Chic Harley – Legendary Buckeye Back

Chic Harley transformed Ohio State football from regional obscurity into a national powerhouse, dazzling crowds with his versatile playmaking and cementing his legacy as the program’s first true superstar.

Football Bio

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

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 posted a fantastic 21-1-1 record. The Buckeyes won every Western Conference championship game except the last match Chic played in, and you guessed it: the defeat came at the hands of the University of Illinois, the team Harley had stolen a winning streak from earlier. 

This last game was played about 16 years before the Heisman Trophy was awarded to the nation’s top college football player, but many speculate he may have won multiple Heismans had it existed when he played. Harley brought Ohio State football to the forefront of national attention as the school’s first consensus first-team All-American and its first 3-time All-America selection. Chic Harley played for the Buckeyes in the 1916, 1917, and 1919 seasons; he missed 1918, 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 on the baseball team. The College Football Hall of Fame enshrined Chic in 1951.

Accolades and Football Accomplishments

• Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.
• Ohio State’s first three-time consensus First-Team All-American (1916, 1917, 1919).
• Led Ohio State to its first two Big Ten (Western Conference) championships (1916, 1917).
• Selected as a first-team halfback on the 1950 Associated Press All-Star college team of the first half of the 20th century (alongside Jim Thorpe).
• Number 47 officially retired by the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2004.
• Charter inductee into the Ohio State Varsity “O” Hall of Fame (1977).