Everybody loves Archie
Archie Griffin ’76 could have used his football fame to be anything. What he chose to be: himself, a Buckeye at heart. And that’s why we still adore him 50 years after he won his first Heisman.
Archie Griffin, a 70-year-old Black man wearing glasses and an Ohio State jersey with his famous number—45, strikes the famous Heisman pose. He carries a football in his left hand and holds out his left as if warding off a defender. Also, his grin says he’s having fun.
(Photo by Jodi Miller)
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Archie Griffin ’76 flashes his familiar smile while holding the Heisman Trophy for yet another photo in a half-century’s worth of graciously posing for the camera. Although physically taut at age 70, the beloved Buckeye icon finds the cast bronze Heisman to be a bit cumbersome in his arms. “This trophy is heavy,” Griffin says with a laugh.
The Heisman weighs 45 pounds, coincidentally matching the jersey number Griffin wore as a running back who darted and dashed through opposing defenses and into Buckeye and college football lore. Fifty years after first being awarded the Heisman, Griffin remains the only two-time winner of the honor given annually to the nation’s top player. Yet any weight from that unique significance, such as endless requests for photos or favors, hasn’t been too heavy for him to carry. “It has been 50 years—that’s a lifetime—and people still remember me,” Griffin says. “You got to respect that, man.”
Griffin’s customary gratefulness greets his latest honor: a statue of him placed in August outside the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, where he was the first of only two players to have started four Rose Bowl games. Later that month, a replica of the statue went up near Ohio Stadium depicting Griffin in his Buckeye uniform.
But that’s not how he pictures himself. “Football is part of me, and that’s a positive,” he says. “At the same time, football doesn’t define me. I want to be known for treating people right. I’ve always felt that if you treat people right, good things are going to happen.”
That simple approach to living has created for Griffin a reputation among Buckeyes and beyond that far surpasses his Heisman seasons of 1974 and ’75. “Everything but the Heisman Trophy usually comes to mind when I think about Archie,” says Georgie Shockey ’80, who worked with Griffin for six years when he was president and CEO of The Ohio State University Alumni Association from 2004 to ’15. “I think of him as being ‘people forward’ in that he’ll do whatever to help make a person succeed, do better, achieve.”
Griffin’s enduring legacy is how he has used his Heisman celebrity to positively impact lives in his hometown of Columbus, throughout Ohio and in our widespread Buckeye community through volunteerism, service and support. “No one can better represent Ohio State than Archie,” says Ginny Trethewey ’77 JD, the alumni association’s chief operating officer under Griffin for seven years.
From the moment he first held the Heisman, Griffin understood that the honor meant he represented something bigger than himself. That idea continues to provide him purpose and motivation to help others, same as he says so many have always done for him.
“There’s a sense of responsibility that goes along with winning a Heisman,” Griffin says. “I wanted to make sure that I made my family, Ohio State University and all the people I came in contact with proud.”
Dutifulness existed in Griffin even when he began his freshman season in 1972 as one of three Buckeyes wearing No. 45, randomly assigned to each unknown player by the team’s equipment manager. “I never asked for a particular number,” he says. “I’ve always felt you make the number; the number doesn’t make you.”
Griffin’s stellar play made No. 45 his alone, and iconic. Ohio State retired the jersey numeral in 1999, the first such honor for any Buckeye
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