New Bremen and Early Ohio State Football

The Ohio State Buckeyes football team are the 2024 National Champions of college football. Ohio State has had a wide array of success over the years, but it didn’t start out that way. When football started in 1890 Ohio State had its growing pains. They had to compete against teams that had been established for years before.

New Bremen established its own football teams in the early 1900s and a few of the New Bremen players went on to play at Ohio State in those early years, contributing to some of Ohio State’s first signs of bigger things to come.

Theodore Tangeman (back row, second from left)

Theodore Tangeman played in 1900. Ohio State won eight games and held Michigan, then a perennial powerhouse, to a scoreless tie. This was the first tie between the two eventual rivals. Tangeman played along with L. W. St. John, who would return to Ohio State as the Athletic Director. St. John Arena was named in his honor.

In 1910, Steve Boesel was a second-year letterman as a tackle for the Buckeyes. He was known to have a way of “bowling ‘em over”. In 1910, they held the Wolverines to a 3- 3 tie, the second tie between the teams.

In 1916 and 1917, Dick Boesel was the fullback for Ohio State. In the backfield with Chic Harley, the Buckeye squad became the first team to win the Western Conference (now known as the Big Ten/B1G). The excitement from this squad was so high that a new stadium was needed. That’s when OSU’s current stadium was built, which was nicknamed “The House That Harley Built.”

Steve Boesel (middle row, third from left)

The 1917 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, led by fifth-year head coach, John Wilce, compiled an overall record of 8-0-1 and outscored opponents 292-6. Ohio State had a record of 4-0 against Big Ten opponents, winning the conference title for the second consecutive season.

Ohio State's Scoring Backfield (Harley, Yerges, Boesel and Stinchcomb)

On November 17, they played their last conference game. OSU’s news publication, The Lantern, bid farewell to 11 seniors and had this to say about New Bremen’s Richard Boesel, who was All Big Ten at fullback that year:

“Bucking Dick” Boesel has been noted for his battering-ram plunging into opposing teams’ lines. At this he is an expert. But “Dick” serves the team in a way that most people overlook. Boesel is a hard interferer. On long runs by other members of the backfield, Boesel has been a big factor in sweeping aside would-be tacklers. When “Dick” puts out his shingle in New Bremen, his hometown, he will long be remembered as a tower of strength in Ohio State’s football progress.

Theodore H. Tangeman (1878-1940), the son of Herman & Sophie (Wuebbenhorst) Tangeman, graduated from NBHS in 1897 and OSU in 1902. That same year he opened a law office in New Bremen. In 1906 he married Maud Stone, who was also a graduate of NBHS and a primary teacher in the New Bremen Schools. In 1910 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney in Auglaize County. The next year he opened a law office in Wapakoneta. In 1927 he became a senior partner in the law office of Tangeman and Boesel in Wapakoneta. In 1930 he was appointed Ohio Director of Commerce by Governor White. His wife died of influenza in 1918, and he died at age 62 in 1940.

Richard Boesel (middle row, 6th from left)

Steven and Richard Boesel were the sons of Julius and Amalia (Havemann) Boesel and grandsons of Carl & Dorothea (Maurer) Boesel. Both graduated from NBHS, Steve in the Class of 1907 and Richard in the Class of 1912. Their brothers Albert and Robert and sister Gertrude also were NBHS graduates and attended OSU.

Richard Boesel (middle row, 6th from left)

Steve became the first member of the family to make the OSU football team and was a star athlete. Steve completed his medical studies at the Western Reserve School of Medicine and began medical practice in Niles, Ohio. In 1941 he became the City Health Commissioner and won wide acclaim for keeping his city healthy by vaccinating thousands of schoolchildren. In 1955 he suffered a stroke and was bedfast until his death in 1957.

Richard also played on the OSU football team and won national renown as a fullback. He graduated from OSU with a law degree, served in the U.S. Army in WW I, and was elected Probate Judge in Auglaize County in 1921. He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1926. Settling in Rye, New York, he was a member of the Apawamis Country Club and a trustee of the United Hospital in Port Chester, New York. At the age of 64 years, he suffered a fatal heart attack on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.