Paul Brown won a National Title in his 2nd season at tOSU, but only coached for 3 years before joining the Navy in 1944. I would guess that he is in the Ring of Honor due to his accomplishments at all levels of football.
Paul Brown is always an interesting case when discussing accomplishments at Ohio State or in the Big Ten or in College Football generally.
I believe that Paul Brown is the greatest football coach ever. You can disagree, but regardless, he is unarguably in that discussion. The problem, with regard to tOSU, the Big Ten, or CFB is that he didn't coach at this level for very long. He was born in 1908 and became the HC at Severn School (a Maryland HS) at just 22 years old in 1930. He won a Maryland State Championship in his first year then left after the 1931 season to become HC at Massillon Washington HS in 1932.
If you don't know Ohio HS football, this will be hard to understand but Massillon Washington is a HUGE football school. They are Canton McKinley's primary rival. Chris Spielman once said that he had played in tOSU/M as well as Browns/Steelers and other NFL rivalries but that Massillon/McKinley was the most intense. Football is HUGE there.
Anyway, Brown coached Massillon Washington for nine years (1932-1940) and won FIVE state championships. That was good enough to get him the HC job at Ohio State where he coached the Buckeye's first NC team in his second year, 1942.
Brown's last year at Ohio State (1943) was a disaster mostly because Ohio State was part of the Army's training program which did NOT allow trainees to participate in sports while other schools (including Michigan and Purdue) were in the Navy's training program which did allow trainees to participate in sports. Thus, Brown's 1943 team was made up almost completely of 17 year old freshman too young to enlist and they went 3-6 including getting pasted 30-7 and 45-7 by Purdue's and Michigan's older and more experienced Navy trainees respectively.
After the 1943 season Brown joined the Navy and wound up coaching the Great Lakes Navy Training Station football team which competed against colleges for two years (1944-1945).
Brown's replacement at Ohio State, (Carroll Widdoes) was seen as a placeholder because it was assumed at the time that Brown would return to Ohio State after the war. Instead, after the war he coached 17 years for the Cleveland Browns and eight years for the Cincinnati Bengals at the professional level. All told, Brown won:
- 6 HS State Championships (1 MD, 5 OH) in 11 years coaching HS football
- 1 NC in three years coaching CFB (five years if you count the two at Great Lakes)
- 7 Championships in 25 years of coaching Professional Football.
As I said above, I think he was the greatest football coach ever. That said, it is hard to argue for him as the greatest coach at Ohio State because he only coached three years, with one league and one national title.
I've come around to this phrasing:
I believe that Paul Brown was the greatest coach to ever coach at Ohio State or in the Big Ten but not the greatest coach at Ohio State or in the Big Ten due to lack of sufficient time at the school/in the league.
