In celebration of former Ohio State running back Archie Griffin, a new statue was unveiled and dedicated to the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner at the Rose Bowl Stadium Saturday. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
The only two-time Heisman trophy winner will forever be honored at the Rose Bowl.
The Rose Bowl Legacy unveiled an Archie Griffin statue at the Rose Bowl Stadium — located in Pasadena, California — to enshrine the legendary Ohio State running back in the stadium’s Court of Champions Saturday afternoon.
This unveiling honors the 50th anniversary of Griffin’s first Heisman-trophy-winning season.
“On behalf of The Ohio State University and the Department of Athletics, I wish to extend our most sincere thanks and gratitude to the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation for this wonderful honor of memorializing our all-time great, Archie Griffin, with a statue at the Rose Bowl Stadium,” said Gene Smith, former Ohio State senior vice president and Wolfe Foundation-Eugene Smith Endowed Athletics Director, in a Feb. 12 press release from Ohio State Athletics.
“Knowing Archie, he would want a statue for all the Heisman Trophy winners along the ‘Legacy Walk.’ His accomplishments on and off the playing field are truly legendary and still one-of-a-kind 50 years later, and we are so proud and grateful that he is a Buckeye,” Smith stated in the press release.
Griffin competed in the Rose Bowl with the Buckeyes across four straight seasons from 1972-75, yet only claimed the Rose Bowl crown just once — during the 1972-73 season.
“I am humbled to have a statue in my honor at the Rose Bowl Stadium, one of the most prestigious stadiums in America. I feel blessed to have played in four Rose Bowl Games,” Griffin said in the press release. “But please know that when you honor me with this recognition, you also honor the teams that I played on during my four years at The Ohio State University. I was simply in the right place, at the right time, with the right people. That’s what allowed me to enjoy the success that my teammates and I experienced. Again, I am extremely grateful to be honored in this manner.”
Over the course of his four-year career at Ohio State, the Columbus native won back-to-back Heisman trophies in 1974 and 1975. Griffin racked up 5,463 yards from scrimmage and 27 total touchdowns, according to his profile on Sports Reference.
Along with his Heisman trophies, Griffin was a two-time Walter Camp Award winner for the collegiate American football player of the year in 1974 and 1975, making him one of just three players to win the award twice. Griffin was also honored with the Maxwell Award in 1975, according to his profile on Sports Reference.
Griffin also demonstrated a positive impact off the field, prompting all-time great Buckeyes head coach and Griffin’s former coach Woody Hayes to say Griffin was “a better man than he is a football player,” according to a Saturday article from Eleven Warriors,
On Aug. 30, Ohio State will honor Griffin with a new statue at the Ohio Stadium North Rotunda, according to a Saturday X post from Athletic Director Ross Bjork.
The statue at Ohio Stadium will be revealed just a day before Griffin is slated to dot the ‘I’ for the Ohio State Marching Band’s traditional “Script Ohio” performance during halftime of the Buckeyes’ opening matchup against Akron Aug. 31.
Griffin will be just the 17th non-band member to ever dot the ‘I.’ Most recently, former Ohio State head football coach Earl Bruce — who coached from 1979-1987 — received the prestigious honor, according to previous reporting by Eleven Warriors.
Clarification: This unveiling honors the 50th anniversary of Griffin’s first Heisman-trophy-winning season.
