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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 time standpoint, on the afternoons,” Mangold said. “I don’t want to miss practice. I don’t want to let the guys down.” Latest Ohio State Buckeyes news Penn State has a new quarterback, and he might be in trouble against Ohio State on Saturday: Outrageous Predictions A potential future No. 1 overall pick is headed to Ohio State this weekend: Buckeye Breakfast Where is Ohio State in Joel Klatt’s latest College Football Playoff bracket prediction? The likely first pick in the 2026 NHL Draft will play in Columbus for two nights: What to know This decision, which Mangold treated as matter-of-fact, provides a glimpse into why he was so beloved around Ohio State and the NFL — and why an outpouring of love flooded social media when news of his death surfaced. Mangold died Saturday night from complications of a kidney disease. He was 41. On Saturday, before top-ranked Ohio State faces Penn State, there will be a moment of silence inside Ohio Stadium for one of the greatest to ever wear scarlet and gray. It’ll be a moment for the Buckeye faithful to reflect on the life of a beloved figure in the sport. “He was a teammate,” Tressel said. “He was a great role model. He didn’t have to say anything — just the way that he carried himself on and off the field. And then, of course, he was such a great player. That kind of puts the exclamation point. He did everything right, and he was such a great player.” Nick Mangold was more than an All-American center Tressel, who coached at Ohio State from 2001-10, knew the Buckeyes had a talented freshman offensive lineman arriving ahead of the 2002 season. However, others on the staff viewed Mangold as even more. Jim Bollman, OSU’s offensive line coach under Tressel, made sure his head coach knew that. “You don’t understand how good this guy is,” Bollman told him. “You don’t understand what a great kid he is.” It took no time for Tressel to grasp that. Mangold appeared in eight games as a true freshman, taking the field for a national-championship winning team in 2002. The following year, an injury forced Mangold into the starting lineup — a role he didn’t relinquish until leaving for the NFL. Offensive linemen aren’t often discussed until they mess up, but with Mangold at center, fans in Columbus knew how important he was. “When Nick was your center, you were fine,” Tressel said. “The center does all the traffic control for the rest of the offensive line and makes all the decisions. You were in great shape. Not to mention, he was really good. He wasn’t just smart… He was extremely powerful.” He was so effective and respected inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center that his impact is evident well after the Jets took him in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft. “I have an unbelievable amount of respect for him as a man and as a football player,” said Ryan Day, who has been at Ohio State since 2017. “We talk about leaving legacies behind, when you hear that name in this building right here, people stand up straight. This is a guy who had a tremendous amount of character and left a lot of that behind. “He didn’t just go through this place. He left a work ethic. He left leadership. He left a discipline and certainly a body of work on the field.” Nick Mangold’s battle with chronic kidney disease Mangold was diagnosed in 2006 with a genetic defect that led to chronic kidney disease. Two weeks ago, in a message shared with the Jets community, Mangold said he was in need of a kidney transplant. No family members were able to help, so he reached out to fans in hopes of finding a match. That’s around when Tressel last communicated with his former center. Tressel, Ohio’s lieutenant governor, happened to recently attend an event where there was a donation match company. The former coach passed along some information to Mangold, and like their conversation in Tressel’s office 20 years ago, it was very matter-of-fact. It appeared that way in the public eye as well, with Mangold’s personality on display last week when he made an appearance on a Barstool Sports show. It’s why the news of Mangold’s death caught many, like Tressel, by surprise. “It was surreal,” Tressel said. Nick Mangold and his love for his family Mangold married his childhood sweetheart, Jennifer, in 2007. The couple had four children, which gave those around Mangold an opportunity to watch him mature as a husband and a father. Tressel saw it firsthand a couple years ago while attending an Ohio State alumni golf outing in New York. He wasn’t surprised to see Mangold there — “He just wanted to support,” Tressel said — but he got to see how the former center once worried about changing his major grew as an adult. “He was the same guy, but his passion was not football, weightlifting and school,” Tressel said. “It was his family and his kids’ sports. He was engaged in the community. It’s like, ‘Hey, this is what it’s supposed to look like.’” Mangold often wore an infectious smile, whether at alumni events or his induction into the Jets’ Ring of Honor. While his presence will be missing from such events in the future, his legacy will live on. “If you wrote the book about what you’d wish for someone, that was Nick,” Tressel said.
