Background
Wilce, John Woodworth was born on May 12, 1888 in Rochester, New York, United States. Son of John and Rosetta Marcy Maria (Woodworth) Wilce.
Wilce, John Woodworth was born on May 12, 1888 in Rochester, New York, United States. Son of John and Rosetta Marcy Maria (Woodworth) Wilce.
Bachelor of Arts, University of Wisconsin, 1910. Studied summers University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin, Doctor of Medicine Ohio State University, 1919. Post graduate, international medical, New York Post Graduate Medical School, 1929.
Cardiology, National Hospital Disease Heart, London, 1929.
Harvard, 1933.
He served as the head football coach at Ohio State University from 1913 to 1928, compiling a record of 78–33–9. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954. He lettered in three sports while attending the University of Wisconsin.
In football, Wilce was an all-conference fullback and captain of the 1909 team
Following his graduation from Wisconsin, Wilce coached high school football in Louisiana Crosse, Wisconsin and then became both an assistant football coach and assistant professor of physical education at Wisconsin. In 1913, Ohio State began play in the Western Conference, later the Big Ten Conference, and hired Wilce as its head football coach.
Wilce coached the Ohio State Buckeyes football team for sixteen seasons, the second longest tenure in school history after Woody Hayes, compiling a career record of 78–33–9. In 1919, Wilce received his medical degree.
He retired from football after the 1928 season to practice medicine.
Wilce completed postgraduate training in cardiology at University of Edinburgh in the 1930s and was a professor of preventive medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, specializing in research and treatment of heart disease. He also served as Director of Student Health Services from 1934 to 1958. The John West. Wilce Student Health Center, built in 1969, is named for Wilce.
Wilce"s "combination of medicine and football" and a sense of propriety that reflected his English heritage led him to try to reform the speech of his players on and off the field
He coined the phrase "intestinal fortitude." Haber (1955) records the story of the coinage, the idea first coming to Wilce on the way to a lecture he was to present on anatomy and physiology at Ohio State in 1916, his first use of the phrase in public in a lecture to his team, and how he began to hear the phrase used by others
Member medical staff University and Grant Hospitals. Member Medical Resources and Trust Company at Ohio State University, January-December 1918. Company-organizer and secretary-treasurer American Football Coaches Association, 1921-1927, vice president, 1928, honorary life.
Member American Heart Association, American Student Health Association, Ohio Student Health Association (president 1944-1946), American and Ohio State medical associations, Columbus Academy Medical, Central Ohio Council of Boy Scouts (member at large National Council), Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Rho Sigma.
Mason (33 degree, Shriner). Clubs: Rotary (president 1928), Lions (honorary), Faculty, Young Business Men'son
Married Minerva Willard Conner, August 2, 1920. Children: John West., James M., Mary R., Dorothy Alden.