Before former Purdue great Rod Woodson became an All-American and a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back, he was just a high school kid looking for a place to play football.

Several B1G schools wanted to sign the versatile recruit out of Fort Wayne, Ind. As Woodson explained on the “Rich Eisen Show” on Friday, there were specific incidents that soured him on certain B1G teams.

One of the programs recruiting Woodson was Ohio State. But apparently the Buckeyes did a little too much recruiting.

“He wouldn’t leave me alone,” Woodson said of the OSU recruiter. “When I told him to give me a little break, he didn’t give me a break and I told him Ohio State was off my list.”

Rival Michigan was on Woodson’s list. He took a trip to Ann Arbor and walked into the office of legendary coach Bo Schembechler. Woodson remembered how Schembechler wouldn’t talk to him until he got all the way to the desk in the back of his office.

That intimidated the 17-year-old kid.

“Bo scared me,” Woodson said. “So that’s the reason I didn’t go to Michigan.”

RELATED: Purdue unveils new uniforms for 2016 season

What about in-state Indiana? Former Indiana coach and future ESPN personality Lee Corso was the exact opposite of intimidating. Woodson had a more entertaining visit with Corso, but for all the wrong reasons.

Woodson said that Corso showed up to his house to recruit him. Corso began the visit by telling Woodson that he just found out over the radio that he was fired. Amazingly enough, he still pitched Woodson on why he should go to Indiana.

But he had his mind made up.

“There was no way I was going to a school that fired a coach over the radio,” Woodson said.

Woodson also told the story about how the Arizona State coaching staff took him to see the 3.5-hour movie “Gandhi” while he was on his official visit. After it ended, he told them that he was going to Purdue.

Lucky for the Boilermakers, they wound up with a three-time All-B1G player. He left the school with 13 individual records and went on to NFL superstardom.

And Purdue was forever grateful that fellow B1G teams made costly mistakes during his recruitment.