The Front Row

He arrived in Columbus in 1972 from Washington DC, a slender willow wisp of a young man,(6 ft, 168 lbs) with a wispy goatee and a huge Afro.......his three years of organized ball were set, and he had never had a white teammate. His style of play relied on quickness, speed and instincts! He was gifted but unpolished! Plays ran at his high school were literally diagramed in the dirt as they developed on the field.
As a senior at Dunbar HS, he threw 23 TD passes, but he also threw a lot of interceptions.He could deal with pressure, and liked to play under it. Thus Woody Hayes, received Cornelius(Corney) Greene at Ohio State!
Woody had been under pressure to "expand" his offense from the monotony of watching a big fullback plunge into the line, and with no significant spread running or passing attack. With Corney on the scene this changed quickly as he beat out big Greg Hare at QB, who was the better passer, but lumbered at running. Corney Green's balletic footwork, ball handling skills,and athletecsim,made him the most exciting QB to watch in college football, in his day!

If you had the privledge to ever watch Corney Greene under center at OSU, you got and eyefull. Corney was Mr Elusive in person. He could scramble on a broken play, and just when you knew he was trapped, he busted out for a big play. His own team mates said (in practice).."it was like trying to tackle a fart".! Corney, as I watched him take the ball from the center, would back up and kind of schuffle his feet, and if it was not a hand off, but his own run, could run the end, and no one could get him. Once the Buckeye end had his man blocked, it was 6 points on the board. He was poetry in motion!

Opposing coaches complained that they could not find on their team "anyone to mimic Greene in practice"

Corney Green played for the Buckeyes from 1973-1975. He was the starting QB for those years.
He was OSU'd MVP for 1975, the Big !0 MVP for 1975, and the Rose Bowl MVP for 1974. He lead the B10 in total offense in 1636 yards, then a record.

Corney had the privledge to play with, what many people called the " finest backfield every assembled" in college football with Archie Griffin, Pete Johnson, Champ Henson, Brian Bashnagel and himself!

During his playing years at OSU as starting QB,the Buckeyes went 31-3-1, beat Michigan twice and had one tie with them.

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