Woody Hayes lookalike draws crowds

Woody Hayes was the focused Ohio State football coach well-known for his distaste for anything Michigan. Roger Thomas is a mild-mannered broker of soybeans and corn. That's about where their dissimilarities end.

Thomas is finding fame now in the college football world of the late Buckeyes coach by looking just like him.

Thomas, 67, pops up in the crowd at Buckeyes football games seemingly as the irascible coach whose teams won four national championships and went into numerous memorable battles with the Wolverines.

Thomas says he has fun by showing up at Ohio Stadium in his "Woody" persona _ including the silver-rim glasses and Buckeyes cap.

"One time I was at a tailgate party and a lady asked me, 'Doesn't it bother you?' I told her, 'Walk around and see what people do when they see me. They smile.' You walk around and see people smiling at you all day, and you feel good. You feel great. What's better to do than make people smile?"

The original Wayne Woodrow Hayes died March 12, 1987, in Columbus.

Roger Thomas, of Tipp City, Ohio, about 50 miles west of Columbus, doesn't express the same bluster as the legendary coach.

"He was a little too intense for my personal taste," Thomas said. "I don't agree with those who say he was arrogant. He wasn't arrogant, he was intense."