. “He wants to use the big stage that Ohio State has to show the military how special they are and that they haven’t been forgotten.”
One example came before the Buckeyes’ Rose Bowl win over Oregon when a request came in for a Brutus Buckeye banner to hang in a mess hall “to make the troops feel connected,” said Tucker.
“They stayed up all night to watch the game. It was midnight when the Rose Bowl started,” said Tucker. “A sergeant requested the banner and we autographed it, sent it and they got it before the game. … It made the soldiers feel special.”
With his own son, Scott, formerly serving in the military and more than 150 members of the Columbus area serving in the National Guard overseas, Tucker is sensitive to supporting the troops and, in that vein, supporting Tressel’s mission.
“That’s what I do in support of Jim Tressel,” said Tucker. “I have the same hours, I’m just doing different things.”