1. James Patrick Tressel was born on December 5,1952 and is an American politician and retired college football coach who has served as the 67th lieutenant governor of Ohio since 2025.
42 Facts About Jim Tressel
1. 2.
Jim Tressel's teams won five national championships during the course of his career, earning him numerous Coach of the Year accolades, and an induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
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Jim Tressel succeeded Bill Narduzzi as Youngstown State's fourth head football coach in 1986 and remained there until 2000.
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From September 2011 until February 2012, Jim Tressel was a consultant for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League.
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From 2012 to 2014 Jim Tressel was Vice President of Strategic Engagement for the University of Akron, before being named as Youngstown State University President on May 9,2014.
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On February 10,2025, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine nominated Jim Tressel to replace Jon Husted as Lieutenant Governor.
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Jim Tressel was born on December 5,1952, in Mentor, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
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Jim Tressel attended many of his father's games and practices, and developed a friendship with neighbor Lou Groza.
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Jim Tressel has three children from a prior marriage: Zak, Carlee, and Whitney; Ellen has one, Eric.
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Jim Tressel coached the quarterbacks, receivers, and running backs, while earning a master's degree in education.
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In 1991, Jim Tressel won his first national championship, defeating Marshall; the victory made him and his father the only father-son duo to win national championships in college football at that time.
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Jim Tressel was named Division I-AA Coach of the Year in '91, '93, '94, and '97.
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In 1998, Jim Tressel's reputation was blemished when it emerged that Ray Isaac, quarterback on his first national championship team, admitted to accepting massive benefits from Mickey Monus, the founder of Phar-Mor and former chairman of the Youngstown State board of trustees.
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Monus subsequently testified that when Isaac initially came to Youngstown State in 1988, Jim Tressel called Monus and asked him to work out a job for Isaac.
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When John Cooper was dismissed as Ohio State's head football coach following a loss to unranked South Carolina in the 2001 Outback Bowl, Jim Tressel returned to Ohio State as Cooper's successor.
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Jim Tressel coached the Buckeyes to two 19-game winning streaks, one which spanned the 2002 and 2003 seasons and the other which spanned the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
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Jim Tressel is sometimes referred to as "The Senator", because of his composure on the sidelines during play and his diplomatic way of interacting with representatives from the media.
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Jim Tressel is referred to as "The Vest" for his penchant for wearing a sweater vest on the sidelines.
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Until his retirement, Jim Tressel was one of only two active coaches with five or more national championships in any division.
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Jim Tressel is the third Tressel to reach 100 wins, joining his father and his older brother, Dick, who coached at Hamline University.
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Jim Tressel was first notified of the arrangement in April 2010 when he received several e-mails from Chris Cicero, a local attorney and former Ohio State walk-on football player.
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Jim Tressel never forwarded the e-mails, nor the information contained in them about potential violations, to his school's compliance office or the NCAA.
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Jim Tressel later claimed not to have acted because of concerns about the confidentiality of the information, yet he immediately forwarded the first e-mail to Terrelle Pryor's mentor.
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Jim Tressel denied any specific knowledge of the violations, and claimed that he could not remember who had given him the vague information.
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Jim Tressel remained silent, his long-time knowledge of the violations revealed only when Ohio State inadvertently discovered the April 2010 Cicero e-mails in an unrelated search in January 2011.
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On March 17,2011, it was announced that Jim Tressel requested Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith that he extend his own suspension to the same number of games as his players.
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Smith accepted the request, meaning Jim Tressel would have sat out the first five games of the 2011 season.
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Jim Tressel later stated that he lied about the violations because he didn't want to jeopardize the FBI's investigation against Rife and feared for his players' safety.
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Jim Tressel resigned as Ohio State's head football coach on May 30,2011.
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Jim Tressel left Ohio State as the third-winningest coach in school history, behind Woody Hayes and John Cooper.
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Jim Tressel was suspended by the Colts until the 7th game of the season due to his involvement in the NCAA violations during his tenure as head coach at Ohio State.
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On February 2,2012, Jim Tressel accepted a non-athletic-department position where he started his coaching career, the University of Akron.
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Jim Tressel was still revered in the area and a new athletic training complex bearing his name, the Watson and Jim Tressel Training Site, opened on campus in 2011.
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However, Jim Tressel's highest level of education is a master's degree; a doctorate is commonplace for a university president position in the United States.
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Supporters for bringing back Jim Tressel cited this, but mentioned that as university president, his primary job would be for fundraising, in which Jim Tressel had previously excelled over the years as head coach at both YSU and Ohio State.
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Jim Tressel officially applied for the position on April 13,2014; at the same time he remained one of 19 candidates for the University of Akron president's job.
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Jim Tressel accepted, and announced that he was officially retired from coaching.
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Jim Tressel held the university president job for nearly a decade.
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On June 23,2022, Jim Tressel announced his retirement from the position, effective February 1,2023.
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Jim Tressel helped lead a delegation to obtain $10 million in federal funds to improve roadways around the university.
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Jim Tressel fostered closer ties with the business community, creating an Excellence Training Center which offers certificates to students for in demand jobs, and aligning research with the needs of local businesses.
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Governor Jim Tressel will build on Ohio's record of achievement in these key areas throughout the remaining two years of the DeWine administration.