View source for Chic Harley

{{Short description|American football player (1895–1974)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox NFL biography
| name        = Chic Harley
| image       = Chic Harley.jpg
| alt         =
| caption     = Harley playing for the Buckeyes
| number      = 4
| position    = [[Halfback (American football)|Halfback]] <br> [[Wingback (American football)|Wingback]]
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1895|9|15}}
| birth_place = [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1974|4|21|1894|9|15}}
| death_place = [[Danville, Illinois]], U.S.
| height_ft   = 5
| height_in   = 8
| weight_lb   = 165
| high_school = [[East High School (Columbus, Ohio)|East]] <br> ([[Columbus, Ohio]])
| college     = [[Ohio State Buckeyes football|Ohio State]] (1916–1917, 1919)
| pastteams   = * [[History of the Chicago Bears#1921–1929: First years in Chicago and the rise of the Bears|Chicago Staleys]] ([[1921 APFA season|1921]])
| highlights  = * 3× Consensus [[College Football All-America Team|All-American]] ([[1916 College Football All-America Team|1916]], [[1917 College Football All-America Team|1917]], [[1919 College Football All-America Team|1919]])
* 3× First-team [[List of All-Big Ten Conference football teams|All-Big Ten]] ([[1916 All-Western Conference football team|1916]],{{efn|Then known as All-Western Conference}} [[1917 All-Big Ten Conference football team|1917]], [[1919 All-Big Ten Conference football team|1919]])
* [[Ohio State Buckeyes football#Retired numbers|Ohio State Buckeyes No. 47]] retired
| statlabel1  = Games played
| statvalue1  = 9
| statlabel2  = Games started
| statvalue2  = 5
| pfr         = H/HarlCh20
| CollegeHOF  = 1298 
}}

'''Charles Wesley''' "'''Chic'''" '''Harley''' (September 15, 1895 – April 21, 1974) was an [[American football]] player and athlete, often credited with bringing [[Ohio State Buckeyes football|Ohio State University's football program]] to national attention. Harley was Ohio State's first consensus first-team [[College Football All-America Team|All-American]] selection and first three-time All-America selection. In 1951, he became a charter inductee in the [[College Football Hall of Fame]].

In 1941, [[James Thurber]] described Harley's running skills for the [[New York City]] newspaper, ''[[PM (newspaper)|PM]]'', "If you never saw him run with a football, I can't describe it to you. It wasn't like [[Red Grange]] or [[Tom Harmon]] or anybody else. It was kind of a cross between music and cannon fire, and it brought your heart up under your ears."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/11/16/bob_hunter_interview.html?sid=101|title= Chic Harley put OSU on college football map|access-date= November 17, 2007|archive-url= https://archive.today/20120709141915/http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/11/16/bob_hunter_interview.html?sid=101|archive-date= July 9, 2012|url-status= dead}}</ref>

==Early life==
Harley was born in [[Chicago, Illinois]], hence the source of the nickname Chic, but his family moved to [[Columbus, Ohio]], when he was 12 years old. There Harley attended [[East High School (Columbus, Ohio)|East High School]]. The family was to return to Chicago just before Harley's senior year, but the Columbus East principal convinced the family to let Harley stay for his final year. In his career at East High School, Harley's team lost only one game, his last.

==College career==
Harley was recruited to attend Ohio State by the university's chapter of the [[Phi Gamma Delta]] fraternity, the fraternity he joined upon his arrival on campus.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.centralohio.com/ohiostate/stories/20031007/football/406558.html|title=Harley's exploits set off Ohio State's greatness|access-date=May 28, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927190845/http://www.centralohio.com/ohiostate/stories/20031007/football/406558.html |archive-date = September 27, 2007}}</ref>  Harley began his career with the Ohio State Buckeyes in 1916. He led the team to a 7&ndash;0 record and their first [[Big Ten Conference]] championship. The team scored 258 points in seven games and giving up only 29. The key games of the season were a 7&ndash;6 victory over the [[University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign|University of Illinois]] and a 14&ndash;13 victory over the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], teams that were at the time the conference's dominant powers. In both games, the margin of victory was a [[point after touchdown]] kicked by Harley. Following the season, Harley was named as a consensus first-team [[All-America]] selection, including a spot on [[Walter Camp]]'s authoritative list.

[[File:1916 Ohio Field.jpg|300px|thumb|Chic Harley [[end run|runs around the end]] in the 1916 Big Ten championship game against Northwestern]]

The [[Ohio State Buckeyes|Buckeyes]] repeated as conference champion in 1917 with an 8&ndash;0&ndash;1 record, and Harley repeated as a consensus first-team [[College Football All-America Team|All-American]]. In 1918, Harley left school to be a [[aviator|pilot]] in the [[United States Army Air Service]] during [[World War I]], but he returned the following year. In 1919, the Buckeyes finished 6&ndash;1. In Harley's only career loss, the team lost the conference title to the University of Illinois on a field goal with eight seconds left in the season finale.

The 1919 season is most remembered at Ohio State, however, for recording the school's first victory over arch-rival [[University of Michigan]]. Following the Buckeyes' 13–3 win, legendary Michigan head coach [[Fielding H. Yost]] asked for and was granted a rare moment to address the Ohio State team. "You deserve your victory, you fought brilliantly," Yost began. "You boys gave a grand exhibition of football strategy and while I am sorry, dreadfully sorry, that we lost, I want to congratulate you. And you, Mr. Harley, I believe, are one of the finest little machines I have ever seen."

Coach Yost was not alone in his praise. Harley was again a consensus first-team All-American in 1919 and became the first three-time All-America selection at Ohio State. The Buckeyes now have eight three-time All-Americans in their 120-plus years of college football, but none more impactful than their first.

Throughout his Ohio State career, Harley played right [[Running back|halfback]] on offense and [[Safety (football position)|safety]] on defense, and was also the team's [[punter (football position)|punter]] and [[place kicker]]. He scored 201 points in a 23-game career. This total was the school's individual scoring record until Harley was surpassed by [[Howard "Hopalong" Cassady]] in 1955. Harley's 8.74 points per game remains a school record. Harley also holds the team record for [[interceptions]] in a game: he picked off four passes in the 1919 game against the University of Michigan.

In 1950, Harley was voted a first-team halfback on the [[Associated Press]] college football All-Star team for the first half of the 20th century. The other first-team halfback was [[Jim Thorpe]]. [[Red Grange]] was voted to the second team. When asked to explain his vote, one writer said, "Red Grange was a great runner, but that's all he was. Chic Harley was a great runner, a great passer, a great kicker and a great defensive back. That's why he's on my first-team."<ref>[http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&SPSID=87751&SPID=10408&DB_OEM_ID=17300&ATCLID=1146064 Signing His Masterpiece: Chic's Name Goes Up in the House that Harley Built] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311104335/http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&SPSID=87751&SPID=10408&DB_OEM_ID=17300&ATCLID=1146064 |date=March 11, 2010 }}.</ref> In 1951 Harley was one of 44 players and coaches selected as the charter members of the [[College Football Hall of Fame]].

In Harley's era, the Buckeyes played in [[Ohio Field]], which had a seating capacity of no more than 20,000. Harley so excited the fans of Ohio State football that he inspired a $1.3 million funding drive, starting in 1920, to build the massive [[Ohio Stadium]]. For this reason Ohio Stadium, where the Buckeyes still play, is sometimes called "The House That Harley Built".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/college-football/bowls05/news/story?id=2270055|title=Encyclopedia: Ohio State|date=December 23, 2005 |access-date=May 28, 2007}}</ref>

===College football scoring statistics===
{| class="wikitable"
! Year !! TDs !! PATs !! FGs !! Points 
|-
| '''1916''' (7 games) || 8 || 7 || 1 || 58
|-
| '''1917''' (9 games) || 8 || 15 || 3 || 72
|-
| '''1919''' (8 games) || 7 || 17 || 4 || 71
|-
| '''Total''' (24 games) || 23 || 39 || 8 || 201
|}

===All-around athlete===
In addition to his football exploits, Harley also [[varsity letter|lettered]] in [[baseball]], [[basketball]], and [[Track and field|track]]. He was an [[outfielder]] in baseball, a [[Guard (basketball)|guard]] in basketball, a [[Sprint (running)|sprinter]] in track, and one of the first lifeguards for the [[Olentangy Park]] swimming pool.<ref>"New Park Pool Second Largest of Its Kind in United States." ''The Columbus Sunday Dispatch,'' July 15, 1917. Page 42. Accessed through the Columbus Dispatch digital archives.</ref> Harley was a member of the 1917 Big Ten baseball championship team. On the track field, Harley set a conference record in the 50-yard dash.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.journal-topics.com/sports/03/sp031001.7.html|title=Best In Their Fields|access-date=May 28, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313151850/http://www.journal-topics.com/sports/03/sp031001.7.html|archive-date=March 13, 2007}}</ref>

==Professional career and illness==
[[File:211031-grove-cartoon.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Harley was paired on the Decatur Staleys with Pete Stinchcomb, a former Ohio State teammate.]]

Following his college playing career, Harley was contacted by [[George Halas]] to play for the [[National Football League|NFL]] team Halas was organizing, a team that would ultimately become the [[Chicago Bears]]. Harley's brother, Bill Harley, negotiated a contract that was to give Chic Harley one-third ownership of the team. However, that contract was voided when a physical revealed health impairments resultant from Harley's time in the war. At the time he was diagnosed with [[Dementia praecox]], a chronic, deteriorating psychotic disorder characterized by rapid cognitive disintegration, usually beginning in the late teens or early adulthood."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/11/16/bob_hunter_interview.html?sid=101|title= Chic Harley put OSU on college football map|access-date= November 17, 2007|archive-url= https://archive.today/20120709141915/http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/11/16/bob_hunter_interview.html?sid=101|archive-date= July 9, 2012|url-status= dead}}</ref>

Harley ultimately became hospitalized at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in [[Danville, Illinois]], where he was a patient for the remainder of his life.

==Later life and death==
Harley returned to Columbus in 1949 for a tribute at Ohio Stadium. The [[Ohio State University Marching Band]] adapted their famous "[[Ohio State University Marching Band#Script Ohio and dotting the "i"|Script Ohio]]" formation to spell out the name "Chic." By 2009 that performance remained the only time that the formation has been altered.<ref>{{cite book|title=The One and Only: Chic Harley - America's Great Athlete |first=Todd C. |last=Wessell |publisher=Peppertree Press |year=2009 |isbn=9781936051328}}</ref> Harley died of pneumonia in 1974 at the age of 78. His pallbearers were the five Ohio State football captains at the time; [[Archie Griffin]], Arnie Jones, Steve Myers, Neal Colzie, Pete Cuzick and tackle Kurt Schumacher.  Chic's final resting place is located at [[Union Cemetery (Columbus)|Union Cemetery]] along the [[Olentangy River]], about two miles north of the Ohio State University campus.

==Honors==
Harley was among the first induction class of the [[Ohio State Varsity O Hall of Fame]] in 1977.

Ohio State began honoring players by retiring their numbers in 1999. Jersey numbers were more fluid in Harley's era, changing from game to game, but the university decided to honor Harley by retiring the final number he wore for Ohio State, #47.<ref>[http://www.journal-topics.com/sports/04/sp041103.10.html 'Chic's' Last Dash For Record Books] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312225934/http://www.journal-topics.com/sports/04/sp041103.10.html |date=March 12, 2007 }}.</ref> The ceremony was held at halftime of a game with Penn State on October 30, 2004. Ironically, that number was worn by Harley in the only collegiate game he lost. Many believe it would have been more appropriate to retire #10, which was the number Harley wore while defeating Michigan.

To this day, East High School still plays on the same field that Harley played on in the 1910s, which has been named Harley Field in his honor.

The [[Chic Harley Award]] is presented by the [[Touchdown Club of Columbus]] to the College Football Player of the Year.

==Notes and references==
{{Notelist}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Footballstats |nfl= |espn= |cbs= |yahoo= |si= |pfr=H/HarlCh20 |rotoworld= }}
* {{Find a Grave|5622594}}

{{Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback navbox}}
{{Navboxes
| title = Chic Harley—championships, awards, and honors
| list1 =
{{1921 Chicago Staleys}}
{{1916 College Football Consensus All-Americans}}
{{1917 College Football Consensus All-Americans}}
{{1919 College Football Consensus All-Americans}}
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harley, Chic}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:American football halfbacks]]
[[Category:Ohio State Buckeyes football players]]
[[Category:Chicago Staleys players]]
[[Category:All-American college football players]]
[[Category:College Football Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:People with schizophrenia]]
[[Category:Players of American football from Chicago]]