Chic Harley – Legendary Buckeye Back

September 15, 1894 – Charles Wesley Harley was born in Chicago, Illinois. From a young age all of his friends and family referred to him as Chic. In 1912, Chic’s family moved from Chicago to Columbus, Ohio.

He attended East High School in the capital city of Ohio, and his play in high school drew crowds larger than that of Ohio State’s games at old Ohio Field! Chic Harley only played in one game at East High, where his team lost, and that would have been his last game of his senior season at the school, to rival North High School. He enrolled at OSU and played out his freshman season on the frosh team. In that era of college football, students in their freshman seasons were not permitted to play varsity ball; they had to play on the freshman teams of their respective schools.

Chic Harley was reportedly 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 170 pounds, nothing much to draw attention to him as being a football star, but when he got on the main Buckeye team in 1916, the star in him started to shine. With just over a minute to play against the defending Western Conference (precursor to the Big Ten) champion Illinois, Chic dropped back to pass, scrambled around a bit, pump-faked, and then took off like lightning to pay dirt through the sloppy, muddy field. Harley then called a time-out, matter-of-factly put on a clean shoe and tied it, then kicked the game-winning point in the 7-6 victory! It was Illinois’ first home loss in 4 seasons! 

That same season, the Buckeye knocked off an undefeated Wisconsin squad by the score of 14-13, and Harley scored all of the points for Ohio State in that one, too. The Ohio State teams that had Chic Harley playing for them had a fantastic record of 21-1-1. The Buckeyes won every Western Conference championship game, except for the very last match Chic played in, and you guessed it, the defeat came at the hands of the University of Illinois, the team that Harley had stolen a winning streak from earlier. 

This last game of his was some 16 years before the Heisman Trophy was awarded to the nation’s top college football player, but many speculate he may have been the winner of multiple Heismans had it existed when he played. Harley brought Ohio State football to the forefront of national attention as he became the school’s very first consensus first team All-American as well as the first 3-time All-America selection. Chic Harley played for the Buckeyes in the 1916, 1917 and 1919 seasons, he missed the 1918 season when he spent the year as a fighter pilot in World War I.

To put into perspective just how good Harley was, let’s look at the 1950 Associated Press All-Star college team of the first half of the twentieth century. Chic Harley was listed as the first team running back alongside Jim Thorpe while Red Grange was on the second team as a running back! Harley is one of the few Ohio State four-sport lettermen in history. Besides football he was a starting guard on the basketball team, set a then Big Ten record in the 50-yard dash in track and was a three year starter in the outfield of the baseball team  Chic was enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.