The 1968 Ohio State Buckeyes football team is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in the 1968 Big Ten Conference football season. It is considered one of the strongest in OSU history, fielding 11 All-Americans and six first-round NFL draft picks. With quarterback

Rex Kern Rex William Kern (born May 28, 1949) is a former American football player. He played professional football in the National Football League at defensive back for the Baltimore Colts and Buffalo Bills. In college, Kern was the quarterback for ...

and running back

Jim Otis James Lloyd Otis (born April 29, 1948) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons during the 1970s. Otis played college football for Ohio St ...

leading a powerful OSU offense and

Jack Tatum John David Tatum (November 18, 1948 – July 27, 2010) was an American football safety. He played 10 seasons, from 1971 through 1980, with the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers in the National Football League (NFL). He was popularly known as " ...

on defense,

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

' Buckeyes capped an undefeated season with a dominating 50–14 victory over archrival Michigan and a come-from-behind 27–16 victory over

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

in the 1969 Rose Bowl to secure the national title. This was also the first year the Buckeye players were awarded Buckeye pride stickers for their helmets, each one a reward for a good play. This would be Ohio State's last outright national championship until

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the year for the Buckeyes was their upset of #1 Purdue in their third game.

Schedule

Personnel

Game summaries

SMU

Oregon

Game statistics Game Leaders

Purdue

29 rush, 144 yards Game statistics Game Leaders

Northwestern

20 rush, 121 yards Game statistics Game Leaders

Illinois

Game statistics Game Leaders

Michigan State

Game statistics Game Leaders

Wisconsin

Game statistics Game Leaders

Iowa

Game statistics Game Leaders

Michigan

Game statistics Game Leaders

Rose Bowl

Ohio State Football Archives
Retrieved 2018-Oct-1. Game statistics Game Leaders

Statistical leaders

*Scoring –

*Rushing – Jim Otis *Passing – Rex Kern *Receiving – Bruce Jankowski

Players in the 1969 NFL Draft

References

{{College Football National Champion navbox

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

Ohio State Buckeyes football seasons College football national champions Big Ten Conference football champion seasons Rose Bowl champion seasons College football undefeated seasons Ohio State Buckeyes football