COLUMBUS, Ohio — Coach Jim Tressel was sitting in his Ohio State football office two decades ago when Nick Mangold , the center from Centerville with flowing blonde hair and an iconic beard still in its early stages, walked in.

Before he was an All-Pro player for the New York Jets, Mangold was a student-athlete for Tressel’s Buckeyes, and he approached his coach to inform him of a decision.

Mangold came to Ohio State with intentions of becoming an architect, but he wanted to change his major.

It wasn’t a decision based on academics, Tressel recalled in a recent interview with cleveland.com . It was a choice Mangold made for the betterment of his team.

“I really want to be as good of a football player as I can be, and I’m afraid that the architecture labs will infringe, from a tim

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