In 2010, the Big Ten Network unveiled its list of the 50 greatest icons in conference history. The top three were Jesse Owens, Magic Johnson, and Red Grange. Left off the list entirely was a man many historians consider the founding figure of Ohio State football — a three-time All-American, the architect of Ohio State’s first win over Michigan, and the inspiration behind the construction of Ohio Stadium itself.
His name was Chic Harley. And there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of him.
From Chicago to Columbus
Charles Wesley Harley was born in Chicago on September 15, 1894, and moved to Columbus as a child. He gained the nickname “Chic” from his birthplace — and as Columbus author James Thurber once noted, the name carried a kind of electricity in Ohio. Harley’s high school games at East High School outdrew Ohio State University games. He was that good, and Ohio State was that bad.
When Harley arrived on campus in 1915, Ohio State was a program without an identity. Before Harley, Michigan had beaten Ohio State in game after game, and the Buckeyes played a schedule that included the likes of Oberlin, Kenyon, and Otterbein. A score against Michigan was considered a minor landmark in its own right.
Building a Program From the Ground Up
In 1916, Ohio State joined the Western Conference — the forerunner of the Big Ten — and Harley exploded onto the scene. He led Ohio State to a 23-3 win over Northwestern to claim the first Western Conference championship in school history, and was named to Walter Camp’s All-American team at season’s end. The following year, Ohio State went 8-0-1, outscoring opponents 292-6, and Harley earned first-team All-American honors again.
Then came 1919, the year that cemented his legend. After a complicated and farcical Army stint — which included a court-martial for sleeping past 7:30 a.m. and “smiling in a sneering manner” — Harley returned to Columbus for what would be his final college season. On a muddy field in Ann Arbor, he intercepted two passes, averaged 42 yards on 11 punts, and broke three tackles on a jaw-dropping 42-yard touchdown run to deliver Ohio State’s first-ever win over Michigan, 13-3. Legendary Michigan head coach Fielding Yost addressed the Ohio State team afterward, singling out Harley specifically: “I believe you are one of the finest little machines I have ever seen.”
Harley won his third first-team All-American selection that year. And it was the wave of euphoria he’d generated in Columbus — year after year, game after game — that fueled the $1.3 million funding drive to construct Ohio Stadium, which opened in 1922. The stadium is sometimes called “the house that Harley built,” and by any honest accounting, the name fits.
The Unraveling
Everything after 1919 is a tragedy. Harley’s brief professional career with the Decatur Staleys — the franchise that became the Chicago Bears — fell apart after a rib injury left him unable to play at his level. His teammates resented his pay. His confidence collapsed. The emotional fragility that had always been a part of him — the teammate who wept in the locker room until midnight after his only collegiate loss — began to manifest in more alarming ways.
He was diagnosed with dementia praecox, what we would now recognize as a form of schizophrenia. In an era when mental illness was not discussed publicly, and when his condition was considered a progressively degenerating disease with no path to recovery, Chic Harley spent decades shuffling between sanitariums, family homes, and eventually the Veterans Administration Hospital in Danville, Illinois, where he would live for the rest of his life.
Ohio State quietly worked to support him — paying him as a nominal assistant coach so they could contribute to his care, quietly organizing fundraising efforts, and keeping his condition out of the press. It was an era when a hero’s private struggles stayed private.
Why We Forgot Him
Red Grange, who finished first on the Big Ten’s 2010 list, was named by ESPN in 2008 as the greatest football player of all time. After college, Grange joined the Chicago Bears and embarked on a barnstorming tour that captured the nation’s attention and helped legitimize professional football. He built his own legend with his own hands.
Chic Harley never got that chance. Mental illness took over just as he should have been doing the same thing — the interviews, the appearances, the cultural presence that transforms an athlete into a permanent piece of the American sports story.
He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1951. In 1948, the Ohio State band modified their famous “Script Ohio” formation to spell out “Chic” in his honor during a Michigan game he attended. Seventy-five thousand people were in the stands. He died on April 21, 1974, at the age of 78.
Ohio Stadium still stands. The house that Harley built.
Books for Reference:
Chic: The Extraordinary Rise of Ohio State Football and the Tragic Schoolboy Athlete Who Made It Happen
https://amzn.to/4cB8XsG
The One and Only: Chic Harley – America’s Great Athlete
https://amzn.to/467PqNW