Eddie George, the 1995 Heisman Trophy winner, is one of the most iconic players in the history of the Ohio State Buckeyes football program.
But, on another timeline, George could’ve been a legend with the Penn State Nittany Lions.
The Ohio State legend revealed his shocking secondary school choice while speaking on Club Shay Shay with Fox Sports analyst Shannon Sharpe.
“I wanted to go to Penn State,” George said. “I grew up a Penn State fan. My father, he was a big football fanatic. Loved running backs. He was on drugs at the time. And I wanted him to get clean…
“I felt like if he saw me thriving, being successful, it would give him the incentive to be clean … so my goal was to go to Penn State and be a running back,” George explained to Sharpe. “I wanted to wear that blue and white. With black shoes.”
George explained that the BYU Cougars, Louisville Cardinals, Nebraska Cornhuskers and Virginia Cavaliers were involved early in his recruitment. But a former Fork Union Military School teammate who attended Ohio State recommended the Buckeyes. The unnamed teammate, who was then working as a medical trainer, showed George’s tape to the school’s recruiting director.
The rest, as they say, is history, though George went on to joke he endured “the worst visit ever” during a recruiting trip to Columbus.
