Well, the Big Ten Divisional alignment was announced. Looks like Jim Delaney read the commissioner for a day post (below) that I sent him after all! Maybe it was the rather blunt email that it went with it. I don't want to crow, but what they announced sounds amazingly like what I wrote below.

1. OSU- Mich in separate divisions. Check
2. OSU-Mich last game of season. Check
3. All games count towards division titles. Check
4. Teams in the divisions. Check (Well technically they gave us Wisconsin instead of Iowa and Minnesota instead of Indiana...but those are about a wash, so I'm still taking the check!)

About the only thing they did differently was put some of the rilvary games through the season, rather than all on the last day. We'll take that.

All in all it could have been a lot worse. As I said, you read it first here!

Today's suggested read....

If you want to experience a truly engaging account of the inside story behind the evolution of Nebraska and the Big Ten, read the World-Herald's account The Big Ten Decision posted on Big Red Today. It is quite a tale, complete with some cloak and dagger stuff the good spy novels are made of.

At the same time, while it is easy for some folks to say this was all about money, the article brings out some other tangibles that were important. Oh to have been a fly on the wall and just have been able to observe at some of those meetings described....

I am preparing to start the gauntlet Wednesday in the 2010 version of Trolling For Stories- 27 Hours in the Life of A Shoe Salesman (See the samples tab!)

This year's edition will start when I arrive Wednesday afternoon for the Best Damn Band In The Land Alumni Band practice session. I hope to hook up with the cheerleaders group a wee bit Wednesday evening. Thursday morning it is off to do some editing on my other project with the former assistant coach, back to the alumni band luncheon, circling the stadium several times Wednesday afternoon (Did you know it's .54 miles once around?) and then into my seat at midfield 8 rows up in AA. What a place to watch the quadruple Script Ohio.

In doing my gumshoe work, I found there are 665 band alumni registered. The one I want to talk to though, is C. Clark Hammitt! You see C. Clark will be marching with his snare drum, the same as he did when he marched as a college freshman in 1935! By my math, that makes 75 years of Ohio State Football memories!!!!! Can you imagine what that man has seen! The first script Ohio, Fessler, Tippie Dye. Gold pants. Horvath, Janowicz, Hop. Bill Willis. There would be Paul Brown and Woody. The '68 team. Archie. Eddie. Troy. Earle, Cooper, and Tressel. Would that you and I experience all of that, and at 93, give or take a year or so, still be marching to the beat of Drive, Drive on down the field....

You Go Clark!

If you read the quotes on the link below, and then the letters in today's Dispatch Mailbag, apparently there is one thing OSU and Michigan fans and even players can unite on. As my good friend Scott Miller emailed me in response to yesterday's stories, "First time I have ever heard anyone from Michigan make any sense!"

I'd like to share one of the letters from today's mailbag that I think says a lot, a well composed email sent to the Dispatch by Tristin Pruss, a Michigan Fan.

Editor: As a Michigan alumnus and lifelong fan, one date is the first one marked on my calendar every year. It is a time to celebrate with friends and family, to look forward to whatever surprises the day holds, and to mark the passing of time - the ending of one season and a transition into winter and the long wait for the next.

Go Blue, (and just this once) Go Bucks. - Tristan M. Pruss

Thanks Tristian. We have never met but I think I would like you.

Go Bucks, (and reciprocating just this once) - Go Blue.

This thing is getting interesting. No doubt where some of the players stand in the scheduling of The Rivalry.

Just when I thought I was the only one paying attention to this, here are two interesting articles, including some really funny and emotional quotes, in today's online Dispatch:

More quotes from OSU-Michigan rivalry story

Past players plead: Leave Game alone

They made me commissioner for a day and I've got this thing solved. Hear me out:

1. Keep OSU-Mich as is, last game of season.

2. Schedule all last games as rivalry games - existing traditional ones or regional by state or geography. Examples might be Iowa-Nebraska, Indiana-Purdue, Penn State-Michigan State. Everybody plays a rival last game of season.

3. Every last game would be a cross division game. You would have the rivalry component, but also, every team would be not only playing itself to it's division championship, but also to knock it's opponents out of theirs. Look how this would increase the "what ifs" going into that last week. Look at all the combinations of who might make it with cross division play the last week. And by scheduling some traditional power match ups as part of that, you would insure that there was a lot on the line. Talk about maintaining interest in who was going to make it to the title game and generating $$$!

4. Schedule the title game 2 weeks after the season. Drop the bye week if you need to to do this. Avoids the problem of teams in opposite divisions playing two weeks in a row for championship. Also, equals out the title game..makes it a little fairer....in case one team has a really tough match the last week and the other by chance a cupcake game.

If there is a rematch, well it won't be that often, and I keep saying, the only thing better than one OSU-Mich game would be two! Imagine the $$$ that could be made off a rematch for all the marbles! Same would go for an Iowa Nebraska rematch, or whomever. Again, with 3 powers in each division, I don't think it is going to happen that often!

Since I am commissioner for a day, I also have the power to determine the divisions. Here goes. This is what the rivalry game schedule would look like the last week. First column is Division A and second Division B. One team in each column would then go to the title game for all the marbles:

OSU - Mich
Iowa - Nebraska
Penn State - Michigan State
Minnesota - Wisconsin
Illinois - Northwestern
Purdue - Indiana

If you rank the teams in the league from 1-12 on overall program history, each division has 3 of the top 6 teams. If you add up the ranks in both divisions, one totals 38 and one 39. Pretty balanced. Quibble with it a wee bit if you must, flip flop a couple teams, but the concept and framework is there.

I forgot geography in doing this, because you have to make a decision to balance the divisions on either geography or competitiveness. You can't do both. Having said that, the divisions I came up with aren't too bad geographic wise for travel. And remember, you will be playing every year 3 teams in the other division which will balance travel out too. The plus in this is that every school can end with a rivalry...in most cases a border war. They all can develop their own Ohio State - Michigan tradition! In any one year, I think you could have 3, 4 maybe 5 teams playing for a shot at that title game.

And the biggie...you don't mess with success...with what SI and others have called the greatest rivalry in college football history.

There...that wasn't to difficult to solve was it!

The only problem I see is that if Jenny reads this, she is going to think I have way too much time on my hands! Here comes another honey-do job. Oh well, it will probably be easier than being Big Ten commissioner right now!

Man I don't like all this talk of moving The Game to the middle of the season. I don't know if there is any thing to all the beliefs floating around that these are trial balloon leaks or not. If they are, quick, someone prick them, before they float very high and one the greatest traditions in college football gets marginalized in October.

As I said below, if I were Commissioner for A Day, I would put them both in opposite divisions but keep The Game the last Saturday of the season as it is now. Yea, once in a while they would play twice, but as I said below, the only thing better than one Ohio-State Michigan game would be two! Besides the Cleveland Plain Dealer writer recently published a column which says an analysis shows that would have only happened 3 or 4 times in the last 17 years.

Yea you say, but it wouldn't be fair to turn around and play again the next week. Well, what if they are in the same division and played the last game? Would it be fair to the winner of that last game, be it a bruised and battered OSU or Michigan, to play in the championship, say a Nebraska or Penn State that had finished with a cakewalk against Indiana or Minnesota their last game. Think not.

The "playing again the next week" problem and the equalization of the last game of both divisions could be solved by a two week period between the last season and the title game. Simply do away with the byes, move the end of the season up (or the title back) and leave OSU-Mich where it is at the end of the year with each team in a separate division. In most years they wouldn't play twice, but in the few they do, now imagine what a money maker that second game would be for the league. Imagine the hype. Game one one team ran the ball all over the place. Well, the other team would have two weeks to scheme to stop that. Could they? Endless fodder for hype for the game? Endless sports columns to build it up.

And whoever played in the championship, OSU, Mich, or anyone else, they all would go into the game with equal footing and rest.

There, that was easy to solve. Maybe they should appoint me commissioner!

Well, summer is fast fading and I have been negligent in giving you my summer reading list. It's still hitting 90 at my house though, so there is yet time to hit the beach or stretch out in the hammock under the shade tree and lose yourself in some good prose.

Normally I recommend a Buckeye book, and I will get around to one of these, but I have just finished one of the most amazing books I have read in many a year. It's worth sharing with all of you. They say if you want to learn to write, read good writing. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, is all that and then some.

Stockett's prose sings, her story grabs and races, and her printed words deftly paint images like the brush of Monet or the pen da Vinci. Her story is fiction, but the American history it tells is true, and the message it will leave you with is real and triumphant. I picked this book up thinking it would make me a better writer, but instead put it down a better person.

The book has been a NY Times bestseller since March, and has now sold 1.7 million copies. What makes it truly amazing is that it's Stockett's first novel! And unbelievably, 45 literary agents rejected it, before G. P. Putnam and Sons picked it up to publish... a fact I will no doubt draw comfort in when I get my very own first rejection letter! (How would you want to be one of the 45 agents who left those 1.7 million copies laying on the table in their reject boxes!)

What is the book about? Well, this is one of those stories that works even better when you don't know the story. So, take my word, just pick up a copy and enjoy. You will be rewarded.

Christmas came early this morning when the email arrived informing me that I was a recipient of two Miami Game tickets as a successful applicant in the Ag College Alumni Fall Fest lottery. Second year in a row I got lucky...last year USC and now Miami! Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket today while I am on a roll!

That's two now...Miami and Purdue....now I just need about 4 or 5 more, with Michigan to top it off!

Bill Livingston had a nice column recently about how lucky we are to be Buckeyes. In it he examines the role of power football and J T in the success we have enjoyed and the level to which the Ohio State program has risen. Four Big Ten Schools are starting the season ranked in SI's top eleven, and Bill asks, "...after the heat haze burns off, and the leaves turn every hillside into a day-long sunset, and the ground grows hard and cold, who among them will still be standing?"

How's that for painting a lead in!

Read the answer at:

Bill Livingston, Cleveland Plain Dealer

If you have a copy of the HBO Special The Rivalry put it away in your safe deposit box so you can teach your grand-kids how things used to be in the good ole days.

They're messing with the greatest game in college football, out of necessity, from the expansion, and when the dust settles, we will see where it lands. I'm not saying yet it's going to be worse, although I have a mighty hard time seeing how it will be better. I will say without any reservation, without any hesitation, that it will be different.

Everyone has an opinion, and you could go crazy reading all that have been expressed. I did read two today though, in a School Up North Paper of all places ( I spy on the enemy occasionally!), that had a couple of interesting takes. I will share the Detroit Free Press links with you for food for thought:

Sorry Woody, Sorry Bo

How To Form Big Ten Divisions

As for me, I say put us and that school with the funny helmets in opposite Divisions. Play The Game every year, the last game of the season like always. Some people say that wouldn't work, because we might have to turn around and play them again in the conference championship. Hogwash I say! So what? The only thing better than one Ohio State- Michigan game would be two! Can you imagine having to beat each other to get to the championship, and then again to win it! You say you couldn't sell the game out twice? Wanna bet? Can you imagine the fun of knocking each other out of the championship game. Beating the other for you to get in, beating the other to keep them out. And then if you did have to play two, the high of winning twice ! The low of loosing twice! I think it would do nothing but ratchet up the Rivalry. And I think anything less will diminish it. Unfortunately, I think the schools in the Big Ten that would want to see it ratcheted up probably number two, and the schools that want to diminish it number 10.

I'll say one more thing and then be silent and let the process play out. Don't you wish Woody and Bo were still living today! Imaging for a moment how they would take to the change going on, what they would have to say about it. Those are two press conferences I would like to be in, two interviews I would like to have! Colorful would be too vanilla a word to describe what that would be like!

I promised to post some thoughts about Nebraska coming into the Big Ten. Bottom line, I think it is great.

You won't believe this, but a couple of weeks before the feeding frenzy broke, I was doing a phone interview with Tom Osborne for one of my projects. When we finished, I complimented Dr. Osborne for an experience I had had several years ago with the Nebraska fans at the College World Series in Omaha. I related to Tom that I had gone to the Series the year Nebraska was playing in it, and I had never been treated any nicer, or been any more impressed, with the people of Omaha and the Nebraska baseball fans. They truly were a welcoming and classy group and I told him that, and then I added, "Unlike some of my experiences with SEC fans."

He thanked me and said something to the effect that "We're a lot alike, Nebraska and Ohio State." Little did I know then how much we would soon be really alike. As we finished up, we had a nice discussion about the role the sale of alcohol has in some of the unpleasantries I experienced at the two National Championships I have been to.

It was no surprise at all to me, no surprise that Nebraska came and no surprise that they were welcomed into the Big Ten. When you look at their football tradition, their all-time winning percentage, their National Championships won, they have great football tradition and a rabid following that maybe approaches the level of Ohio State more than three-fourths of the other Big Ten Schools. You may not be, but I am old enough to remember the days of Johnny Rodgers and Rich Glover and Willie Harper, the days of Bob Devanay and Tom Osborne.

They bring a great baseball program. They're a land grant school. They're Midwestern values.

I know flash and dash crowd wanted that school with a Golden Dome, wanted a Big Eastern Program, wanted a Big Market TV high dollar type school. So what. The Big Ten is blue collar salt of the earth smash mouth grind it out football type people and there is nothing wrong with that. Nebraska will do us just fine. Welcome Huskers.

Seems there isn't a day that I don't get asked that question. Actually now it should be "Books" as in plural, and that is the reason it probably seems to you that it is taking me so very long on this project. Allow me to explain.

In the fall of 2008, I was asked by a former Ohio State Assistant Coach (who I first met through this Stories of the Shoe project) to help him write his biography. As I listened to this gentleman, and his life story (a story that several people were after the privilege of telling) it became apparent that the opportunity he was offering me was one I just could not pass up. Since he was eager to get started, I made the deliberate decision to push Stories of the Shoe to the side burner and brought the new project to a full boil front and center

For the last year and a half, I have been regularly driving to Columbus for interviews and taping sessions with this man, and with many of his Ohio State contemporaries. I have transcribed probably 60 plus hours of tapes, and traveled as far as Kansas City gathering material. It has been a fascinating journey to unravel the tale of an amazing life and amazing person... a tale I think many Ohio State fans will enjoy and grow from.

The good news is that I now have two books under way, two projects that I think will fly, two works I think you will enjoy. The bad news is that instead of having one book finished quite a while ago, and in your hands, I now have two books two-thirds done! You might criticize my decision, akin to halfway through making a pie, I started to bake a cake. But the pie filling is still there, still simmering on the stove and all ready to go into the oven, as soon as that scrumptious cake comes out. And then you will have two different and tasty OSU deserts.

One of the pieces of advice often given to writers is "don't tell people what you are working on." I now understand that, and why, and for that reason, other than a few close friends, I haven't said anything to this point about who this is or what we are doing. You can trust though that I wouldn't have invested a year and a half of my precious time, and my money, if I didn't think this new work was worth doing, and worth delaying a bit Stories of The Shoe. In good time it will all be unveiled, but for now know there is good reason for what I am doing and trust in my judgment.

As for the answer to the question, How's the Book Coming?... well there isn't a day goes by that I don't work on one or the other, nudging each a little closer to the finish line.

It is a mixed bag for Buckeyes today. Here in the east, this year's version of the team will be eagerly reporting for camp. Out west, in Oakland, another group of Buckeyes is reluctantly on a different mission. Here we say hello. There, they say goodbye. They will be burying Jack Tatum today, one of the greatest Buckeyes to play the game, on one of the greatest Ohio State teams ever. Ohio State has sent a contingent and my good friend Bill Myles will be among them, representing the athletic department. So I understand will be teammates John Hicks, Phil Strickland, Jim Stillwagon, Jan White, Rex Kern, and likely others.

Jack Tatum arrived at Ohio State two year's ahead of me. Not only was I privileged to see him play, but I would often see him in the dorm and ride the elevator with him. The most striking thing that I remember was that for as fierce as Jack was on the field, at least around us, he was so quiet and soft spoken off it. In the words of his wife Denise, "He played for the love of the game."

You probably know a lot about Jack the player. But you probably know less about Jack the person. The Oakland Tribune has a nice story that remembers Jack as a family man. Check it out and pay your respects:

Family, friends, fans remember former Oakland Raider Jack Tatum

The past few days the news has been filled with reports from the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. They have prognosticated this and postulated that. Shucks, I could have saved them a lot of time.

One week ago, Jenny and I were traveling around the heartland, in part for some of my book research. As I paid the toll when we exited the parking garage at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois, I had an exchange with the guy in the booth that went like this:

"Hello!" (me)

"Where you from?" (he)

"Ohio"

"Oh, yea, Ohio State"

"That's right, Go Bucks!"

"You got that one right. National Champions this year baby! You can bank on it!"

"National Champions, hey? We'll take that!"

"Yep, they're gonna roll. National Champions! Remember, you heard it hear first."

"Go Bucks!," I hollered as the gate raised and we coasted out of the garage. "Remember, you heard it here first. You heard it here first!" the guy shouted again, as I rolled down the ramp and out into the heart of Illini Country. How's that for ramping up expectations Coach T?

As I drove along, I thought about what had just happened. There we were, a couple hours down the road from U of I, from Champaign and Memorial Stadium, and for the guy in the toll booth, the Buckeyes were his team. I've said it before. We're everywhere.

And, for all the writers that spent big money for Chicago hotels, well heck, you should have just called the guy in the toll booth in Springfield Illinois. I bet my room there was a whole lot cheaper than what you paid.

Edison gave us light. The Wright Brothers gave us flight. Harriett Beecher Stowe gave us a book that started the abolition of slavery. Ulysses Grant led the army that preserved our Union. Albert Sabin conquered polio. And the Buckeye's own Jesse Owens showed the world hope in the face of a man as evil as the human race has ever known. One of the above, and only one, likely will be chosen to represent out great state in the National Statuary Hall in our U. S. Capital.

Who will it be? Who should it be? As a loyal alumnus, I would be proud for one of the Universities greatest ambassadors, Jesse Owens, to take that place. But as I stood in the new Ohio Union that day of the grand opening and cast my ballot, I thought, "Wow, this is tough This is like picking which one of your kids you like the best. Think of what these people did. Think of what each of them gave this country. Think of the rich history or our state and our university, of the contributions made to this nation. And I'm asked to just pick one?"

It was an interesting decision, in many ways a puzzle without an answer. The university was promoting Jesse that day, and rightly so. But regardless of who is chosen, we can all be proud. Who did you vote for? The results are out now at:

http://www.legacyforohio.org/

Got the alumni ticket notification today and we drew the Purdue Game this year. Of course I was hoping for Penn State, Michigan, or Miami. So when I saw Purdue I thought "Darn, I wanted a good game."

Then it dawned on me. Um...Ah... "Didn't Purdue beat us last year?"

Got me. I try real hard not to be the ugly, arrogant, fan. But we all know Buckeyes expect to win anytime anywhere anyplace. This time I slipped up and was no different. Stupid me.

Several folks have asked what it was like to do the interview of Coach Tressel a few weeks ago. Exhilarating for me of course. And he was all you would expect...warm, gracious, helpful, insightful. The thing that impressed me the most though was the man's mind and memory ...the ability to grasp, analyze, focus and cut to the heart of it.

Not wanting to look like a hayseed of course, I went in prepared with 4 (I thought) well thought out questions. Each question was thorough and a 3 or 4-parter. In large type, they filled one page. I didn't know if I would get two minutes, ten minutes or sixty minutes, get through one, two or all, but I was prepared to do as much as the time he gave me allowed.

"Lets roll," he said before we were completely down the hallway to his office. We started the interview before we were even seated and I opened with a quick summary of where I was hoping to go with the conversation. I shared I had 4 questions and that maybe I could quick go through all those and he could pick one, two, or all to comment on. He nodded to that, so I super quickly ran through each of the four questions, and each of their parts.

When I finished Coach said, "I can roll one and two together" and off he went. We went back and forth a bit, but I never once repeated the original questions. Twenty-two minutes later on my recorders counter Coach had touched every point in every question, in the exact order I had asked them, and he never once said "Now what else was it you asked?"

I got good stuff, exactly what I wanted, what I needed, and couldn't have asked for more. He has amazing abilities and I witnessed first hand the skills one needs to be successful at that level.

It was at that point in the interview that I needed to pivot, and just about tripped all over myself in so doing... but more on that tomorrow....

Judging from my recent web counts, Bob Hunter's mention of my project in his column has this week caused some new folks to hit this site. Welcome! If you are a newbie I have been at this project awhile and there are two quick ways to understand what I am doing. First, use the slide bar to the right and scroll down to my first post, April 9 2007, titled New Season - New Look. Reading from the bottom up will give you some background in what's gone before.

To get a better sense though of what I am about and how I have operated to put this collection of stores together, click on the Samples Tab at the top and the Trolling for Stories link in the right. 27 Hours in the Life of a Shoe Salesman will unveil to you what I have spent the last three seasons doing to gather the material that is making up this book.

Welcome to my site and I hope you become a repeat reader to follow my progress. Normally this is a slow time for posts because there are not a lot of football happenings until the pace picks up with fall camp. But with some new readers, and some new announcements coming forth from me, I will make some extra effort to put new material on here in the next few weeks. Next up will be some more thoughts on my recent interview with Coach Tressel, and then some insight into Nebraska coming into the Big Ten.

Hope to see you back and as always, Go Bucks!

Steve

I have a rule that when I write something for the book...it gets laid aside for a while to cook. I then go back and read it cold, to see if works, if it makes sense, and if I really got it right. Is it baked, or half baked? One seldom gets it perfect on the first go around of course and it can always be improved. Usually it's slightly, but often, one reads it and thinks What was I thinking?

Judging from the new hits on my website, some of you saw my email that Bob Hunter printed in his column The Daily Hunter. I broke my own rule on that email, not expecting to see it in print. As I reread what I wrote in haste to Bob, I realized it was half baked. Not that I don't believe what I wrote. I do feel it is going to be a major difference when The Game changes Saturdays. And everything I wrote is going to complicate things.

It wasn't what I wrote, but what I didn't add, that was the missing ingredient. Like a fine cream pie, I had cooked the ingredients, and baked the crust, but not put the meringue on the top. And that creamy whipped topping, the inviting face on that pie, is just like the face on future games of The Rivalry....

It's still that school up north, it's still that team with the funny helmets, it's still the team we hate to loose to from the very depths of our soul. And wherever they play The Rivalry, whenever they play The Rivalry, we will do whatever it takes to be there and relish the chance to clean their clocks one more time. Right now as I write this, I can actually hear the Tick Tock of that big Michigan Clock on the wall of the Woody Hayes Center. It is up there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, counting down the days, hours, and seconds until we get to tee it up and do it to them again. It's there today. It's there tomorrow. It will be there 50 years from now.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

They say it is not nice to name drop. So I won't.

But nobody said anything about numbers, so I will drop 535. I have had many big days on this project and for this small town boy, yesterday was among the biggest of the big. After 3 years at this, yours truly was fortunate to get a one-on-one audience in the nerve center of the conductor that waves his baton to orchestrate the symphony at 535.

It was a once in a lifetime experience and a huge boost to my two projects.

I sat there in that extraordinary office at the very table you have seen in those pictures that floated around the internet. Don't ask me to describe it however. Truth of the matter is if I close my eyes, all I can see of it is a blank page.

You see as the conductor graciously and warmly ushered me in there, he was already talking about the business we had at hand in the short time allotted to me in his busy day's schedule. For 37 minutes, we went back and forth, my two recorders lying between just the two of us, my eyes riveted on the conductor and what he was saying, my brain hanging on his every word and its meaning. It was great stuff. When his secretary popped her head in to remind him our 30 minutes of allotted time was up and that he had to take a call, he told her to "tell those people if they call that we need five more minutes here." I got seven more.

Insightful. Profound. Enlightening. Revering. Gracious. Wise. Those would all be words to describe what I got on tape. Beyond that, well, if you want to know you are going to have to wait for me to finish both of the books I am working on. There will be some of it in each one.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to The Leader of The Band for taking time to fit me into his busy schedule. And if you haven't yet figured out whose name I am not dropping, well, type 535 Irving Schottenstein Drive into Google Maps.

It is quite appropriate that on Memorial Day weekend Bob Hunter of the Dispatch would pen a column on a Memorial. This one has a different twist however in that Bob writes of a Memorial to Chic Harley To Take Root on the site of one of his boyhood homes in Columbus. Click the link.

Reading Bob's column reminded me of the two books on Harley I read last year. Chic by Bob Hunter and The One and Only by Todd Wessel, Chic's grand nephew. You can read my book review of that one on the One and Only Website. Click the link and scroll down to my byline.

As you look for your summer reading, whether you are hitting the beach or curling up under a shade tree during the dog days, you couldn't do any better than either one of these two fine books about arguably the greatest Buckeye ever.

It has been 75 years since Jesse Owens rewrote the record book during the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor Michigan. On the anniversary of this amazing feat, Sports Illustrated ran a wonderful peace that captured the essence if the never equaled accomplishment by arguably our favorite Buckeye.

You probably have heard the story before, but this piece of magnificent writing puts in a perspective I bet you have never appreciated. Every Buckeye should read this one and it's one reason I recently cast my own vote for Jesse's bust to represent Ohio in our nations capital. You should too.

Greatest 45 minutes ever in sports

On the day after the spring game in Ohio Stadium, the Dispatch Web site "Mailbox" ran a headline Readers Find Tressel's Salary Hard To Swallow". I didn't bother to click on it because I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of a hit. Now if they had run a headline about the salaries of all college football coaches, one could have a reasoned debate as to whether or not that was out of whack and we all could probably mix it up someplace on the various sides of that one. But to single out Coach Tressel? The thing I do have a problem with is the Dispatch headline. For that reason I won't link to it either.

One needs to look no further than the Dispatch story right below that headline to see why. Tressel Tells Story of How John Reed Became Honorary Coach is a video of Coach T paying tribute to Coldwater Football Coach John Reed, who is fighting a tough tough battle with cancer. I was in the audience a couple of years ago when John Reed was inducted into the Ohio High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. So was Coach Tressel, sitting right there at the head table with John. I had never met John Reed, but in the fifteen minutes of listening to his acceptance speech, I instantly knew that here was a class act and a guy you would be proud to have mold your son. In the moving video Coach talks about how he and Ross Holman had planned to honor Coach Reed yesterday in the stadium. My book will have chapter on the role that high school coaches have in Ohio Stadium, and what Coach Tressel has done to honor that relationship.

Need more evidence? Well click on Spring Game Supports Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research to read the inspiring story about how Ohio Stadium was bathed in Scarlett Gray and Pink yesterday, and about Coach T's idea to wear pink numbers and auction the jerseys off for the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research

I am sure the Coldwater Community doesn't have a problem with Coach T's salary. I am sure the beneficiaries of the cancer research that will be funded by those jerseys won't either. Neither does this writer. Nuff said.

I saved Ohio State Football yesterday. Well at least it's Coach.

I was at the Todd Bell Lecture Luncheon Ethics in American Sports yesterday. A good time was had by more than 500, as Master of Ceremonies Coach Tressel displayed his wit and cracked the crowd up, while Clark Kellogg gave a most inspirational keynote address. It was a wonderful event for an important cause.

Afterwords, Coach and Clark were on the floor up front in the usual mob of people seeking to press the flesh for a photo or handshake. I was standing there with my friend Bill Myles, and noticed a Blackberry lying at the place at the table where Coach had been sitting. Gosh, is that Coach's Blackberry I thought? (Forget my book, now there would be some real interesting reading!) He wasn't very far from it and in a friendly crowd, but as I stood there waiting, I did kind of keep one eye on it lest someone try to walk off with it.

Later on, as things wound down,I was standing with Bill in a small group of OSU people near the doors and Coach Tressel came walking down the aisle and was heading out the door. He stopped right next to me to chat and as he did, I noticed that same Blackberry was still lying back up at that same table. Tugging on his sleeve, I nodded to it and asked,"Is that your Blackberry?"

Well, he was back up the aisle after it like a rocket. "Whew," he quipped when he came back, "You just saved my life!"

Giving as good as I got, I joked to the laughter of everyone, including Coach, "Well I probably could have sold it."

Of course that wouldn't have been in keeping with the theme of day, Ethics in Sports, would it? As I said, give me a Buckeye Leaf.

The best way to get over a loss is to get over it. I will do that tomorrow by attending the Todd Bell Ethics In American Sports Lecture Series Luncheon at the Columbus Convention Center. The Master of Ceremonies is none other than Coach Tressel, and featured speaker is Clark Kellogg. There will be maybe a thousand people in the hall, and man what a pep rally that could have been to kick off a Buckeye appearance in the Final Four. Not to be.

Having attended before, it will still be a great time and I am looking forward to hearing both The Vest and Special K, each outstanding speakers. It's for a good cause. And if we don't get a little preview of next season from Coach T , to get us into the mood for spring football, well I'll be surprised. Go Bucks!

Well it is a cold, rainy, windy Sunday. Would have been a perfect day to curl up and watch basketball. Like your house, probably, here there is no more interest in March Madness. After the chagrin of Friday night, I had been wondering what to say. Then I read one of my favorite commentators, John Perentas, whose column was titled Loss Brings Out the Best and Worst. John said it perfectly, and better than I could, so check him out and click on the link to his column on The-Ozone site.

"With Turner being Turner, Diebler shooting the way he is, Lauderdale playing outstanding defense and Lighty stirring the drink, there isn't a team in the field of 16 Ohio State can't beat." That's the conclusion of Branden Castel in his column 10 Things We Learned From OSU's Run to the Sweet 16, a good read on The-Ozone.

Let's hope he is right. Friday night is big, and each subsequent one would be bigger. Will the shots drop - or not? We'll soon find out.

This post is way late and painfully short, which just about describes the Buckeye girls effort Tuesday night. We got schooled by a hot team, which at least on that night played better than we did. What's left to say.

They just find a way. Those were the exact words I told Jenny yesterday afternoon. You don't always know what the way is, but they will find it.

Bill Livingston, in today's Plain Dealer, says the same, and much more eloquent than I can, in his column: Having survived Carnage Weekend, poised Buckeyes are primed for a long NCAA run. It's a nice piece of writing that captures the spirit of this group of starters that is small in numbers but big in heart. Click on the link and enjoy some good work.

How long has it been since we've had a team that has been this special to watch - a group of five that plays as one, as opposed to five one's playing solo. Have you ever seen such a combination of athleticism, teamwork, and unselfishness in one package!

Here's to hoping we get to see them together, at least four more games!

The young lady checkout clerk tonight at Walmart was wearing her ID on a Michigan Wolverines Lanyard. I couldn't resist.

"Did you know the last Wolverine in the state of Michigan died on Saturday?" I asked.

"'No," she answered. "Really?'

"Yes. Honest to gosh. It was in the Michigan Free Press Newspaper."

"That's sad," she said. "Do they know how it happened?"

"They think it had a heart attack Friday afternoon when Evan turner nailed that 3-pointer to beat Michigan," I answered. "It just couldn't take another loss to the Buckeyes.

You should have seen the look on her face.

Gotcha!

Title IX was at work last night. The basketball gods thought that since the OSU men got a #2 seed but a #16 road back to Indianapolis, they better throw the same crumbs to the Women. The Lady Buckeyes also got a #2 seed... and stare straight into the face of UCON standing between them and the final four. Personally I'd take a ten seed in another bracket. It would be just as easy a route.

Next time we should lose a couple of more games. Maybe not show up for the conference championship. Or tell 'em we had a couple of players hurt. It would give us an easier road!

Go Bucks!

"Only known wolverine in Michigan dies" screamed the headline in the Detroit Free Press. Honest to gosh.

This one was too good to pass up.

No it is not a joke. The last surviving Wolverine in Michigan was found dead and they are preforming an autopsy! The female wolverine, found Saturday by a pair of hikers near a beaver dam in the Minden City State Game Area, appears to have died from natural causes, said Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment spokeswoman Mary Detloff.

Natural causes indeed. I bet they will find that it was a heart attack that occurred around 3:30 Friday afternoon. After 19 out of 22 times, the poor thing just couldn't handle another loss to the Buckeyes.

May she rest in peace!

"I know I've been in this league for six years, and I've never seen anything like that."

That was Thad Matta after yesterday's game describing Evan Turner's performance this weekend and his second half scorching of the Gophers.

We're switching gears for a bit and as long as these Buckeyes are on fire, you'll continue to hear basketball instead of football here. Hopefully we've got three more weeks of that in the Big Dance.

I figure it's them against the basketball world and they need all the help they can get. Me, you, all of us! I mean one minute we are being talked about as a number one seed and the next we are dumped into the toughest bracket with the number one tournament seed between us and the Final Four. We're climbing the fire escape, while Darling Duke and even some three and four seeds are placed on easier escalators to Indy.

That's okay. Us against the world. I think these guys relish that role. Go Bucks! Here's to a long ride!

Man. Double overtime. Another one to a brink. How many more of these can we take? Are we living on borrowed time, or is this a team that just never never quits? Up. Down. Make a run. Give it back. Make the impossible. Boot the routine. Just when I think I have these guys figured out, I don't.

One thing is for sure. It's never a dull moment when they take the floor. Go Bucks!

For an instant today, I remembered that gut wrenching feeling we all have forgotten, that feeling of what it was like to get beat by Michigan.

For an instant! For 2.1 seconds to be exact. That's how long it took Evan Turner to take two dribbles to center court. And then, like the clouds in a fast moving thunderstorm, it went away. With 0.1 second on the clock...the ball left his hand. With 0.0 seconds on the clock, and an eternity later... swish! The heavens opened, the skies brightened, the sun shone, and that sinking, gut wrenching, feeling, that feeling we have only felt 3 times in the last 22 meetings, well once again, it all went away.

If you weren't lucky enough to see the ending today, find it on ESPN. Find it on YouTube. If you saw it live it was so unbelievable, you will never forget it. I mean this was Keith Byars running without his shoe. This was Jerry Lucas's hook shot. This was Rex Kern waving the punt team off the field. Bob White driving the length of the field against Iowa. Vic Janowicz kicking a field goal in a blizzard.

Some might say it was only the opening round of a lowly conference tournament. True. But it was Michigan, and we were beaten, and E.T. raised us from the dead. It was unbelievable, and it was spectacular.

And after doing this, how did E.T. celebrate? It might surprise you, but then if you have followed him it shouldn't. Check out Bob Hunters blog:

OSU's Turner is also a hero away from the court

It's another great Sunday to be a Buckeye.

I just watched the girls dig themselves an unfathomable hole and then come back to win the Big Ten Championship at the buzzer. If you haven't been following their games - well, shame on you. You're missing quit the theatrics when Sammy Prahalis gets fired up and goes up and down the court like the Pinball Wizard. Kudos to the Lady Buckeyes.

Of course sitting in the crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse was E.T, the other half of the dynamic duo. I have written below my thoughts on Evan Turner the basketball player. Today Bill Rabinowitz had lengthy article in the Columbus Dispatch about Evan Turner the person. His growing up, his mother and the way she raised him, and the modesty and class with which he carries himself are all presented in Just one of the guys. Read it and savor every minute we have left with this guy we should all be so proud of.

Someday, mark my words, they will be hanging #21 from the rafters in the Schottenstein Center. When they do, you can say to your grandkids, "I saw him play."

Time for a break.

You all are anxious for spring and tired of the weather. As for myself, this is good for me. It's going on 4 PM and I have been sitting here at this key board since 8 this morning, pounding away on the books. Out side the window I face, it is below freezing, the cold wind is howling a bit, the ground is white, and the have been some big flakes coming down covering the streets.

When I've not been in my other office, at my part time position, this chair is where I have been most of February. With the cold and all the snow, there are no gardens calling, no fish biting, no flowers to plant and no trees to trim or projects to build. It's been a February of work and write, work and write. Write, read, edit, write. I have made a lot of progress. You all are ready for spring, but as for me, I wouldn't mind another four weeks of this hibernation, and then bam...it hits 75 degrees. It might sound boring to you, but actually doing this is quite fun and fascinating.

What if you could watch Chic Harley play a game? Les Fessler? Vic Janowicz? Hop? Jim Parker? Bill Willis? Jerry Lucas? John Havilecheck? What would you give? Ever thought of what it was like to be around during the day's one of the greats in Ohio State Athletic History?

Well you could have been yesterday, and if you didn't watch it, shame on you. The ball is round instead of pointed, and it has been happening in the Schott instead of the 'Shoe, but Evan Turner is putting on a show equivalent to any of the best Heisman Trophy races in Ohio State Football History.

If this were taking place on the turf in the Horseshoe, or on the courts of the anointed Big East; if it were playing out at Duke, at Kansas, at 'Tucky, or on Tobacco Road - why the national media couldn't get enough of him. If he was a bad boy, or had a big posse, or hot dog interested in his own point total, you would see him on the front of every newspaper, magazine, every billboard.

Instead, this quiet, polite, kid just goes about making his teammates look good and finding whatever it takes for his team to win. Amazing is not a good enough word to describe Evan, or what he did yesterday, in playing through sickness, in a hostile environment. Michael Arace has a splendid column in today's Dispatch that explains that, and asks the question "Is anyone in college basketball better?"

I don't often plan my schedule around basketball, but what is going on right now is special. History in the making. Get it while it lasts.

You probably didn't notice but in case you did this site was down a few days. That's what happens when you forget to pay Go Daddy Dot Com. Thanks to one my regular readers who called to let me know.

Like most things, they get you twice. Once for the domain name and another to host the site. Anyway the bills are paid now and $50 later I am good with my name for another year. (I wondered if that hot looking babe on the Go Daddy Super Bowl ads would jump out of my computer and rub my bald head, but Jenny laughed at me and said since I was old enough to be her Daddy fat chance on that one!)

You may have noticed it has been a little quiet on here. Besides the slow football news there is another good reason, which I shall elaborate on in my next post.

It wasn't football, but it sure was Buckeye History and Buckeye Glory. In 1960 I was only 9 years old. It was the pre-ESPN days, but I can still picture one evening when I remember my mother ironing while Jerry Lucas and the Buckeyes were on. Lucas was from our Southwest corner of Ohio and those were the glory days when the Buckeyes won one championship and battled rival Cincinnati down in two more. I can't remember if it was TV or Radio on that night, but I do think it is my earliest Buckeye memory.

They introduced those Champions at halftime yesterday during an impressive ceremony. Did you see it on CBS? Bill Rabinowitz had a very well done piece in Saturday's Dispatch about that team, the players, and what they have accomplished beyond the court in life. I found it fascinating and you would too: Being part of Ohio State's only national championship team in men's basketball left an indelible print on the lives of players and coaches alike As we approach a signing day where high schoolers hold national press conferences, Bill's writings about Jerry Lucas and Adolph Rupp say a lot!

We remembered our friend Virginia Zirkle this weekend. Yesterday a memorial service in an overflowing church concluded with singing of Carmen Ohio. Today seated in the audience of the funeral service was another one of my storytellers, Dr. John Mount. To Virginia, John was a friend, teacher and mentor, to many of you, and to me, John was Dean of Students during our times at Ohio State.

I was introduced to Dr. Mount by Virginia, and because of her, had the privilege of sitting in his living room listening to him tell me of knowing all the Ohio State Football Coaches since Francis Schmidt, all the Athletic Directors, and all of the University Presidents since 1934. This man who started 73 years ago in the Stadium Dorm and rose to Vice-President is today a true Ohio State legend and inspiration. At age 92, Dr. Mount is still actively serving the University and still today mentoring and advising students.

John once told me that in his more than 70 years with the University, Virginia Zirkle was the brightest student he ever had. Think about how much that says. As I sat there today and saw the teacher pay respect to the pupil, I thought wow, between the two there have been more than 130 years of service to the University, to people, to society.

Would that we all could have such legacies.

The Buckeyes lost a huge fan, and I lost a storyteller, and more importantly a friend, with the passing of Virginia Zirkle this week. An Extension Service Home Economist for 43 years, at age 86 Virginia was a life long Buckeye and an avid supporter of education and all things Ohio State. I first met Virginia 37 years ago, when I was green out of Ohio State and worked in the office next to hers in Ottawa Ohio.

Virginia was also a believer in this project and was eagerly awaiting it's completion. Sadly, I didn't make it for her. When I started this effort, she was one of the first to send me a story, describing her student years in the stadium during the 1940's. Later, when the local paper published a picture of me ringing the Victory Bell, Virginia was the first to send me the clipping and a card. Occasionally she would offer me her season ticket for a game, in the red seats on the fifty-yard line of course. And the year when another author scooped my idea and published a similar book, and I was pretty low, a few days before Christmas Virginia called and offered me her ticket for the National Championship game in New Orleans. Yes there was a Santa Clause, and her name was Virginia.

I was just one of the thousands Virginia befriended and helped in her career. Her obituary took 27 lines just to list the service organizations she was active in, and the honors bestowed on her.

Last fall I loaned Virginia my copy of The Winners Manual. It arrived home in the mail just last week, in a box with a note about how much she enjoyed it, and a batch of home baked cookies. I had it on my to-do list to call and thank her, but regrettably I hadn't yet.

As I listen to the shrillness of the discourse in today's society, and read the venom that too often goes back and forth on both sides, I think the world would be a better place with more Virginia Zirkels... a quiet petite lady who just went about doing good... serving, teaching, and helping people, for 86 years.

I have been pounding my keyboard all day so it is a good time for a break. Today it was my old day job again ( I'm back a part timer for them) and tonight more work on the book.

It has been a little while since I recommended a Buckeye Book to you, but on the plane to the Rose Bowl I read a good one that has been flying I think a little under the radar. More Than A Coach - What It Means To Play For Coach, Mentor, And Friend Jim Tressel is David Lee Morgan's engaging look into where Coach came from, his values and what makes him tick as a coach, and as a person.

Morgan is a Youngstown State Graduate and sportswriter for the Akron Beacon Journal. David was around YSU during Coach Tressel's era there and in the book, David recounts how Coach Tressel changed his own life through the Winners Manual. David chronicles Coach Tressel's journey through his years at both YSU and OSU. Told through anecdotes and stories by Coach's former players, assistants and friends, the book is probably as close as you will ever come to an inside look at the man we affectionately call "The Vest." And what they have to say speaks volumes about the passion and integrity of Coach Tressel to do things the right way and prepare his players for "meaningful lives beyond football."

As I read this book, I thought back to one of the games when I stood next to the Buckeye bench on the sideline in Ohio Stadium. By chance, I met a man next to me from Youngstown who told me he was a childhood friend of Coach Tressel. I explained my book project and we had a nice long chat. In the course of the conversation, I was hoping to get him to open up and share a story about Coach Tressel I might use for the book. I was trying to gain his trust, and illustrate the point that I was about doing something to honor the Stadium and all the good it stood for, not shock value. So, I made the offhanded comment to him, "I'm not looking for any dirt."

I will never forget his reply.... "With Jim Tressel, there is no dirt."

That comes through loud and clear in More Than A Coach, an amazing story about a coach at a big time program that is a molder of men and able to do things the right way. There is a link to order it on the Akron-Beacon Journal Sports Page.

Final random thoughts from the Rose Bowl.

If you have never been there, the stadium was nice, the setting absolutely, positively, beautiful, and when you walked in under that Rose Bowl sign you could just feel the years and years of tradition oozing into your veins. It was fairly clean, you could see from any seat, and although jammed in sideways, there was a decent amount of knee room in front of you. Pregame they played a video showing the big games, big plays, and the history of the Rose Bowl series. That was quite interesting and for us old geezers, a stroll down football's memory lane. There is nothing like the tradition of the place.

Having said all that though, it definitely wasn't the Horseshoe!!

The concrete is in need of a good face lift. It has less than half the portal tunnels of Ohio Stadium, meaning that I hope I am never in that place in an earthquake. Unlike the 'Shoe, getting out is a long... slow...tedious... process! Of course the lack of tunnels means that if your seat is in the very middle of the section (mine was), you need to climb over about 75 people to get to an aisle and out at halftime if nature calls (She did).

The video board is nothing the size of the one in the Horseshoe, but that didn't keep them from playing, every time there was a break, the dorkiest, dumbest, stupidest TV show commercials produced by some of the same idiots that produce the stupidest shows on "television for dummies". I wasn't the only one shaking my head and muttering Good Grief!

Getting out after the game was a nightmare...there is a huge open concrete storm channel just west of the stadium and the only way to cross that was on a few narrow bridges, which compounded the backup from the tunnels.

And that fabulous view you see on TV...the twilight when the sun sets over the mountains...well if you are down in the stadium you don't see that.

It's a fine place to visit...the Granddaddy of them all...and I would go back again and again in a heartbeat. But for us Buckeyes, used to a special place called the Horseshoe, well, "there's no place like home."

Too often we take for granted the jewel that we have.

I wrote the below post Friday evening in the high following the game, but it has taken me till today to get to a computer to put it up. For all you back home, in the zero weather, it is sunny and 79 here in San Diego this morning. We are down here for a few post Rose Bowl R&R and we need it. The last 5 days were a hectic pace.

One thing I do need to do though is to give a kudo to the Oregon fans. To their credit, "they ain't the SEC". I have been to 3 big bowl games now. In the two we lost, I put up with some pretty poor SEC winners...arrogant, rude, and even nasty. Not all were like that of course, but too many were.

Before and after this game however, the Oregon folks we crossed paths with were kind, friendly, and gracious. Had some nice chats with them, and after the game the ones we have crossed path's with have been nothing but congratulatory towards us and our Buckeye team. It's been the way college football should be, and I hope the way all our Budkeyes would treat the opposition.

More thoughts on the Rose Bowl later...Jenny is eager to drag me off to the zoo....

Pasadena.

Police today are still looking for a missing flock of Ducks last seen prior to Friday's Rose Bowl game. The Ducks were last seen crossing Rosemont Avenue headed to the bowl game. At the time of their disappearance they were being led into the stadium by a group of West Coast sportswriters that said something to the effect that the Ducks were going to win by just showing up, and predicted they would run over, under, and around some big slow thugs from the Midwest. The celebratory party had already started according to their pre-game predictions and the writers and broadcasters were leading the parade.

Eyewitness reports from the scene indicate the Ducks were ambushed by something fast moving and powerful that blasted right through them scattering feathers, beaks, and webbed feet everywhere up and down Rosemont and even over to Colorado Ave. The Rose Bowl turf was littered with the carnage. Accounts differ. Some claim it was a fast moving freight train. Others say no, it was a red semi-truck. A few thought it was a missile strike, but that was quickly discounted. "There is no way it could have been an aerial attack," went the prevailing thinking.

There is agreement that what ever it was, the driver was an elderly gentleman with a Santa Clause smile and dressed in a scarlet and gray sweater vest. All agreed though that the scene of the ambush was a bloody mess. Fortunately the demise of the Ducks was in the end, quick and painless. Most experts agree they never knew what hit them.

The West Coast Writers and broadcasters did survive and are looking back in awe at what happened. So fast one wrote. Totally unexpected another. Out of character said a third. The ESPN analysts were last seen looking for the scarlet and gray driver, hoping to get an interview and jump on his bandwagon.

Stay tuned for any further breaking news.

Monday morning, December 28th. After a month and a half, I think we actually may now have assigned seats inside the aircraft to sunny California. Just this morning, at 6 AM, the NWA computer system finally let me actually assign our seats. Hopefully it means what it says. Thank goodness Jenny won't have to ride out there as grandma strapped in a rocking chair on the wing of the airplane. It has only taken about 16 phone calls, and checking the system online daily, to get to this point, something Jenny and I have dreamed about for years and years

With some snow here today, and the terrorism hysteria at the airports, we decided to get a room at Detroit airport tonight so we will be there plenty early for our 12 noon flight. The scarlet and gray is laid out, the cameras are charged, and the suitcases waiting to be packed. It will feel so good wearing my red Rose Bowl hat and my Buckeye necklace through the Detroit Michigan airport tomorrow morning!

I won't have a laptop out there, but hope to post some reports via a hotel computer or my Blackberry. Check back this week.

Go Bucks and may you all dine on Duck New Years Day!!!!!!

Well, the refund I was told I would be getting hasn't showed up yet at the bank. It has been 4 work days. How long do I wait before I make what is about my 10th call?

Oh yea, did get a reply from Travelocity today. Mostly goblybook. "Even though none of this is their fault, they will graciously give me a voucher for $100 on a future trip." Yea. Right. As if I am going to use them again....

The diehards among you know of the Buckeye Grove just southwest of Ohio Stadium. With a tree planted for each Ohio State Football All-American, a stroll through there is a walk down memory lane.

It occurred to me last night that the Davis family has its very own Buckeye tree, as we trimmed it with the ornaments of our Buckeye lives.

It is in vogue to have a theme tree. Our theme is the story of who we are and where we have been. The ornament collection starts of course, with all the ones the kids made when they were small. Some cute, some pretty, and some so ugly only a mother could have saved them all. Add in a few that were Grandma and Grandpa's.

Then there are ones from the many places we visited as a family. Disneyworld of course, the Smithsonian, Port Head Light, Seabrook Island, a Loon from McGregor Bay in the Northland. There are Sand Dollars collected from the Atlantic and flowers from Butchart gardens on the Pacific. A fancy one from the Biltmore estate.

Our biggest collection by far however, and the most telling, is from our Buckeye memories. Our family is six adults now, with seven college degrees, five of which came from The Ohio State University. The ornaments are many and varied and reflect the richness of that experience.

There is one for Ohio State Mom, and another for Ohio State Dad. The 2002 National Championship. A 1997 Rose Bowl Win. And several Big Ten Championships. A Fiesta Bowl ornament with one-half Scarlet and Grey and the other Blue and Gold. The hand written lettering on that one says OSU 34 - ND 20. Throw in too several footballs and a miniature silver helmet with Buckeye leaves.

Many though, are fashioned from other than football. A large lighted crystal ball sparkles with a replica of University Hall inside. A hanging ceramic coaster displays a red Block O. And a gold alumni key chain was a great adaptation; it hangs beneath a light and glows with the inscription "Stay Connected". (That we have.) We will add to these again this year, this time certainly something from the Tournament of Roses.

At the base of our tree is the Polar Express ornament. Our grandson likes to pull the ribbon and listen to it say ...the true spirit of Christmas lies within your heart. That it does, and along side of that spirit lies the memories of The Ohio State University and the role it has played in who we are and all that we have. How firm thy friendship, O-HI-O.

Tried Northwest Air again this afternoon. Same drill...after about 15 minutes of menus and music, the computer "transferred me to an agent". Got same message..."unable to take call due to high call volume." Now I know there was a major storm yesterday, but I checked the Air traffic control site this afternoon and it showed very few delays nationwide. Tried calling again. Same drill.

The third time I got mad. When I got the first initial answer of the phone, and the cheerful computer asked would you like to check a reservation, check a flight, etc... and then finished with "say your answer", I screamed at the phone "I WANT TO TALK TO A #@&^@! AGENT!"

I must have scared the hell out of the computer...it answered in a sweet voice, "Oh, let me transfer your to an agent."

What do you know the nicest lady came on! I explained my predicament. She checked and even though it had been two and a half weeks since Travelocity had told me everything had been taken care of, and charged me, guess what...Jenny had never been ticketed! The lady took care of that. When I told her what I had been through, and the $309 dollar charge for the name change she couldn't believe it. She offered to talk to a supervisor and when she came back they had agreed to refund $150 of the $309 change fee. At least it was something. She was helpful and did what she could for me.

That was the good news, we are finally confirmed on the plane. Of course there was one on other minor problem she explained. Since the T company hadn't seat assigned us, they also had never followed up on the promise their agent made that they would seat us together, and of course now the plane was full and we were at the mercy of the available singles scattered here and there.

One of us may be strapped on the wing yet.

Well I have been told by Travelocity we both have a flight. However, the confirmation number they give me brings up Jenny in the Northwest Airline system with a reservation, but no e-ticket or seat assignment. (Maybe it will be a National Lampoon Christmas Vacation and they will put her in a rocking chair tied to the wing?)

I gave up on Travelocity today and called Northwest direct. After speaking to a computer for 5 minutes, the computer finally gave up because it kept spelling Davis back to me as Bavis! That was a good thing because it actually transferred me to an agent!

Or so I thought. After another 5 minutes on hold I got a recording saying "they couldn't answer my call because of "high call volume'....try back later"

California Dreamin On Such A Winter 's Day....

Story of my life.

Guess we'll have to cheer extra loud. This too from this morning's Oregon paper...

One small consolation for Pac-10 fans: Their Rose Bowl allotment is bigger than the Big Ten's. The Pac-10 gets 36,000 tickets to the game and the Big Ten 27,000. The discrepancy is a holdover from long ago, Throop said, when bowl organizers assumed more people would travel from the West Coast for the game than from the Midwest.

How do you spell arrogance...

Cancel the trip and pass the jelly.

Guess I might as well not bother with the bowl trip. Here is what John Canzano wrote this morning in the Portland Oregonian about Oregon's win on Thursday.

...it became obvious on the field at Autzen that because of the jobs Kelly and Riley have done, Ohio State wouldn't have beat either one of them...The first meeting of what will certainly be called "Mike Riley vs. Chip Kelly I" went to Kelly. And when I saw the men match wits, shuffle personnel and shake afterward, I thought, "Ohio State is toast....."

Well the war of words is on. The above quote is some of the tamer ones in his article. The more I read what is written out there, the more I understand and even admire Woody's contempt for the West Coast writers. In the old days Woody, God bless him, would have punched a guy who wrote that. We know Coach T will not do that...just quietly go to work and I think get the job done.

Let em boast. I will keep my tickets and head west to see it play out on the field, in what my now departed friend once described as "California, the land of Fruits and Nuts."

All of this hassle has been because stupid me put Jenny's name on the reservation as Jenny...the name she has used for every one of the 36 plus years we have been married. After I did that I learned "Jennifer" was the name on her drivers license.

Should be simple enough to change right?.... six keystrokes in one field in a data base in a computer somewhere. Yea, right. That's what all this has been about. Six keystrokes.

Apparently the change finally got made. How do I know?...I checked the bank statement today and Northwest Airlines has charged an additional $309 to my account for making that change. $309 to put six keystrokes into their computer. That is all that was changed...6 keystrokes in the name field. It is not a new person. (I would argue that it is not even a different name) That figures out to $51.50 per character. At their rates what I have typed to this point in this blog would cost $39,655. I could be rich! (Course at this point I am $309 poorer.)

Is there anyone out there that thinks it is reasonable for Northwest Airlines to charge $309 for one time change of 6 characters in a first name field 30 days ahead of departure. If so, I would like to meet you and understand your logic. I bet Northwest has some swamp land somewhere they would cheerfully sell you.

They do these things because "They gotcha" and they know they can. And they wonder why people aren't flying anymore!

Still don't have a piece of paper in hand with two confirmed eticket numbers. Broke down and called them again this morning, even though the busy time, as I will be off deep in the woods deer hunting the next three days. Again got an agent that assured me the reservations were there. This time she did give me an eticket number that allowed me to look at the airlines site. I was there, with an eticket. Of course there was no seat assignment, and when I clicked on that option...all that was available was premium seats.

As for Jenny...here reservation shows, but no eticket. I asked the travel agent for a written confirmation of both reservations. She said sure...she would send me an email...and then added it would take 5-6 days to get it! Unbelievable.

Well after I posted Tuesday night I was on hold for another 15 minutes.

Finally got a lady nicer than some of the previous agents had been. She checked...yes... she could see my reservation. "It was there," she said. "Not to worry." They had to split it into two trip itineraries because of the change. She gave me a new code, but I can't look at it on my end to verify on their site. When I asked about it not being on the airlines site, she gave me a reservation code and said to use that to check. I hung up ( my mistake, but it was hard to understand her speech) Then I discovered the reservation code she game me was the same as the first one I had back when we both had tickets showing in the system. Checked the airlines, which of course only still showed Jenny and even that reservation wasn't ticketed.

So.... Is it still screwed up? Has the change just not made it through because of the holiday busyness? Do I have a ticket, or do I not? I have now made five different phone calls on five different days, and have talked to seven different people including a supervisor. I have gone from the airline showing two confirmed and paid for tickets and seats to floating aimless in outer space. I have been told four times the "change would be made" and twice "it had been taken care of." I have an email from Sunday that says "Changes have been made". No details, no names, no flight times, nothing specific. For all I know the change could have been on a flight to Ann Arbor.

I still have no written confirmation nor anything in the system I can see that shows we both are there and ticketed. What I do have however, is the phone calls made to them recorded, as I had them on speaker phone when I was talking to them, and I have two recorded conversations of two of their agents telling me everything was fixed. (a total of 37 MB audio files on my hard drive and backed up in my safe deposit box!) I also have a bank statement that show they have a healthy amount of my hard earned money for these phantom reservations.

Of course all that will do me scant good if I get the airport and the plane is full and they really have f#@$!& our tickets up!

I am giving up till after the holiday.

Enjoy your turkey and time with your family today and give thanks for all we have. For most of us, that is a lot.

Well I checked the airline website tonight and now someone has removed completely my name from the ticketed list!!

On Sunday I had been assured by a supervisor it Jenny's name change had been fixed been fixed and would be taken care of. As of tonight there now is no record of my reservation!!!! This crap has gone on for a week now. Once again I am waiting on hold as I type this.

Stefanie Spielman's life was celebrated today at a memorial service in Columbus. As I watched part of the broadcast, and listened to husband Chris at the church podium, sharing the meaning of her life and her faith, I thought of the often stereotyped "football factory" image of Ohio State Football and Ohio Stadium. How wrong that is, as I have said many times, and was illustrated again today.

Arguably the most intense man ever to roam the Horseshoe spoke softly and with tenderness of her faith and his faith and Stefanie's desire "To Be A Light" as he shared the meaning of her life.

My readers far off don't get the privilege of seeing the television coverage of these types of things like we do here in Ohio. However you can watch clips of Chris's remarks at the Dispatch links below. May it inspire you as it did me.

Letter About Stefanie

Stefanie's Passions

A broadcast of the entire service is also available at the WBNS TV website.

According to the 3rd person I spoke to yesterday at the travel site (after being on hold for 45 minutes and on the phone for a total of 2 hours!) the problem with the ticket "had been fixed." Last night I got an email that said "change has been made". Of course there were no details of what they changed and the airline website shows no change. So was it "fixed" or not? The saga continues...

We have always wanted to go to the Rose Bowl and made our reservations last Monday right after the Iowa win.

We were all set....we thought...until we ran into a problem with the spelling of a name on a plane reservation. Five calls to the reservation service have yielded five different answers. At the first call I was told "It's been taken care of and there would be no charge." Same with second. Five calls later they now went an outrageous figure of several hundred dollars to change it. I am still dealing with the travel service to see if they will stand behind and make good what their agent told me. If not...well there will be a post down the road with the details and the name of the service which I probably will recommend you never ever use....

Fate is fickle and it has turned again.

After the Purdue game our coach was the goat. All Tressel did since then was run the table, win the Big Ten outright, take us to the Rose Bowl, and post the most wins against Michigan in any decade since he early 1900's! Today anyone with half a sense of Buckeye history is on cloud nine.

Bill Livingston of the plain Dealer wrote two columns this weekend that put these accomplishments in context as well as anything I have read. One reason for that is that Bill has been quite critical of The Vest in the past, and back in days of #13 caustic was the better word. Bill's compliments don't come easy, so when he paid two of them this weekend it turned my head:

Glory days? When it comes to Ohio State's No. 1 goal, this is as good as it gets: Bill Livingston

Keep enemy closer works for Ohio State's Jim Tressel

And if those two aren't enough to convince you, check out bob Hunter's exclusive pregame seance with none other than Fielding Yost himself for another history lesson. It's sports writing at it's best:

Bob Hunter commentary: My, how things have changed in The Game

The Buckeye's throwback uniforms yesterday came with a throwback offense. It probably wasn't glitzy enough for some of you, but for this old lineman that put it on the ground, length of the field, grind it out winning touchdown drive was a work of art. You could just hear Bo up there grudgingly turning his head and saying "Well Woody, you got us on that one!"

Buckeye History will look kindly on the era we are living through. Savor it and don't let anybody try to tell you differently!

"Where's (Expletive)?" he shouted right in my ear. "Where's (Expletive)?"

It was 2005 and Curt and I were seated in Michigan Stadium surrounded by Maize and Blue. The ushers there had first seated us in the wrong section. The folks in that area were nice and polite and we were exchanging some good-natured bantering between them and the two Buckeyes decked out in their Scarlet and Gray. Then the ushers discovered they had seated us in the wrong seats, and moved us over a whole different section.

Our new seats were in front of a guy in Blue who kept leaning forward and screaming in my ear, "Where's (Expletive), Where's (Expletive)?" I won't print the Expletive, but it starts with A and rhymes with pole. Use your imagination. I kept wondering, what's this guy talking about?

After about 20 minutes of this, Brutus Buckeye appeared on the field. "There he is. There he is!" the guy shouted when he appeared. "There's (Expletive)!" The rest of the game the "where is" changed to "there he is". If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times, and just tried to ignore the fellow.

That is, until Troy Smith threw the winning touchdown at the end of the game. The officials hadn't even spotted the ball for the extra point and I turned around to give that guy a big Buckeye smile. I was already in his rear view mirror, as he was by then, 30 rows up the aisle and already heading out of the stadium.

Counting that game, today's win makes it five in a row since that day, including 3 in a row now in their house. It has been more than 2190 days since we have lost to those folks and Tress is 8-1 against them.

As I savored the win today and watched on TV the Buckeye's celebrating in the Big House to the tune of California Here We Come, I couldn't help but think of that guy. And, I wondered to myself, "Where's that (Expletive) today and what is he thinking?"

This is a good one for Scarlet and Gray Friday.

Our good friends Don and Theresa are anxiously awaiting birth of their first grandchild, due any time now.

The families are huge Buckeye fans and Don and his son suggested that if the baby is born on OSU-Michigan Day, that they name her Scarlet! Of course, the mother to be pointed out their dog is already named Scarlet. No problem Don and Jordan said, they could just change the dog's name.

At this point I entered the debate and emailed Don, suggesting they change the dog's name to Ann.... as in Ann Arbor.

"No," Don replied this morning, "I wouldn't do that, I like the dog."

True Story.

Go Bucks!

November 19, 2009.

Many terms are used to describe the Ohio - State Michigan game. War. Battle. Life and Death.

Sadly, death hangs heavy in the air tonight for the Buckeye Nation.

Stefanie Spielman has lost the only battle that really matters, her more than ten-year fight with breast cancer. The Columbus Dispatch is reporting she passed away this evening at her Upper Arlington home.

On October 23rd, in the wake of the Buckeye's loss, I posted a piece below with a link to a story about the Spielman family and asked for prayers. This evening, once again Chris and the children need the prayers of the Buckeye Nation, and the post of Michigan jokes I had intended to write is woefully inappropriate.

The Dispatch already has up a wonderful tribute to Stefanie, Chris, and the journey they endured. The battle and the fight was a courageous one that will leave a lasting legacy. What started in 1998 as a goal to raise $250,000 for breast cancer research has blossomed into a $6.5 million Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research. In the 11 years she battled the disease, Stefanie accomplished more for the well-being of others than most of us will in our entire lifetimes.

How ironic that Stefanie, like Bo before, leaves us on the eve of a game in which she cheered and Chris played, a game that embodies all they stood for and the sport and the school they both loved. In a week that sees both Buckeyes and the opposition get all worked up, she leaves us with one lasting lesson...in the end the game of life is the only one that really matters.

Read the tribute at the Dispatch Website and be sure to view the pictures. She was a beautiful lady... both inside and out.

Columbus Dispatch Tribute to Stefanie Spielman

I am getting nervous about Saturday. Hardly feels like Michigan week around here. Folks and the media are getting way too confident on this one. Hopefully Tressel is successful in keeping the team from that thinking. This reminds me of when I was a young freshman living in Park Hall. It was 1969. You know what that means. Woody Hayes took the defending National Champions up to Ann Arbor and Bo Schembechler kicked our butts. I can still remember the shock and emptiness of those gathered in the dorm room as we watched that play out on a little black and white TV.

At least one person has it right. Jim Lachey's thoughts on Michigan were quoted in the Detroit Free Press....."All it takes though for it to turn around is one game, and I have played enough football to know that," he said. "I was 11-0 with the Washington Redskins, and I played against the 0-11 Dallas Cowboys, but at the end of the fourth quarter, we were 11-1, and they were 1-11. You never think it is going to happen when you look at it on paper, but somehow, some way, they manage to pull it off. You need to respect everyone you play. Michigan will turn it around, but hopefully not this week."

Hopefully not this week. Go Bucks.

The legendary HBO documentary on the Ohio-State Michigan game starts with something about "It's always the 3rd Saturday in November..." Well, savor that. This week is the last time this storied rivalry will be played on that 3rd Saturday. The almighty BC$ has caused a move to the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the foreseeable future. (Actually my friend Ken Gordan pointed out that it has been played that day 11 times in the last 58 years...) Nevertheless...

Some say change is inevitable. Maybe so. But I say baloney and even if it is, I don't have to like it. So savor this week for what it used to be, focused on the rivalry and only the rivalry. Somewhat sad isn't it that this final one in the traditional slot won't be two undefeated ranked teams playing for all the marbles.

I myself don't think it will ever be quite the same. Next time around, you won't be focused exclusively on this game. You'll have the added worry of how you are to get to Grandma's house 5 states away and back in time, or getting the spare bedroom cleaned for the arrival of your favorite brother-in-law in his Notre Dame sweatshirt. Think of all the schools and businesses that had Ohio State - Michigan competitions on Fridays... will these things be the same on Wednesday? What about the Fridays in Columbus with the hyperactive alumni band traveling to all the businesses? Will anyone be there working? Will the Earle Bruce Friday pep rally get bigger, or wither and die with the holiday competition? And what about all the county alumni clubs that traditionally have big tailgate parties this week? Will folks still have time to put those on during the week of perhaps the biggest Holiday travel? Will people still come?

OSU-Michigan was never just a game. It was a week. This year it still is. Next year it won't be. Down the road we will find out if what was gained in the chase for the BC$ is worth what we have lost in traditions. I predict not, and that someday down the road, the next "Throwback" will be playing the game "...the 3rd Saturday in November." Time and Change will surely show whether or not I am right. Maybe I am just an old fuddy-duddy.

Saturday's seat was one of the best yet. In the south stands, I was given a chair seat on the lower handicap walkway, the very first chair just across the aisle from the band, right above the student section and immediately below Block O. It provided a backrest for this old man, room to stretch my legs, a railing to lean on, and all the people watching that goes with sitting in the students and enjoying their revelry.

Better than that, it was right in front of a portal, mere steps from the men's room and hot dog stand. I could get in and out and do both during a TV timeout!! (You old guys will appreciate that.)

But best of all, it was right in line with the trajectory of the winning kick. I looked right down the track of that thing. It was so straight and so true, I knew it was good the minute it cleared the line! And when they opened the gates to the field on that aisle way, and the kids started rushing it, I thought what the heck, I can too! Down the aisle I charged.

Perhaps you saw among all those nineteen and twenty-year-olds a short stubby bald guy in red and gray running the 40 yard dash. I am quite sure I didn't do it in Terrelle's time, but perhaps I did match Jim Cordle or Bryant Browning. In any case, there I was at midfield jammed in the mass of Buckeye Humanity, standing next to Nathan Williams, slapping him on the shoulder pads and congratulating him as we all rode the high and did the jump around.

A young man in front of me had 3 roses. I asked him where he got them, hoping he might share one. "Kroger" he said, "Would you like one?" Of course I thought. Actually, he shared two. Unfortunately, they went to the two shapely coeds standing beside me who smiled seductively at him when he asked that question. Smart kid.

Once out there you couldn't go anywhere except where the pile aimlessly pushed you, so we just rode the wave and collectively savored the moment. The stars were shining, the night electric, and for a while, I was young again.

In time came the moment to sing Carmen Ohio. Problem was, no way could we hear the band nor get the crowd quiet. They flashed the words on the scoreboard and then started them over. There were all these little pockets of Carmen Ohio going, each one on a different verse and different key, but all heartfelt and meaningful.

In time the moment ebbed, the team left the field and we moved on both literally and figuratively. Literally, the crowd thinned. Figuratively, those left struck up the Ohio State Alma Matter II... We don't give a damn for the whole state...

Sunday morning some loser at CBS.com wrote a hack job of a column lambasting the team, Tressel, the Big Ten and said all 100,000 fans were booing in the stadium. I don't know what game that guy watched, but on behalf of those of us at that midfield, on that night, I will say to him "Ask me if I care buddy!"

This will always be one to remember.

It's Saturday morning, 5 AM.

Tried this week to get a press pass for today, but was told "Everyone from Iowa Is Coming" and they are all out. Fortunately I circled this one months ago and bought a student ticket, so this afternoon I will be in the south end zone, just a few rows off the field, below Block O and right square center of the goal post. Should make for a lot of action.

I wonder if this will be like the last Iowa game I went to? A few years ago the Hawkeyes came in flying high and it was billed as a big game. I was there and watched that one as our defense suffocated them and they laid an egg. Will we see a repeat performance? The stage is set!

As I think this morning of this game and this team, the number of seniors we lost last year, and the youth with which we started this season, the words of the late Dan Fogelberg come to mind...

...And it's run for the roses
As fast as you can
Your fate is delivered
Your moment's at hand
It's the chance of a lifetime
In a lifetime of chance
And it's high time you joined
In the dance...

Go Bucks!

The Iowa game brings one of the many great Ohio Stadium traditions, that of the Stadium Cake. Begun by a volunteer group of loyal OSU Alumni, the truly amazing 200-pound cake, replicating every detail of Ohio Stadium, will be on display prior to the game on the south lawn of St. John Arena. After the game, the now "Nineteenth Annual" Cake will be cut and served for donations to the Stadium Cake scholarship fund. The University scholarship fund, endowed in the name of the Ohio Stadium Cake, has grown to nearly $100,000. Since 2004, the university has awarded nineteen scholarships to deserving students from the earnings of the cake!

If you have never seen this amazing undertaking, you really should stop by and take a look or take a bite. And while you are there, throw a healthy donation into the bucket. It's for a worthy cause.

Check out the cake at: www.ohiostadiumcake.com

Last week I penned of the Penn State game..."We will find out what these players and this team are made of." Indeed we did. Tressel Ball is alive and well. And for those of you that don't think it is exciting enough, well I hear they are running a wide open offense at a school north of the border! Would you really trade?

Hats off to the Buckeyes and especially to Terrelle who showed the maturity to shed all the baggage that Buckeye and Penn State fans threw at him the last few weeks and commanded the field with poise and patience. I wrote last week about the blue marble that hopefully would turn rose the last game of the season. Well, thanks to the Wildcats the timetable has advanced a week. Lets keep it rolling against the Hawkeyes.

What a thrilling environment it had to have been, to have been a lucky one of the small group of Buckeye Fans at State College. In the "picture says a thousand words" category, the Plain Dealer has a great video on line that shows what this win meant to the team, our players, and Coach T. Check out the celebration and the (attempted) Singing of Carmen Ohio.

We showed we have a group of guys that can carry the ball. Now carrying a tune, well that's another matter!

It is a well-known legend now that at the beginning of the season Coach T has been giving his Seniors a jar with 12 marbles. The marbles are to signal their one remaining season. One by one, each week the players slip into Coaches office and drop a marble in the jar. One of the marbles is a different color ...blue I would assume maybe ...and no one needs to tell them that is the last marble.

There would be three marbles left now in that jar if the legend holds true. These three remaining ones will count more than the previous nine to define this group and their legacy. The players will each week have to run a gauntlet and ride a roller coaster to drop that marble in the jar. Penn State at State College...the undefeated Hawkeyes at home...and then does anyone really think that school up north is just going to roll over? We will find out what these players and this team is made of.

Some of you have already written them off, now that it appears they are out of the "only thing that matters National Championship Game" picture. I don't detect the buzz or excitement for this game I think there should be. Myself, considering the seniors we lost, the youth we have, the rash of injuries and sickness on the line and in the backfield this year, I prefer to focus on the fact that we are still playing for all the marbles of a Big Ten Championship and berth in a BCS bowl game.

I have never had the privilege to go to Pasadena. Neither has this group of players. Here's to hoping we do this year and that two weeks from now that blue colored marble can be magically transformed into a Rose colored one.

Start the roller coaster and beat the drums!

If there is any good of the Purdue loss, it is that the fair weather fans have flown the coop. Tickets were widely available outside the stadium last week (some at fire sale prices), and tonight I just checked and good seats were still available from the Ohio State Ticket site for Saturday.

Yes, it is New Mexico State, but the band is still there, they still make the ramp entrance, there will still be 100,000 screaming at the kickoff, and they will still sing Carmen Ohio. Plus you might see a lot of points put on the board.

So for all of you who have complained to me that it is so hard to get tickets, well here's your chance. And for a young kid...well, they don't care who they are playing, it's still the Buckeyes and a chance for some bonding with Mom or Dad and making of a memory of their first time in the Horseshoe.

I may make a gumshoe yet.

I headed for the French Field House Saturday morning, knowing that Varsity O holds a breakfast on the morning of Homecoming Weekend. A lot of the "Old Timers" come back for that and they make grand copy. When I arrived however, I found what I feared... some pretty stern ticket takers at the door making sure riffraff like me didn't crash the gate. The door to the gold mine was barred.

My next best option was to hang around outside with the chance of making some new friends with the folks coming and going. As I did, I heard a couple of fellows 20 years older than I standing and talking next to me. One said to the other, "So and so was going to come but got sick, so I have some extra tickets!" There was my opening and I took it.

"You guys play?" I asked as I casually strolled over.

"Yea," they answered.

"What year?"

"1950, we played baseball," they replied.

"Oh, you played with Hop Cassady," I responded.

They seemed surprised I knew that, which led to a discussion of what I was doing and how I knew that. I complimented them on their accomplishments of long ago and blew a little smoke how great it was they were here, to have played with Hop, and how I loved to follow Ohio State Baseball...all of which was true.

"You going in there?" one of the guys finally asked me.

"Would love to, but I don't have a ticket," I smiled.

"Here, take one of my extra's," he said as he extended a hand.

I did. It worked. I'll save what happened inside for another post.

There were a couple of story lines in this weeks Buckeye News. Obviously the big one was the public ranting of some fans and writers after last Saturday. That soon grew tiring and I read very little of the criticism written by those for whom their world ends with anything less than undefeated and a national championship every year.

There was another Buckeye line though, that got much less ink, yet is much more real than anything the armchair's wrote. Originally published in the Canton Repository, and reprinted in The Blade, the story by Todd Porter shares some news of the very personal and courageous battle of the Chris Spielman family with Stefanie's cancer. It's been a fragile situation for many years, and sadly, according to the article "The situation has never been more fragile than it is right now."

As I read their story, the courage and dignity they have shown in the face of a real family tragedy made the bloggers and emailer's angry at a simple loss look petty and small. The Spielman's have raised $6.9 million for cancer research in the face of their very public battle for ten years with the dreaded disease. Would that we all could be so strong and leave such a legacy.

So I will let other's waste their ink on ranting and raving. As for mine, I will use it here to share that one of our own needs us to be there. Read the story at the link below, and then say a prayer for our beloved Buckeye's Chris and Stefani Spielman. They need our help.

Spielman Family Story

Sat was a first. Fourth quarter I actually turned the game off, something I have seldom done no matter how dire. I wouldn't have this time either, except we had to get dressed and a two hour drive to our 40h class reunion, and were running late. In the car, I caught the last minute and the post game conference and then turned it off. There were high school friends waiting, some of whom we hadn't seen in 40 years. Turns out it was a welcome diversion from the carnage in Lafayette.

For the next seven hours, Jenny and I and the others relished in our youth amid they music of the sixties. There were a few of the usual surprises...the wall flower that made it big, the early star that had flamed out, the perfect couple that didn't end up in quite the perfect marriage. Mostly though we discovered we all were still a lot alike...sharing the challenges of careers and families and increasingly our health. At the stage where nearly all are a little too gray, a little too bald, or a little too chunky, it was interesting to see us all realize we now are what we are and accepting of each other for that.

The biggest surprise though was the number not there because they are no longer with us. They had a memorial board with 40 names and pictures...nearly 10 percent of our class of 400+. We all say we live and die with Buckeye football. As I looked at that board though and good friends that were on it, a tornado, a car wreck, heart disease, and the big one...cancer...all served to remind me that it is just a figure of speech and here was the real living and dying.

So while some out there are railing on the call in shows and criticizing on the blog boards, and are emailing the venom, I have moved on. Sunday I didn't even read the sports reports. Heck, I saw the game. We got outplayed, weren't ready, and sometimes Saturday they couldn't have blocked me if I had been on the Purdue defensive line. What more could they write that said any more than that? The sun dawned bright on Sunday. The team can go back to work, and we can go back living and dying for 3 hours next Saturday afternoon. It's a privilege the forty on the board no longer share.

Despite his reputation as boring, Coach T really is a funny and witty guy. If you don't believe me watch The-Ozone broadcast of today's Thursday press conference, and you will then understand why, and also the title of this post.

I really like the Thursday conferences. Instead of the media second guessing him and grilling about the game just finished, you get more unfiltered Coach T and his philosophy and explanation of the game of football. Check it out on The-Ozone site and while you are there hit the donate button to support the good work they do.... The-Ozone Coach T Thursday Coverage

Still fighting the bug, but was in the news today (See Reliving the Glory!) and guarantee I will be fully recovered by Friday.

My high school football team will be celebrating it's 40th anniversary and Friday night we are going to be recognized on the field at Xenia High before the game for the best record in school history. Fourteen team members will be coming back from places across the country...Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and Arizona to name the ones I know.

Our group went 9 and 1, produced 10 All-League players, 7 All-District, 3 All- Region and 2 All-State. We sent nine members on to play college ball, including one with the Buckeyes. No team in the history of the school has a better record.

Friday night they will parade us onto the field, call our names, as the people in the stands say "Who are they?" and "How could those fat old geezers ever play football?" Or as Jenny pointedly put it to me, "Do you think anybody really cares?"

Well yes. We do.

I was talking to a former Ohio State Football Assistant Coach today about this and he put it best. "There's a special bond," he said, "and it's one you can never understand unless you've played the game."

So for a few brief minutes we will gather at the spot of our camaraderie long ago and relive the glory when we came of age. I intend to relish it all. We will probably never all be together again, and already there are three who are no longer with us.

As posted below I was home under the weather yesterday and when last night rolled around, pretty drained and glad I wasn't driving home from Columbus.

There was one advantage of watching the game on TV. Don't know if you caught the visual "Woody Hayes - Legendary Man" that ABC showed during Matt Millen's nice tribute to Coach Hayes. It aired twice in the second half...once right before Ray Small took it to the house with his kickoff return.

Anyway, the Legendary Man graphic shown on TV was actually a shot of the tribute to Woody that graces the entrance to the teams private enclave in the Woody Hayes Center. It is a floor to ceiling exhibit panel, maybe 10 or 12 feet long, depicting Coach Hayes standing amongst a display of his sayings, accomplishments,championships and awards. It is the first thing recruits, players, and coaches see when they leave the lobby and make that long walk down the hall to the coaches offices and the locker room facilities....Woody standing sentry over all that comes and goes in the place that bears his name.

How do I know all this? Well, son Curt was the visual designer who conceived and created that panel as part of the recent WHAC renovation! It was his responsibility as part of the design team. To be able to sit there and see his artwork displayed on National TV....and to think that it will be the face of the Woody Hayes Center for probably the next twenty or thirty years...and that my son did it....Well, how cool is that!!

What Buckeye Dad wouldn't be proud. And to think, if I hadn't gotten sick, I would have missed it!

I was supposed to be headed to the 'Shoe today for what I think will be a very good one. It just didn't work.

First I had a very good AA seat a student had agreed to sell me on Craig's list. Then I got the email...."The student's buddy had decided to use the ticket"...so I couldn't buy that one. Still, thought I had another one lined up and never heard back from that guy, during which time a different one I could have had evaporated. 0 for 3!

Never mind I said, I'll go down and find one down there. But last night all of a sudden that scratchy sore throat started slowly creeping in....the one that sneaks up and says "Don't look now buddy, but you're about to be big time miserable"

It is now 4:45 AM Sat morning and I can't sleep cause I can't swallow and can't cough it up. Looks like the Buckeyes are not the only one besieged by the bug and I think my couch is the responsible place to be this afternoon.

As I await tonight's kickoff in Bloomington, I am thinking of Chapter 17 in my book.

That's because Chapter 17 contains a funny tale my friend Bill Lewis told me about Woody and Indiana. I've tagged it the Indiana Story, and I chuckle every time I think of it. The story is the perfect illustration of Coach Hayes. As Bill tells it, I can close my eyes and actually see Woody acting it out and hear him delivering the punch line. I think it is a funny story and hope when you read it you will too.

Blame it on me.

Did you see the MSU - UM finish? I was just watching a little of that game and the Spartans were blowing them away 20-6, and had the game well in hand, so I went out to do some yard work. Next thing I know one of my neighbors (who is the scourge of the neighborhood being a Michigan fan) comes running out hollering how the funny stripped helmets just scored and they are going to win the game.

I went back in to watch the overtime. Now we don't play Michigan State, and they have already lost in the conference, and it would really be best for our national ranking if the funny helmet team is undefeated when we go up to beat them in that hole in the ground.

Even so, I just couldn't bring myself to root for them. So blame it on me...I started cheering for the Spartans again and low and behold they pulled it out. So even though the other way around would have been better for the Buckeyes, congratulations to Coach Dantonio! Even though he wears the green now, he once was one of us, and he's one of the good guys in college coaching.

I attended a prayer service in Ohio Stadium yesterday. No, this is not a reference to an offense that "didn't throw the ball" as some of you who always want to see fireworks might think. Rather, it was another chapter in my continuing quest to experience all that is Ohio Stadium.

While you were getting all fired up...some of you in the parking lot getting lubricated, or feasting on a tailgate spread, and others in the stadium cheering the warm-ups, I was with a group of the player's parents in a room deep within the stadium for their pre-game prayer service. It is a ritual that occurs before every game and includes parents of both the Buckeyes and the opposing team's players.

In a quiet room full of warmth and hospitality, about 35 parents joined hands in a circle of prayer. The parents prayed for the safety of all the players and for them to do their best. They prayed for the coaches to make good decisions, and guide their sons, on the field, off the field, morally, and academically. They prayed for their sons to represent their schools with dignity and class. And if you were in the stadium, they prayed for you too, for your safe return home, before we all finished with the Lord's Prayer.

The thing that struck me most was the contrast between the calm and serenity in that room versus the energy and clashes that were already starting to take place outside in the stadium. I commented on this to one of the mothers as we walked out. She turned to agree with me, and when I saw the number she wore and the player on her button, well I realized her son was a starter and one of the hardest competitors on the Buckeyes, yet here she was, praying for the safety and success of players of both teams.

It was one more indication that Ohio State Football is not just about the ball.

As I head to Columbus early this morning, I am thinking about Ken Gordan's words in today's Dispatch describing our emerging defense.

"Just watch them play," Ken wrote. "See how relentlessly the defensive line pressures the quarterback. Observe the linebackers pursuing. Watch the cornerbacks turn and run with receivers stride for stride.

Most important, watch them celebrate together. There's something intangible about this defense."

Hmm. Think I wrote something below a couple of weeks ago about how you all could pine about the offense but I was enjoying watching this defense. If they can continue their growth today, and dominate the Juice, well, we are on to something special.

In Ken's column, he goes on to quote Doug Worthington..."We're a no-name team, but we're a hungry defense. When you have a front four with a hunger, that's eager and wants to play, and then you have guys who can cover, it gives you energy.

"It feels fun. Football is fun, and you can feel the energy."

I'm feeling the energy and I'm not even in the 'Shoe yet. Good luck guys!

The following letter appeared in our Toledo Paper this week:

After attending the football game between the University of Toledo and Ohio State, I am compelled to write this . My family and I have been UT fans for years. Many are alums; my son will graduate in May 2010. We are huge fans, and were eagerly awaiting the match up against OSU. My niece's boyfriend is a senior starter , which made the game even more exciting.

I'm quite sure Jim Tressel would be mortified at this type of behavior from the OSU fan base. I know I was; I can honestly say I would never attend another OSU function. I have never seen more crude, obnoxious, and rude fans. As we left at the end of the game, our family member said to the most obnoxious OSU fan, "Your mother must be really proud." They had no comment.

Will I will comment. We're not alone in the "schools with morons" list, but I always wonder what drives these people to be jerks and embarrass our school. Is it the alcohol that makes them jerks or were they born that way? My apologies to the folks from Toledo. Hope you understand we're not all like that.

Many say there is nothing you can do about it, but there is. When I started this gig I would go up and shake hands with opposing fans to get their reaction to the 'Shoe. I started mainly to look for material for the book. Now I continue to make a point of doing some of that every game, just to be an ambassador. It's so easy everyone can do it. Just walk up to them, stick out your hand, and say welcome to Ohio Stadium. I usually add something like, "Hope everyone is treating you all right" and "Good luck, but not too good now" (That always draws a laugh!)

Try it yourself...you'll find you meet some awfully nice and interesting people. And when you have a civil conversation with them, you will usually find out most have some very nice things to say about our stadium and our team.

How much better would our image be if the drunks sitting around this lady had done that instead?

The-Ozone has a nice video up of Coach T's Thurs press briefing. If you don't follow these check it out at the link below. It's kinda fun to watch him spar with the media and I never listen to the man, that I don't come away learning something. I especially like that his wit and humor comes through in these videos, unlike the plain vanilla he is often portrayed as in the press. Check it out at:

Ozone Video of Tressel Thurs Press Briefing

In the tape he describes Illinois as potentially the most explosive team in the Big Ten. I think we are going to see a good one tomorrow and I hope their fuse doesn't get lit!

Looking for a single ticket to buy for myself for Saturday. If anyone has an extra, my contact info is on the bottom of the about tab on this site.

Surely, someone out there has one for a loyal fan who bleeds Scarlet and Gray, one wants to win in the worst way, and will yell with the loudest of them in the 'Shoe, but won't jump off the stadium, kick the dog, beat Brutus, or storm the Woody Hayes if we lose.

After reading a few of the "Mailbag" letters in the Dispatch today (couldn't stomach them all), I have little doubt there are bunches of people out there still so worked up over last weeks loss that they never ever want to see another game... so surely someone has a ticket they won't be using. (By the way, JT was right...some of those folks are one unhappy lot...)

My buddy Dave Hackenberg at the Blade wrote Saturday morning that it was a trap. The Rockets had the Buckeyes right where they wanted them. UT was on a roll and, well the Buckeyes plain stunk. And in the Dispatch, Rob Oiler, after what I thought was a cheap scalding of Tressel in his opinion column, wrote that he hoped the Buckeyes could win by maybe two touchdowns, but he doubted they could.

Yea, right!

Of course, the 38 points they put up Saturday wasn't good enough for one guy I talked to after the game. According to that guy Pryor should this and Pryor needed to that and Pryor didn't.....which was hilarious giving the guy telling me that himself quit football as a freshman in high school because he wasn't good enough or tough enough....

Thank goodness we're moving on and getting into the Big Ten season. Folks can pine about the offense all they want...as for me...with this defense we have I would be content to watch them on the field the whole rest of the season and win every game 3-0. That defensive line is a thing of beauty.

I had already moved on from USC. But I need to set one thing straight so this will be my last post about it. I have read a million times, and again this morning, how "OSU didn't go for it on 4th and 1". Even though it has been repeated over and over in the media and across the internet, "4th and 1" is a myth. It's inaccurate. It's misleading.

I was in the Stadium for that "4th and 1". They were at the south end of the field. The scoreboard said "4th and 1" and I was one of many screaming go for it, go for it. Then the quarter ended. As the clock expired, I thought "Super, we'll get to see them go for it down here"... Down here was our seats in lower C deck right on the north goal line.

A funny thing happened when they came to our end. Holly Cow, the official spotted the ball inches from the 2-yard line. It was right there in front of us. Suddenly the 4th and 1 was now 4th and 2. We and those around us turned on a dime from "Go for it", to "Kick it, Kick it". After the play we all agreed it was the right decision.

Now it's all over the internet that Tressel blew it when "he didn't go for it on 4th and one". Hogwash. If the yahoos on Yahoo or in the media want to debate whether you can and should quarterback sneak on 4th and 2, now that's an argument they can have all day. But if you are going to make claims about my team and our coach, at least get the numbers correct! 4th and 2 is a long way from 4th and 1, especially early in a ball game.

The armchair quarterbacks are a dime a dozen this week of course. Guess it's time to write my chill out post.

Watched Tressel's press conference today and some of the reporters were in their vulture costumes, while others there with their offensive guru pedigrees. Friends and relatives have all told me what was wrong with the play calling last Saturday. Had a coach tell me the Bucks needed to open it up...course that coach's own team obviously didn't play Tressel ball last Friday night, turning the ball over I think at least 5 or 6 times in their loss.

What I can't understand....with all these offensive wonders out there....why isn't someone snapping them up? I mean surely there are college teams out there, or maybe the Lions or Browns or Bengals that would die for such offensive brain power, to say nothing of paying big bucks for it. If these folks know so much football, why are they pounding a sports beat or driving a truck or sweeping a floor or selling insurance or whatever it is they are doing? Makes one wonder.

As for me, last Saturday I saw a very young team (a team that lost twenty some Seniors) go toe to toe and nose to nose with the #3 team and premier program in the nation. I'll take that. Tressel Ball is still just fine and I'll stake my faith in the man in the vest for the long haul.

Jenny and I made it to the Stadium Saturday for the USC showdown. With the help of a doctor's prescription and a handicap pass from the BMV, we were able to park in the St John lot so she didn't have to walk too far. A crutch helped her get to the stadium and kept the mobs off her recovering knee.

First though, we got there early to ensure close in parking and relaxed all afternoon in the St. John lot. As chance would have it, we were parked next to Michael Brewster's family. A gang of more than 50, from all corners of the country, they were celebrating for the big game in fine fashion, complete with a roast pig that was wheeled in fully cooked on a radio-flyer wagon! They graciously offered us to join them in partaking of some, and after seeing and smelling that, well, who could resist! Thanks to Mr. Brewster for some good eats and a most pleasant chat about the Buckeyes and his families admiration for the values of Coach T.

After looking up some other friends, it was on to the show. Say whatever you want about the game, the coaching, the outcome, the score...even about that big monkey many think is on our backs... but being in that stadium last Saturday was special. I've been to many big games... the two Michigan wins that sent us to the BCS games, the Texas game, Notre Dame, several big Penn State night games, Archie's first game, the '68 Purdue game... and I can't think of any of them were any bigger in terms of noise made and the way the crowd was riveted on the game and rooting for the Bucks. It was a slugfest that hung on every play with back and forth leads, great defensive stands, razor thin margins, and a growing feeling that we were going to own that game, till their last drive sucked the air right out of that stadium and sent us to the parking lots empty and drained.

I have since had people tell me "they were glad they didn't go." Not this fan. I do feel bad for the players and coaches who gave their all, and we all agree it wasn't the outcome they or we wanted, but man, what a ride it was.

When I crossed the Canadian Border at the Soo Locks and headed into enemy territory last Thursday afternoon, I popped in one of my OSUMB CD's. Driving alone across that State Up North, and heading for home and then the Horseshoe, I cranked up the volume on Across The Field, Buckeye Battle Cry, and Carmen Ohio. I am sure the people with the blue license plates wondered who that idiot was, singing to himself in a grey SUV with red O on license plate. But what would they know...after all it had been two thousand, one hundred, twenty-one days (and counting) since...

The Navy opener was going to be the first game I have missed in a long time...I wasn't going to even be party to a TV or radio broadcast. You see I am 8 miles in by water on an island in the Canadian Northland, surrounded by nothing but miles of cool clear water, along with some bears, beaver, and oh yes a few wolves we heard last night..

On a fishing expedition with my friends, I had given up this game in pursuit of bass and pike and the elusive muskie in the crystal clear waters of Georgian Bay.

This morning however our host mentioned that there was a cabin down the way that was 1) inhabited by Buckeye fans and 2) had a satellite dish!

We showed up at their doorstep at noon and invited ourselves in. To our delight we were welcomed with open arms and a hearty I-O in response to our O-H.

We had a great time biting our nails just like those of you who were 800 miles away in the stadium. A great big thank you to our Buckeye hosts Dave and DeeAnna Brown, for allowing us to crash your party! They were most gracious.

Well, Doug Lesmerises has his prediction for the Buckeyes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

That's why I think Ohio State will lose multiple conference games for the first time since 2004. But that still won't keep the Buckeyes from grabbing a share of their fifth straight Big Ten title. That would tie Michigan's five-year run from 1988 to 1992 and trail only the six straight titles the Buckeyes claimed from 1972 to 1977.

The prediction: losses to USC, Illinois and at Penn State on Nov. 7, leaving the Buckeyes at 9-3 and in a four-way tie for first at 6-2 in the conference with the Nittany Lions, Illini and Michigan State. It would be the first four-way tie in the Big Ten since Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois and Iowa all went 6-2 in 1990.

Ouch....9-3 and two conference losses? Not only does he have it all figured out, he even has the Bowl Matchups nailed down. Guess he gets paid to stick his neck out.

I'm not a prognosticator though, so I'll just chuckle a bit and let it unfold on the field..game by game... and see where the journey takes us.

YES! There is a Santa Clause.

Just checked with OSU Ag College and I was successful in the Ag Alumni Fall Fest Ticket Lottery for the USC game! Yours truly and my better half will be there under the lights!

I kind of lost faith in college football fans in my last post.

Tonight I was buoyed again. Keith Godfrey, in his Dispatch Buckeye Blog the other day, posed an idea I liked when I read it a couple of days ago.

His suggestion was, in honor of their service, that Buckeye fans stand and applaud the Navy team when they take the field. What a great idea! I have never understood the need to boo the opposing team when they take the field (well maybe exceptions made for helmets with ugly yellow stripes...) It takes away our class. Boo the officials, maybe, or a bum call...but the opposing team?...what does that prove?

Anyway, Keith's idea is catching on and tonight someone sent me a link to where someone has already taken it to the next level....a very cool promo plea for it on YouTube. It already has 20,000 hits. If you want to get in the mood for the Sept. 5th ramp entrance check it out at Ohio State's Take the Field Tribute for Navy

It will send shivers down your spine.

I intend to be in Canada fishing on Sept 5th, so I likely will miss the Navy game. If you are there, do two things for me. One, I hope you get caught up in the spirit of the moment and cheer the Navy team. And two, someone write me a story about what that experience was like and send it to me. I'd like to capture the moment.

Hopefully this thing will get legs with the Best Fans In The Land, and garner us some positive publicity. Wouldn't it be cool if it carried over to every week and other teams. (Well again, maybe one exception for helmets with yellow stripes...)

Go Bucks!

I broke one of my own rules last night. Should have known better.

I seldom read the "comments" section below internet news stories. I don't like that this involves any Tom, Dick, or Harry, making inflammatory or inaccurate claims behind the anonymity of some code name, without having to ever be accountable for or substantiate what they said or claimed.

Last night a link in one news story... led me to a link in another story... which led me to an article in one of the Florida papers about the Tyler Moeller episode. I don't even remember which paper. The gist of the article was that the attorney for the young man arrested for throwing the punch was claiming innocence for his client. No surprise there. Then I broke my rule and glanced at the comments...

I couldn't believe the vile, hateful, and evil stuff being said and going back and forth between Florida fans and (yes unfortunately) some Buckeye fans too. Back and forth. Each was a bad as the other in their race to sling garbage and curse and call names. Over a couple of football teams.

I mean we're talking a serious situation where one young man could have died or been maimed for life. The other has been arrested and may or may not go to jail. And that's an excuse to have a food fight with the English language over football teams and a simple game?

How did we get to this point in this country...in sports and in political life...where we have so many people whose hearts are filled with hate and rage...and so few filled with respect and compassion and civility? Where we are proud of how loud we scream and how mean we speak? It is not our finest hour.

Monday, August 17

Did I, or didn't I.....

My great last hope for a ticket is the application I have in for the Ag College Alumni Fall Fest. Of course, that weekend is the USC game! Going in I knew there would be a lottery for the available tickets they had.

Talked to my good friend tonight and he said he got his email the end of last week informing him that he was not successful in the lottery. Message said they had two and a half times the applications as they had tickets. My math computes that to 4 people got tickets out of every 10 that applied. I've been in worse odds, and I as of yet haven't gotten the "we regret" email. So did I ?

On the other hand, checked bank statement and as of today my check hasn't been cashed or cleared. Or didn't I ?

As I said, Dangling In The Wind.....

For obvious reasons (see below), I wasn't able to drive to Columbus on Friday. Wish I could have been at The Eddie George Grill to give you a personal report of Todd Wessell's press conference on his book The One and Only. Mike Harden, Veteran Dispatch Columnist, was there, and he has a nice commentary in today's Dispatch about the event and about Chic Harley. Mike says it better than I do, so I will link you to his column: Mike Harden commentary: For all he gave, and suffered, Chic Harley deserves more

Missed the media day this year. What is it about that event? Last year I had to ride down with my broken arm on three pillows. This year...well last week on the appointed day I was home doubled over on the couch in pain, rolled up in 4 blankets, shivering with a 102-degree fever.

It was obviously flue like symptoms. Jenny was quite worried I was going to give it to her right before her surgery. Finally got so bad I went to doctor. Turns out, thankfully, she was worried about nothing. It wasn't flu, but actually an infection...and how can I say this delicately...in a place she didn't have to worry about ever catching one.

Per below Jenny hasn't been able to get out and do a lot, so we went to a movie the other night. Being the kind, sweet, sensitive, renaissance husband that I am, I took her to a "chick flick". We saw Julia and Julia, in which the favorite leading lady of my generation, Meryl Streep, portrays Julia Child's journey to publish her famous cookbook. All kidding aside, it is a great movie.

And for me, there was a bonus. The movie enlightened me that it took Julia Child 8 years to write her cookbook and get it published. Gosh, if it took her eight years, maybe there is hope yet for a neophyte like me. I mean, all she was writing about was cooking and it took eight years. It wasn't something important about life and death religious experiences, like the Horseshoe!

Eight years Eh! Maybe there is hope for me yet. Oh, and did I mention it is in about its 45th printing... Now there's a goal!

If you are going to be in Columbus Friday morning at 11 AM, you might want to check out the Eddie George Grille. Todd Wessel, author of The One and Only, will be holding a press conference with some announcements about some things he will be doing to honor Chic Harley. I would assume you will be able to get a book signed and probably get a glimpse of Eddie too.

You can always count on two things in August...football camp starts and the Davis family has a surgery. Several years ago, it was Jenny's cancer, a few years back my torn rotators cuff, and last year my shattered wrist.

Well, it's August again, the Buckeyes have started camp, and we're looking at another surgery. Jenny goes under the knife next week to have knee surgery for a torn meniscus. It is arthroscopic, so hopefully recovery won't be too bad. It does look like I will be playing nurse for several days. Heck to get old and creaky isn't it!

Arrival of August is a mixed blessing to me. Nothing beats a warm carefree summer day, but those will soon be waning. Would that we could bottle this time of year! For those still heading to some R&R or the beach, I just read a most uplifting book that one of my storytellers shared with me. As before, I like to recommend good stuff I think you will enjoy.

The Soul of Baseball, A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America is an amazing story of an amazing man and the times he lived in. Written in 2007 by Joe Posnansk, a prize winning Kansas City Star sports columnist, the book traces the moving journey of legendary Negro League player and manager Buck O'Neil as he barnstormed the country at age 93 to tell and keep alive the story of the Negro Baseball League. It is the funniest serious book I have read in a while.

Would that I could write like Joe! In Posansk's skillful hands, the story jumps alive. A blend of humor, history, and happenings, it reads easy and engages you like a warm summer breeze. That is until periodically a thunderbolt of lightening and huge clap of thunder sneaks up and jolts you into the realization of what it was really like for these players to live and play in the shameful age of racial discrimination and hatred. Along the way you come to admire and learn from a wise man who lived through that, and had every reason to be bitter, but remained the optimist all of his 94 years.

The ball is round in this one rather than pointed, but you don't need to be a baseball nut to enjoy this book and take away something from it. We need more Buck O'Neils, we need more Joe Posnanski's to tell their stories, and we need people like you to read them and keep them alive.

It's been a snip, snip day and time for a break. Spent most of the day editing on the book. The challenge is to get in all the interesting stuff you have given me yet end up with something lively, and short enough you will read it, but long enough to tell the whole story.

I will do my best, but obviously I can't use everything that everyone has sent me. Hopefully those of you who have given me material will be understanding and accepting of my edits as I prune things to fit and flow.

I am pounding away at the keyboard most days now and moving this project forward.

The Big Ten preseason luncheon is in Chicago this week. It's another one of those remember what you were doing days for me. Eight years ago Coach Tressel was in his first year and at the luncheon; when his turn came to talk, he gave his infamous It's Not About The Ball speech. The Ozone reported that when he was done, you could hear a pin drop in the room. They printed his speech in it's entirety.

I remember so well because it certainly wasn't about the ball that day for the Davis family. Jenny was undergoing cancer surgery, and as I rose early that morning and alone in the darkness, reading the text of that speech game me great comfort and strength for what we were about to go through.

The eight years since have been good to us. Jenny remains cancer free.

They have been good to the Buckeyes too. Five Big Ten Championships and a National Championship. At that time, Coach T was an unknown commodity to many of us, but that speech was a portent of things to come. In the years since, he has shown he can win, but more importantly, he has walked the talk of "It's Not About the Ball". Wish I could be in that room to hear him this year. Bet you a thousand to one that when he speaks, he talks about his visit to the troops, maybe even throwing in a Pay Forward.

And when he does, you know Woody will be looking down and smiling.

For us Geezers, this is another remember where you were day.

Myself, as the lunar module touched the moon's surface, I was driving and listening on the radio, on my way to Rike's Department Store in Dayton Ohio. I would soon be shipping off to my freshman year at Ohio State, and was probably shopping for my college supplies and wardrobe. Times were good, I had graduated from high school, had a summer job and a little money in my pocket.

What in the world does this have to do with the Stadium?

Throughout our history there has been an ebb and flow of "Can Do" times in this country. The 60's were one of those Can Do periods. So were the 20's, as the daughter of Howard Dwight Smith has shared with me. Out of the 60's came the moon landing, out of the 20's came Ohio Stadium. In both cases, the naysayer's pooh-poohed the grand ideas. But from the space program came the technology that won the cold war and changed our lives. And of course, out of Ohio Stadium came the Buckeye history, tradition, and beautiful structure that still stands 88 years later.

The Can Do people were right then, and we need another Can Do attitude in society today.

Coach Cooper was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame today, and for that he deserves a tip of the hat. Some of my readers, and my friends, may not agree with me on this one, but if you're still holding a grudge, guess that is the difference between you and me. Apparently, the college football world feels as well since they voted him in.

I have visited with Coach on this project and found him to be quite a cordial and gracious guy. He has remained loyal to the University and the Buckeyes, and was recently described to me as "one of the good guys" by someone I respect and in the know. It is nice to see him recognized for his career and his body of work. He is in pretty exclusive company.

Congratulations Coach!

It was sitting on a display table in his house and as trophies go it wasn't much...just a flat wood base on which sat a chunk of steel. They had presented it to him when he retired and he showed it to me when we were done with the interview. As I picked it up though, it had some weight... weight of mass, weight of years, weight of significance.

The two-inch thick slab of wood was sanded smooth and highly polished, a glossy coat of clear finish covering the marks of years and years of aging. A piece of barn timber? Not hardly. Fastened atop it was simply a 4 inch section of railroad iron, which had been painted jet black. A meaningless spur? No Way. On the front, an engraved brass plate told there was much more to the story.

The railroad iron was a section of rail from the original railroad used to build Ohio Stadium, the wooden base a piece of the original wood seats that were in the stadium when it opened. So simple, yet so beautiful, it was a work of art, every bit worthy of the accomplished gentleman it had been presented to.

I have been in many Buckeye rooms and seen all kinds of artifacts in the course of this journey. I have never had a case of memorabilia envy, until I saw this one. As I held it in my hands, all I could think was "Wow!"

I was notified today that for the first time in more than 25 consecutive years of paying my Ohio State University Alumni dues, Jenny and I will not receive even one single game ticket this year.

Yep. Shut out of the lottery.

It was not an affirmation of thy friendship moment!

I will ask one question. Why do some of us alumni only get one ticket (or in my case none this year) while others who bought season tickets 30 years ago still get to buy 7 games? Fair? Or not?

Actually I need to ask two. Anyone got any extras?

"On Thanksgiving Day, 1973, Charles William Harley, then seventy-nine years old, played his last football game...

So begins Chapter 1 of The One and Only, the biography of Chic Harley written by his great nephew Todd Wessell. My copy arrived last night. I opened it to that sentence and four chapters later put it down. An engrossing read, it traces Chic's life beginning with the immigration of his ancestors to this country and ending the day he was laid to rest just northwest of the stadium he helped build. For Buckeyes, this story is obviously our heritage, our football roots. More than football though, this book is a work of history. It is an American Era, it is the coming of age of a national sport, and the role Chic Harley played in that. It is how Schizophrenia changed everything in the life of this great athlete. Most importantly, it is the family that loved him and their tireless work to keep the memory alive.

As I gaze up at my Ohio State bookshelf, I count more than 20 books. All are good in their own way, but several stand out as timeless and classics. Jack Park's Ohio State Football Encyclopedia, Alan Natali's Woody's Boys, John Lombardo's A Fire to Win (life and times of Woody Hayes), Triumph, Jeremy Schaap's story of Jesse Owens and the '36 Olympics, and of course Jesse Owens - An American Life, William Baker's biography of Jesse. I expect father time will judge this book worthy to stand with those works.

There is a launch party open to the public this evening in Chicago at the Hilton Garden Inn. All of you can't be there, but right now you can learn more about the book, and order an autographed copy online at www.chicharley.com.

Be a part of history...read something great.

I drove to Marion Ohio last night to pay my respects to the family of Jim Neagles. Jim was one of my storytellers and he passed away June 12th. A long time Stadium Usher, Jim was diagnosed with brain cancer in October of 2007 and for nearly two years defied the doctors and the odds.

I met Jim by chance when I bumped into his son while taking a photo in Ohio Stadium. One thing led to another and over the last year, I had more than one phone conversation with Jim and his wife Donna. I was struck most by Jim's outlook, candor and the zest he grabbed life and things he accomplished in the face of the odds and the time he had. His son told me last night, "He wanted to go, so we kept him busy." Indeed. In one conversation, Jim told me of teaching his granddaughter to hunt and helping her bag her first deer.

Jim had a best friend, Rob Wise, who also developed cancer. Rob bought a van just so he could transport Jim in his wheel chair. The two made a bucket list and away they would go. At the visitation the family displayed a Tee Shirt with the lettering "Jim Neagles, one half of the dynamic duo battling cancer". Pictures on display showed true friendship; the two of them together in their shirts, Rob's a mirror image of Jim's.

Jim had asked me one time to take him to see Woody's grave. That was one of the things on the bucket list. When I retired, I began looking for a date that I could do that. Most regrettably, time ran out before we could get it done.

Rest in peace, Buckeye and inspiration, Jim Neagles.

I have a new chapter.

Not in my book, but rather in my life.

Last week I retired from my career of 37 years of government service with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Surprisingly, it was not an easy decision. One finds that the day you look forward to all your life is bittersweet when it arrives. I worked for 37 years with wonderful dedicated people, who were the best in this business, doing interesting and important work. What more could one ask for!

But, neither my wife Jenny nor I are getting any younger, and the honey-do list is getting behind and quite lengthy. I am actually working on two books, this one, and another, neither of which are finished, as you well know. And I have a grandson that will soon be ready to learn how to fish. So I have decided to take more time for my family, and for Jenny and I to do the things we want to do while our health allows.

First on the list is to get this manuscript finished. I have no excuse now, so most mornings will find me at this keyboard, pounding away on your stories and many of you will be hearing from me about drafts and edits to your stories. Stay tuned.

Regular readers will recall Fred Machol from my serious of Man In the Hat posts (read down below) . Fred is the loyal Buckeye I met in the 'Shoe and later learned among other things that he was in the room when Eisenhower and others planned the D-Day invasion. I thought of Fred as I wrote yesterday's post, and almost called him to see how he was doing. I wish I had. Fred's daughter emailed me this morning.

Fred had his Veterans hat on again yesterday, as you would imagine. This time it was in a News Video about Fred that was filmed and aired by KHOU TV in Houston. It is a most fascinating interview and includes some never before seen footage Fred shot during the War, and some Buckeye ingenuity to get his papers approved to go home. I don't know how long it will be up but you can view the news clip at Fred Machol News Clip. (When you get station webpage click link to open the files WWII Veteran Remembers ..there is Part 1 and Part 2...It starts with a brief commercial)

Take a peak!

I went fishing yesterday. It was a beautiful day on Lake Erie. The fish have moved and are now more than 12 miles offshore. As we headed north onto Ohio's Great Lake, there was nary a boat in sight. We rode and rode and rode and seemed to have the whole lake to ourselves. Twenty minutes later, there was a tiny black dot on the horizon, and soon another dot and then another. They dots slowly got larger and larger, and there were more and then more as a pack of probably 200 boats, all sizes and shapes, emerged from nowhere, before our eyes.

I turned to my friends and said, "Now we now how the Germans felt when they looked up and saw the D-Day armada!" Well, not really.

I was reminded of that as I watched the moving 65th anniversary D-Day ceremonies this morning and heard the President speak. I thought about the contrast in the two armadas. Yesterday a peaceful fleet, with people laughing and enjoying life, made possible by the fleet 65 years ago, that one full of fear and horror, blood and death, honor and sacrifice. To describe that day and their accomplishment, the President this morning quoted Lyndon Johnson... "We have come to the hour for which we were born...." The President also relayed the words of a veteran he had met, who explained... it's important to come and tell the stories so we never forget.

There are a whole lot of Buckeyes we should not forget as well, and I have been so privileged to interview some of them for this book! One day they were playing in the 'Shoe or studying on campus...the next they were involved in D-Day itself, the Battle of the Bulge, the march across Europe, Iwo Jima and many of the other turning points. Robin Pridy, Chuck Csurri, Fred Machol, Don Steinbeg, Gene Fekete, Charlie Magg, Opal McAlister...those are just a few of them.

There are 1000 WWII veterans dying each day. I look forward to preserving some of their stories, so indeed, we never do forget.

Before the Texas game, I penned a post below about the Buckeyes needing "Toughness".

In it, I referred to our then 93-year-old friend and storyteller Esther, whom regular readers may remember fell in her yard last December. Esther lay helpless in 35 degree freezing drizzle, without a coat, for two and a half hours, and when found her body temperature was eighty-eight and her hair frozen stiff. At the emergency room, they struggled 5 hours to raise her temperature to the mid nineties.

Ester survived that, as she did the first operation to replace her broken knee, and a month later a second operation to repair a ruptured tendon in the same knee, another month later a third surgery to save the leg from a staph type infection that almost took it and finally a fourth to close it up.

Ester endured all this and the past 6 months in a nursing home. Through the dark winter days and the pain and surgeries, she never lost her positive disposition, her zest for people and her sharp mind and desire to learn. I would take her a book a week. At 93, she devoured some pretty heavy reading from my personal library: The Winners Manual by Coach Tressel; The Audacity of Hope by President Obama; Miracle in the Making-The Adam Talifero Story; The Tyler Whaley Story; Big Russ and Me by Tim Russert; Tom Brokow's Greatest Generation; and recently The Worst Hard Times, a historical fiction account of the Dust Bowl Days. (Having lived through those, she probably could have written that book!)

Yesterday, after recently celebrating her 94th birthday, Ester went home.

At her age, and with all that she went through, you might be thinking of a different home. No, Ester is back in her own Pandora home. She has a little help right now, but if I know Ester, she soon will be out in her back yard, feeding the squirrels again. Her journey and determination has been an inspiration to all of us that know her.

As I said before, we know it takes toughness to be a Buckeye. But my friend Ester is a reminder that the rough toughness and inspiration is in the game of life.

The answering machine was blinking one day last week and when I pressed the button, the voice began, "This is Pat from Gables at Green Pastures." My heart sank. Gables was the home of Opal McAlister, my oldest storyteller and Pat had helped me set up my interview with her more than a year and a half ago.

Pat's call confirmed that the day I knew eventually would come, had indeed arrived. Opal passed away on May 10, 2009, at the age of 104. She was likely the oldest living Buckeye fan, and undoubtedly the most fervent as you will learn in the book.

Opal was also a Veteran. In 1942, at the age of 38, she enlisted voluntarily to serve in World War II. She was discharged four years later with the rank of Captain in the Women's Army Corps and so this Veteran's Day seems the fitting day to share with you the memory of a lady I will call a difference maker.

When I first heard of Opal, I went to interview her for her Buckeye Story. I got that and more. I came away from that interview inspired by the woman I had met and cherishing a newfound friendship. At 104, her mind was sharp as a tack and her enthusiastic outlook on life was contagious. We talked history, politics, the Presidential Campaign, current events and of course Buckeye football.

It was the first of several visits I would make to see her. Opal lived on the route to Columbus and I would stop occasionally just to say hello or take her a book on my drives back and forth. (At 104 she still read a novel a week, took two daily newspapers, and did the crossword puzzle every day!) She always remembered who I was, was glad to see me and never failed to ask if I had my book done.

The last book I took her was indicative of how big a Buckeye Fan Opal was. Last fall I was in line for one of Coach Tressel's signings of The Winners Manual. The line was 700 people long and a sign at the table clearly said "No Personalized Signings". Coach T had his head down and was signing Jim Tressel just as fast as they could run them through. When I got to the table, I had two books. He signed mine first. As he signed the second I put my plan into action. I simply said, "That book is for your friend Opal". Coach slammed on the brakes, looked me in the eye, and asked, "Opal McAlister?" I nodded yes. "Give me that back", he said as he grabbed it, and scrawled in large letters inside the cover, "Opal, You're the Greatest!"

Indeed she was. My lasting memory of her will be the smile on her face later that evening as she read that inscription and politely asked me to thank "Mr. Tressel" for her. I did, and it was a privilege.

I almost didn't go.

Saturday my boat was calling and the Lake Erie Walleye were biting, but at the last minute, it was too windy. On the spur of the moment I headed to Columbus and the spring game. The family kidded, "We knew you couldn't stay away".

Good thing. I would have missed a delightful moment.

After halftime, I circled the A deck walkway looking for me storyteller friend Mark MacDonald. Not finding him, I randomly ducked out one of the west portals intending to head home, and walked right into a group of people next to Chic Harley, Chick standing there a smiling life-sized cutout. Thinking it was a gimmick, I strolled over to see what was going on.

It was far from a gimmick and another of those many connections I have stumbled onto that makes the journey of this book sometimes seem preordained. For more than two years, I have been looking for someone to personalize in my book a brief story on the role of Chic Harley in the story of the 'Shoe. After all, if it weren't for Chic, there wouldn't be a 'Shoe and I wouldn't have a book to write. At one time, someone had given me the name of Todd Wessell, one of Chic's great nephews, but I had been unsuccessful in tracking Mr. Wessell down.

As I chatted with a lady at the table I learned that the group was promoting an upcoming book titled The One and Only, a biography of Chic Harley and that the author, Mr. Todd Wessell, was standing right there beside me! What are the odds I would walk up to this gentleman in the middle of 95,000 people, at a game I almost didn't go to?

I introduced myself to Mr. Wessell and we began a most fascinating and lengthy conversation about Chic Harley and the upcoming book. I haven't yet read a page of the manuscript, but it took me about two minutes with the author to stake my reputation that this will be one great read and a book that belongs on every Buckeye bookshelf. The One and Only is the story of Chic's life as told by those who knew him best, his family. Based on family stories, diaries, tape recordings, and family photos it pieces together what is a remarkable story of an extraordinary individual and arguably Ohio State's greatest athlete ever.

Todd Wessell told me it took thirteen years to write this book. (That was quite reassuring since I have been at mine more than three now!) He has done with his Uncle Chic what I hope to do with the Horseshoe, bring history to life for this generation. It was both special and a pleasure to meet and visit with him.

The book is due out in June and if you pre-order now you should have it by Father's Day. It would make a great gift for any Buckeye Dad. You can order the book, and read more about it at the author's website: www.chicharley.com Take a peek! I think you'll be hooked.

And to think, I almost didn't go...

Rite of passage. Sea change. Changing of the guard. Call it what you want.

Yesterday's spring game, an annual ritual just like the blooming of the dogwood or unfolding the tulips, brought new faces and new names to the Horseshoe. In a peculiar aligning of the galaxy, we both welcomed the new yesterday and said goodbye to the old when the NFL draft fell on the same day. (Can't remember that happening before....am I clueless or was this unusual?)

As we wished Malcolm and Beanie and James well, we gathered in the stadium to discover the names of who would take their place. In the time I have worked on this project, I am struck by how fame is both fleeting and not. Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye. There is a special bond, a special fraternity amongst those lucky enough to play in the 'Shoe. And of course notoriety forever to those who win or star. But at the same time, some stories I have that were hot three years ago when I started this wouldn't interest you now.

That was illustrated yesterday. As I walked across the Lane Avenue bridge, a family group in front of me had on jerseys with T Smith. Thinking it was maybe brothers and sisters, I asked myself "T Smith? I wonder who T Smith is and what does he play this year?" It wasn't until I saw the number ten that it dawned on me. "What a dufus," I thought of myself.

In time we will learn who will be the new Troy, what will be the hot jersey number, when there will be more hardware. Enjoy the new journey until we do.

Ramblings from yesterday's spring game:

Good Samaritan Award

Kudos to the staff members at Dodd Hall, who each year bring some of their patients over to the spring game. You can find their group on the A deck walkway down towards the locker room. They were there again Saturday and seemed to be having a grand time. It is a nice gesture that the staff gives of their Saturday to do this.

The Bling Award

The Oscar for the most metal goes to the gentleman I met in A deck on the southwest corner of the stadium. He had to have more than 100 different OSU pins proudly covering his Buckeye hat. "It gets a little heavy by the end of the third quarter," this die hard fan confided to me. I could imagine. (Even so, wish I had one!)

Best License Plate

Seen on a license plate in the Bill Davis Stadium lot.... simply "OSUNUTZ". Nothing unusual there, except that it was on a blue plate issued by "that state up north". Stuck my business card in the driver's window of that one. Anyone that cruises around north of the border with that on their car has to be okay and may have a story.

Funniest Quote

Son Curt leaning over to me and remarking (affectionately) on Coach Tressel in his Hawaiian Shirt...."Next thing you know we'll be calling him Pete Carrol!"

Grand Prize - Best Tee Shirt Award

This years Grand Prize goes to the wearer of the best tee shirt. "I'm too pretty to go to Michigan" adorned the front of the shirt of one young lady. She most definitely was. (Although the bar is just not real high on that one!)

Ohio Stadium is immortal and timeless. It has stood the same way (except for a face-lift) for 87 years now. It will stand that way at least 75 more. The cast of characters comes and goes, but the roars for them still echo the same way down from C Deck. Tippie Dye, Bill Willis, Les Horvath. Jim Parker. Vic Janowicz. Paul Warfield. Rex Kern, Jack Tatum, Jim Otis. Archie, Cornelius, and Pete. Spielman. Eddie. Troy. AJ. And others yet unnamed. It has stood there for our ancestors, it is there for us, and it will stand there for our children and their children, who will cheer the same cheers and carry on our traditions.

We though are different. We are mortal. I was reminded of that yesterday with a slap in the face via a phone call from my friend and fellow Buckeye Harry. Harry and I started at Ohio State the same day. We studied the same major and sat side by side in our agronomy classes in Townshend Hall. We graduated the same year. Went to work for the same agency. Even roomed together during our basic training.

Our USDA careers have paralleled each other, though he was always the brighter. As one of the good ones in public service, Harry has risen much higher. He started at the bottom of our agency and is now very near the top in our headquarters in Washington D.C. Along the way he never forgot his roots on the farm in the hills of Meigs County, the OSU education that allowed him to travel from there to the nation's capital, or we folks on the front line that he was there to serve. Some people get to the top by climbing over others. Harry got there by doing good and the right thing.

Harry was calling yesterday to tell me that he will be retiring May 1 after 37 years of government service. I already knew that. More importantly, he was calling to tell me something I didn't know. The words hit like a ton of bricks. Harry has been diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

They are honoring Harry today in Washington at a reception in the Whitten Building. I regret I can't be there and thought, "What could I do?" The next best thing is to share with you the proud accomplishments of this fine man and successful OSU alumnus. And, to ask for your help for my friend.

Pray for some more good years for your fellow Buckeye, Harry Slawter.

The last two years I have attended the jersey scrimmage as one of the benefits to subscribers at CoachTressel.com. Those in the know realize this event is the real spring game. The crowd is small but the stakes large with live pads popping and fall positions up for grabs. It has been a good venue for me. This year however, I must come clean and tell I passed...a fair weather fan.

For the past month, my "new to me" boat has sat on the shores of Lake Erie awaiting launch and the spring walleye run. During this time, the wind has howled out of the north nearly every day, churning up 7-12 foot waves that would have turned my boat into the Edmund Fitzgerald. With each passing storm, the urge to go grew stronger and stronger until Saturday dawned a "fair weather day".

So with son and his buddies, I turned my back on the Bucks and spent a balmy and beautiful spring day on Our Great Lake where a limit of plump tasty Walleyes went a long way towards easing my conscience.

Lest you think I shirked my duty, I did do some work while I was up that way. Read on....

This one is about the Shoe but not the 'Shoe.

I told you earlier I was saving room for one last interview. It was worth the wait. Friday afternoon found me sitting in the living room of a gentleman famous in the annals of Ohio State Football. Now in his early 90's, this former Buckeye is known for a game winning field goal he kicked in the late 30's. You know of whom I speak if you know your Buckeye football history. If not, well, look forward to the book.

I sat spellbound as this very nice fellow recounted in great detail his Ohio Stadium years. We started with how he became a Buckeye, discussed his teammates, his razzle dazzle Coach and then he started on "The Kick". When he finished I was mesmerized.

But it didn't end there. "You need to see these", his wife Clara softly said. With that, she unzipped a red duffel bag that was sitting at her feet. I first pulled out the thigh pads. Carefully and gently, I ran my fingers over them. Tattered with age, they bore the scars of battles fought more than seventy-one years ago. Next came the shoulder pads. Wilsons. Made of leather where today we find plastic, wool or cotton padding in place of foam. I turned them over in my hands. "Not much protection", I thought.

"In 3 years," he told me, "Tom Matte was the only guy to ever run over them."

I dug deeper and there was more. There it was. The shoe. The actual shoe that had kicked that winning field goal so many years ago. A square toe the dead giveaway. And with it, the ball. The actual ball that shoe had kicked thru the uprights, and bearing the signatures of all his teammates... Jim Langhurst, Esco Sarkinson, Don Scott, Jim Strausbaugh among the many.

There were reportedly more than 54,000 in the Stadium that day. After that kick, they saw his teammates carry this Buckeye on their shoulders and off the field. I know. He still has a picture of it on his wall, and as I left, it was the last thing he showed me!

When I picked up the paper yesterday morning and read a UConn player had said "The Big Ten's a slow league...." I knew the Huskies were in trouble. I am not all a betting man but I should have put some money on MSU.

It sure was fun to watch the Spartans squash all that malarkey. I am not the only one that enjoyed watching the whole country and the national media learn that the Big was really in the Ten and not in the East. As usual, Bob Hunter said it better than I could. It's a good read so check it out: Bob Hunter - Big Ten Isn't Too Dull To Reach Final

Monday night, I'll be rooting for the blue collar guys in the green collar shirts. You should too. You gotta go with the Big Ten.

Been quiet for a while. With warmer weather, the outdoors is beckoning and it's the quiet season for Buckeye football. That will change when they strap it up for spring practice tomorrow.

I did have the fortune Monday to gather for lunch with 500 other Buckeyes, and hear Archie speak on "Ethics in American Sports" at the Todd Bell Lecture Series. The event is an annual fundraiser for the Todd Bell National Resource Center for the African American Male and honors the legacy of Todd Bell. It was a chance for me to support a good cause and connect with some of my storytellers. This is the second year I have gone and I have thoroughly enjoyed both times.

Todd Bell, for my younger readers, was one of the hardest hitting safety's to ever play for the Buckeyes. He went on to play professional football for the Chicago Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles. As a high school long jumper, in the 1977 state track meet in the 'Shoe, he broke the 44 year old state record that was held by none other than one Jesse Owens. Fierce on the field, Todd was described as a mild mannered gentlemen off.

Following his career, Todd returned to serve Ohio State where, in the words of E. Gordon Gee, "his time with the University remains steadfastly inspirational. He was first recognized for his athletic talents, but overwhelmed us all with his caring for people of every age and status...It is a joy to remember what a great player Todd Bell was, in the game of football and the game of life, and to strive to emulate his passion and leadership."

Which brings me to the numbers part.

In 2005, at the age of 47, Todd Bell, athlete extraordinaire, died of a sudden heart attack. His widow Daphne now works in outreach with the Roth Heart Hospital to encourage people to "know their numbers" as a means to determine if they are at risk. "Todd's death was preventable," she told me in an interview last year, and she has dedicated her life to saving others. With a cardiac history in our family, I go every year to check my numbers. What a coincidence that my doctor's appointment was this week

Finishing this project has been weighing on me. Didn't realize how much till my dream last night.

It was one of those deep, "REM" type dreams, real as can be...

I was sitting in C Deck, north end of the Horseshoe. It was the Ohio State - Michigan Game, and not just any game. The winner was going to the National Championship. The Bucks were leading by 6 points with less than a minute to go in the game and had the ball backed up to their own end zone. Coach T was doing his best imitation of Tressel Ball, and ran into the middle 3 straight times, much to the chagrin of the "throw the ball" segment of the fans in the stands.

The Maize and Blue ran two plays and went nowhere. It was third down with less than 10 seconds to go. They threw one to the sidelines and their receiver caught it...clearly about 10 years out of bounds. Game over, once again we win! Not so fast again. Damn ref signaled complete, and came running in and spotted the ball on the one-foot line and put one second on the clock! It was all or nothing as the Wolverines came to the line and the QB went under center....

And then I woke up!

Swear to gosh. That was the dream. Real as could be. I've got to get another life!

There are thousands of Stories of the Shoe. Some are inspiring. Some funny. Some sad. Some evoke wonderful memories and some trigger great anger. Some you shake your head at. Some make you think about what could have been, or sorrowful for what was.

There is one story that evokes all of that and more. It's a story still being written and one that could have any number of endings. A hundred of you would write it a hundred different ways, and Father Time himself doesn't yet know how he will write the correct ending for this one.

My friend Bob Hunter reported on this one in a nice column in The Dispatch today. If you are interested in a thought provoking and interesting Buckeye read, I'd recommend it:

Bob Hunter's column

Some of you might like it, others might not. Your call. All I suggest, is that you read the whole column before passing any judgment. When you see the topic, you will know why.

As I was eating dinner tonight, I looked up at the Nightly News with Brian Williams. NBC was interviewing a gentleman and when they scrolled the man's name across the screen, I blurted out to Jenny, "I know that guy!"

It was one of my storytellers.

Actually, I should have said, "I know of that guy." I have never personally met George, but 16 months ago a friend of a friend shared my project with him. George graciously sent me his very own Story of the Shoe, which you will read in the book. He is another "Buckeye Made Good", now a CEO doing important work in high places in our nation's capital, and it all started 47 years ago in the Stadium Dorm.

As I've said before, we're everywhere!

About five months ago, I wrote a post (below) titled "Beanie and Me". This week Beanie Wells is at the NFL Combine, but strangely, I wasn't invited!

That post was way back (seems like ages ago) when Beanie was hurt and I was too, coming off a wrist shattered in 8 pieces and 6 weeks of immobilization. I wrote about how he and I were starting therapy and making a comeback together. So many of you have asked how I am doing I decided to update you.

As for Beanie...well you and the whole country saw him hurdle that linebacker on national TV. Me? I'm working up to that any day now. Actually, after 5 months, things are finally looking up here. It will never be back to where it was but I have good wrist mobility and my fingers are loosening up and things are back to quite functional. I surely earned it though. Even today, I am still on my therapy regime...an hour and half of exercises every single day. It's a half hour every morning and hour every night with every kind of contraption you can think of...dumbbells, rubber nets, bars and balls, a shovel handle, elastic bands and more. (Actually, that is down from two hours and I have done that every single day since the cast came off mid-September.) I counted up the other day. Twenty different exercises times 35-45 reps each exercise each session times 2 sessions per day times 150 days.... well let's just say I am closing in on over 250,000 individual reps.

It's probably a good thing though that I wasn't invited to the Combine. A month ago I still had problems with finger stiffness and they sent me to a well known hand surgeon in Dayton for a second opinion. He put me on steroids for four weeks, which pretty well cleared it up, but if I were in Indy, I surely would have failed the drug test! The first week on those things though, I felt like I too could hurdle a linebacker!

Today is special. You may think I am referring to Valentines Day, but for Buckeye Fans, it is more than just that. Today is also Woody's Birthday. He would have been 96. Woody has been gone 22 years now, and gosh, for those of us around then it seems like just yesterday. I can close my eyes and see him plain as day. There he is in the silver glasses and black hat. The fact that we still talk about him in the present, 22 years later, attests to the greatness of the man. One of my storytellers shared with me that he once called Woody on Valentines Day to wish him a happy birthday. Woody thanked him, paused a minute, and then said, "Frank, can you imagine a son-of-a-bitch like me being born on Valentines Day!"

(Authors note...I originally published this on Valentines Day but the entry got dropped so I am re posting it)

When I put this concept together to pitch to OSU, I wrote a draft forward for the book as I saw it at that time. In that piece, one of the passages spoke of the tentacles of Ohio Stadium. Little did I know then how long those would actually end up being.

Saturday afternoon those tentacles took me to Southern California, La Jolla, to be exact (only via telephone, unfortunately!). I visited with a gentleman who had one of those "you would die for" experiences this fall in the Horseshoe. The man never went to Ohio State, in fact he actually played D-I football for one of those "Southern Schools". But he is a loyal Buckeye through and through, and I hope can do justice to telling his version of what it means to be a Buckeye and the unique Stadium experience he shared with me on Saturday.

We lost another great Buckeye this week with the passing of Dante Lavelli! They have been going so fast. (I feel tonight even more sure that I did the right thing explained in yesterday's "I lied" post below.)

The Browns fans among you will remember Dante as one of the greatest in the heyday of the Cleveland Browns. As for myself, I will have two memories, and they are both of times I was with him and others of "The Greatest Generation." Dante was one of those group of Buckeyes from Northeast Ohio with the e's and i's at the end of their names!

The first memory is the recognition of the '42 National Championship Team, in the fall of 2007, on the field, in the Horseshoe. Dante was there and it was "a once in a lifetime" for me to be with him and his teammates on the sidelines. I took pictures of all of them that day, and still have the copy of the letter I included with the pictures I sent to Dante's family.

Even then, I could see that Dante was struggling with his health. As a result I never pursued an interview, but I still can imagine what a thrill it would have been.

My second and last encounter was when I attended the funeral of Bill Willis and Dante was one of the honored guests. My vision of Dante Lavelle will forever be him walking down the aisle after Bill's service. He was part of the recessional, a place of honor for a valiant teammate. Although he had to be escorted out, and my friend Joyce Canfield was at his arm to steady him, they walked alone down the aisle, he still tall and proud and strong and handsome. Dashing in a full length fur coat, with a chiseled square jaw, one did not have to strain to imagine him taking on a linebacker in a helmet without a face mask, or the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. It is not often one is in the presence of true greatness, but I sensed it that day in that place.

Dante was one of the good guys. Much has been written about that, and they have said it better than I could. Rather than add to it, I will just suggest that if you are a Buckeye or a Browns fan, you owe it to him to read and honor this mans life. Check out the following links:

Browns legend Dante Lavelli, 85, passes away

Lavelli made the best of what life tossed his way

Always sure-handed, Lavelli never dropped his loyalty to Browns fans, either

It's all Shawn's fault.

I promised Jenny and Curt that I would quit doing interviews. They have endured this for far too long now, and my storehouse of material already floweth over. I promised them last falI I would quit the interviews and wrap this up.

And then my friend Shawn called. As I said it was all his fault.

I mean what was I supposed to do? Shawn calls me a couple of weeks ago and says I have some numbers for you. Six different guys. All former players. The youngest 88, the oldest 94! They all arrived at the Horseshoe in the 1930's and they are all willing to talk to you.

So in the last week I ran up the phone bill again and put some more miles on the car. Sunday I spent a most enjoyable two hours in the kitchen of one of them. I have interviewed five of the six now, and have probably seven hours of tape. There's one more to go when he gets done with a little hospital procedure.

Yea, I lied. But as I said it was all Shawn's fault. Besides, if you were in my shoes, what you have done? It's been a high honor to capture their legend and pay due to their lives.

Thanks Shawn for the leads!....and thanks too for taking the heat!

I almost missed The Best Damn Band In The Land yesterday.

When the parade started our local NBC affiliate switched to a rerun of Everyone Loves Raymond. "You've got to be kidding?", I thought. "TBDBITL is marching for the President at a turn of the page in the book of history and these folks are showing Raymond?"

Fortunately we had DVR'ed another channel and we were able to eventually see the President bobbing and weaving to Across The Field as marching bands finest passed the review stand. Curt called and said "Did you see it? Looks like we could make him a Buckeye."

The Lantern today has a great story about the background of the band marching in the Parade and what an honor it was that they were chosen to represent Ohio. You can read it at:

TBDBITL Marches into History

My book is about history and the talk of living that on Tuesday is not the least bit overstatement.

Imagine for a minute if you could have been at Philadelphia for the signing of the Declaration. Or at Gettysburg for Lincoln's address. Maybe with Lee and Grant at Appomattox? In Berlin when Jesse won the medals? How about riding on a tank when the Allies liberated Paris, or on the aircraft carrier when MacArthur accepted the surrender? What if you could have been on the bus for the freedom rides, or at the Lincoln Memorial when Martin Luther had the dream? Perhaps in Berlin when the wall came down? All of these things shattered barriers on the roads named freedom and opportunity. Today this nation will shatter another one. Through the miracle of modern electronics, we can all be there.

Ohio Stadium in its own way has played a part in helping shatter those same barriers. As I watch today, I will think of all of you who have shared with me your stories to reveal that proud part of the stadium's history. I will think of Bill and Chuck, Cornelius and Archie, then Bobby, Rudy, Judge D, Tracy, Bonnie, and of course, what you all shared about the role of the old man himself.

Most of all, I will think back to a little over a year ago, when I sat in the back of the First Congregational Church for the funeral service of Bill Willis. Bill's pastor, the Reverend Timothy Ahrens, closed the service that day by recalling his account of having taken Bill to the Freedom Center in Cincinnati to meet noted civil rights leader, Dr. Fred Shuttlesworth. Pastor Ahrens shared, "At the end of the day as we were leaving the Freedom Center, there on the banks of Cincinnati, we were looking over to the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. We had spent the day hearing once again the stories of those who had come through the underground railroad to freedom and I asked Bill, "What do you think as you look back over the Ohio River after today? And Bill said to me, I think of all the people that never made it. I think of all the people that never made it and what we have to do to turn this around."

Tomorrow is a day to both honor all those that didn't make it, and also to celebrate those that did, those that are helping to turn this around!

I talked to my good Buckeye Friend and Stories of the Shoe storyteller Bill Lewis today and have it on sound word that the OH-IO's are floating around the Mall in Washington D.C. Should it surprise you that wherever millions of people gather, the Buckeye's are well represented?

Bill and his daughter (who came all the way from California to be at the Inauguration) went down Sunday to "Scope out their Spot". Being cold, Bill wore his Scarlett and Gray Ohio State Stocking hat. Apparently it was the hit of the day, and Bill said the OH-IO's were rolling back and forth all day long. (And the Best Damn Band isn't even marching yet). You're never a stranger if you're a Buckeye, and how fitting they are uniting there for what truly is a milestone in this country's history!

I've written before that I have met the nicest and most amazing people. A special treat is the number of people I have met who are in their 90's. You don't live that long being ordinary, and every one of these folks has had an interesting life and interesting story to share with me. Let me tell you of one of them.

I first bumped into William B. Hoyer when I saw him walking across the parking lot at Ohio Stadium in the fall of 2007. I approached him cold, unbeknown, with the line "You look like you've been to a game or two here". He had. Little did I know then, that when I took him to breakfast many weeks later, he would tell me his memory, as a little kid, of being at the very first game played in Ohio Stadium! William shared some fascinating stories with me, but he shared more than that. I would call him occasionally just to chat. We would talk Buckeye football, politics, fishing, and life in general. I always came away with some good advice, and busy as he was, he always thanked me for calling.

Late this fall, during one of my calls, I offered to take him to lunch again. "I'll take you to the faculty club," he proposed instead, "and we'll sit at Woody's table! I'll give you some more for your book." That was an offer I couldn't pass up and I jumped. A quite successful guy, I have no doubt that William had sat at that table with Woody himself, and likely many a time. It took a couple more calls to get a date he was open. We set a time and I drove to Columbus. When I got there and called him that afternoon, he said, "I have to cancel. One of my close friends just learned he is terribly sick and I just have to go see him. He's in bad shape."

"Not a problem," I said cheerfully, "we'll take a rain check". I could see it was an emotional development, and besides, even at 93, William B still called the shots! Fall turned into the Michigan game and into Thanksgiving and into the busy holiday season. My day job consumed me. Before I knew it, it was cold weather. I thought several times in the last month about trying to set something up, but always I was afraid it would be too cold for him to go out at the times I was free.

I should have tried harder. I learned today that William passed away the day after Christmas. I will miss the luncheon we never got done, with he and I at Woody's table. But that's the minor part. I will miss our more our friendly chats. If I have any regrets in this project, it is that I haven't finished it while some of my storytellers are still alive to read it. I have William on tape, and through my work I hope to preserve his memory. I just wish I had gotten it done while he was alive to see the finished product, because he was a Buckeye through and through. That friends, is the hard part.

So tantalizingly, agonizingly, excruciatingly, painfully close.....

The predictions are in this morning and it's not pretty! The Dispatch asked 21 journalists to pick tonight's game and the result was 6 predicting OSU, 15 predicting Texas. Imagine That!

Of the writers and broadcasters outside of Ohio, 8/8 picked Texas, mostly by two touchdowns or more! No surprise their either!

The more I think about it the more I like those odds! Didn't something like that happen one other time?...we were playing that team... what was their name?...the Hurricanes!

GO BUCKS!

I have heard from two of my Texas Buckeye friends this week. Both have been holding down the fort in enemy territory south of the border.

Erwin Thal says he has had to "Listen to a lot of smack down there". (Knowing Erwin, I am sure he has given his share back.)

And for those of you who have followed my friend Fred Machol and his enduring the post Hurricane recovery, there is great news! Fred is back in has house and is fired up for tomorrow nights game. I got this nice email from him just this week:

We have moved in early. The contractor has work to do but Annie and I are sleeping in our beds and we don't have to suck in our tummies to pass each other in the kitchen in the camper. I decided to stay home during the playoffs and will join my son, Mike, for the game at his house. I do have a new 50' Samsung , but it is better to watch a game with family. We cuss the bad plays but squeeze the buckeyes on good ones.

Thanks for thinking about us and I hope you have a healthy year. I want to read your book. Best of all things to you and your family. GO BUCKS! and love, Fred

Fred didn't say how much was left to do to his house yet....but I guarantee one thing. No matter what the condition of the exterior, there is no doubt it will be adorned tomorrow night with a big red flag with a Block O in the middle. Wouldn't a win make a nice housewarming for a loyal Buckeye deep in the heart of Texas!

Two years ago this time I was in sunny Glendale. Last year it was balmy New Orleans. Tonight it is cold and foggy Pandora (this is headed in the wrong direction!) It is not that I didn't want to go. But I have more than enough stories so couldn't justify it that way (in fact spent all afternoon editing some of them). Also, after two years in a row the piggy bank is drained dry and Jenny and I are saving our pennies for the Buckeye's next visit to the Rose Bowl, a trip we have never made.

Apparently I wasn't alone. In his "Lack of Buzz" blog this week Ken Gordan of the Dispatch wrote "this is by far the quietest pregame week I've experienced in 5 years on the beat...It's just dead out here." A little surfing of the net for this years coverage produces ample evidence (or lack of it) to prove him right on . It's not a surprise, with many people worrying about their jobs and their homes. But lets be honest. After two years of playing in the national championship, Buckeye fans are also plenty spoiled. I know...some folks say they didn't go because they didn't want to see us get beat again. As for me, if I had the time and money I would still be there. We're still the Buckeyes and they're Texas and that's one huge match up. For me that's enough. Think I will go put the flag up this evening and make my own little buzz. Go Bucks!

The sky is falling and the world is ending according to one writer. Now for you that might be true....especially if you are one of the recent millions that have lost their job, home, business. But for one writer it is falling for an entirely different reason....Coach Tressel held Terrelle Pryor out of the Fiesta Bowl Media Day. Yep, you got it right. Coach T sent 30 players (from a team with 28 seniors) to the media day....but for that writer the story was the 31st that he didn't send, and it was scathing.

What silliness. I work with some good people in a small office of a sister organization who found out on New years Eve that their budget was cut more than 50% starting Jan 1st. Real people, real lives, real fear, real suffering. That folks is a falling sky.

It's kinda funny. I actually read two different writers report the same event. One was an Ohio guy, Doug Lesmerises of the Plain Dealer, who in part owes his living to the fact that the Buckeyes are there to report. The other was, you guessed it, an ESPN writer Adam Rittenberg, from that National Institution with no love for the Buckeyes. The viewpoints were so different you wonder if they were at the same event.

Which one reported it objectively and which one skewered Tressel? I bet you can guess. Then again,I bet you can't. Read em both and judge for yourself:

Doug Lesmerises, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Ohio State football: Tressel holds Pryor out of interviews

Adam Rittenberg
Tressel keeps Pryor, Brewster under wraps

Last year around this time I was in New Orleans and all I would hear was the "SEC Speed"! Yesterday, on the Michigan State - Georgia broadcast it was more of the same. The announcers went on ad nausea um about how superior the SEC was "with their speed in the trenches"!

Well, the Sugar Bowl just ended and we sure did see a display of that SEC speed in the trenches. Not! Congratulations to the Utes!

There is a nice article in today's Dispatch about #33 which is of course the jersey belonging to James Laurinaitis. On media day way back at the beginning of the season (it seems like an eternity now) I interviewed James. None of us ever have it all, but James come as close as anyone I have ever met. The animal that you see on the field is in the flesh a quite different man of intellect, faith, humility and kindness.

After watching me do the interview, Jenny made an interesting observation about the dichotomy of his tattoo. The huge menacing thing you see on TV adorning his bicep is actually a family crest that incorporates the names Joe, Julie, Joey and Jessica...his mother, father, brother and sister. How many of you are close enough to go through life with the names of your families on your sleeve? How many 3 time All American football players are comfortable enough in their skin to step on the field and into the controlled mayhem with that in their arm?

Players come and then they go. Stars are born, burn bright, then dim to be replaced by new ones with new numbers. Only a select few over the years will have staying power. James is going to be one of those. I have no doubt that he will be successful on the field at the next level, but what that success enables him to do off the field will be the mark of James Laurinaitis. He talked in the interview about those dreams. Years from now his paying forward will still be a story.

That's why when Jenny saw a size 2 toddler #33 Buckeye Jersey on the markdown table she snatched it up. Grandma had it wrapped and under the tree Christmas morning for our two and a half year old grandson. He undoubtedly will look cute as can be in it next Monday evening and Grandma and Grandpa will be most proud if some day he grows up to be like James.

You can read Tim May's column at: dispatch.com

A number of pundits have written that Toughness will be the key to the Buckeyes beating Texas this year in Glendale. If true, I know where they can get some and it would be from one of my storytellers.

We have a close family friend in town, an amazing lady who will turn 94 on March 11th. Two years ago, she gave me a story of her thrill attending commencement in Ohio Stadium at the young age of 92. This person still lives alone in her home. A little over two weeks ago, on one of those freezing drizzle days when the temperature hovered just above the icing mark, she went outside, without a coat, to fill her squirrel feeder, and fell and broke her knee and leg. She lay there for two and a half hours before the neighbors heard her cry for help. When they found her, her hair was frozen solid and her body temperature was down to 88 degrees.

She was rushed to the hospital, and it took something like 5 hours to raise her temperature 4 degrees. Miracles do happen though. She pulled through and two days later they operated and put a new knee in.

A week later, she was back here rehabbing in our nursing home. I visited her there yesterday and found her sitting up in a chair...as sharp, witty and full of life as ever. Except for the new knee, she looks none the worse for wear, and is already standing with assistance and marching with both feet. Would that you and I could go through that and look so good!

That, my friends, is toughness. If Tress could come up and bottle that up for Jan 5th, I know we would blow the Longhorns right out of Sun Devil Stadium.

My Buckeye Pen has been quiet on here lately. I should explain why.

We are in the midst of a big audit where I work. The Big Wigs have canceled all our leave since Thanksgiving, and we are working eleven and twelve hour days. With drive time plus an hour's more physical therapy on each end of my day, it doesn't leave me much Christmas Cheer. Jenny has likewise been burdened where she teaches trying to keep fed the data-munching machine known as No Child Left Behind. There are no pretty lights on our front porch this year or presents under our tree yet.

She and I describe it as "Feeding the System"! We have talked. We both wonder....at a time when were are still working not because we have to, but because we want to and think we can make a real difference (she in the lives of her special needs tots and me with our good earth)....how did our society become counters rather than doers?

I am reminded of the story of the two farmers. In the spring of the year, they were each given a bag with an identical number of beans and told to "Account" for them. Farmer A immediately opened his and counted every one of the 200,000 beans before putting them back in the bag in the bag. Farmer B on the other hand dumped them into a woven basket and leveled them off to determine that he had exactly one bushel.

When the earth warmed, Farmer A was tired of just counting his beans, so he organized them into two rows, one of round beans and one of oblong beans. Farmer B on the other hand, carried his to a one-acre field, scattered them all over the place, and lightly covered them with soil. In the process, he lost a few, the mice ate some, and of course, he could no longer see his beans nor know for sure how many he had.

As spring turned to summer, Farmer A found his rows too boring to count. So he further subdivided his beans all summer....he organized them into round gold ones, oblong brown ones, big ones, little ones, to the point where he could count them not once a month, but once a day. Shucks, by the end of the summer he could count them hourly. Farmer B in contrast spent the summer hoeing weeds and chasing bugs away and didn't have any time to count his beans.

When fall arrived Farmer A still had exactly 200,000 beans and the original bag they came in. Farmer B didn't have any clue how many beans he had, but he went to his field, gathered them up, and discovered they now filled forty bushel baskets instead of one. He dumped them all into a bin where they would be safe for the winter. At that point, the bean department auditor arrived!

In his audit report, the auditor lauded farmer A and recommended a promotion. "He knows not only exactly where every bean is," the auditor wrote, "but also its size, shape and color!" Farmer B unfortunately didn't fare too well. The termination letter read... "Farmer B violated all principles of bean control. He let them out of his sight, some were lost, damaged or open to theft, and the remaining beans are 'commingled' with 8 million other beans, so it is impossible to count the original beans or even know if any are still there"...

It has been easy to get discouraged in all of this, until I remembered the reason we do all the holiday traditions we are this year missing. Ours is not the first counting story. More than two thousand years ago, Mary and Joseph traveled to the city of their birth. Then as now it had been decreed on high there would be a count. In the midst of that count, a child was born to bring us goodness and light. All the decrees then were nothing compared to the effect of that tiny child lying in the manger.

The Christmas wish from our house to yours is that in these difficult times as a people and a nation, we remember the message of that child long ago, a gift of peace on earth good will towards men, and that we will all find ways to count the things that truly count.

All The Best and Peace be with you this Holiday Season and in the coming year.

One year ago in November, I was privileged to interview a gentleman named Robert Briggs. Mr. Briggs had grown up in Columbus and actually could remember that when he was about 4 or 5 years old, his Dad took him to Ohio Field to see Chic Harley play. I spent a fascinating hour listening to him talk about his memories of the early days of Ohio Stadium. When I left, I promised him and his family a recording of our conversations.

One month later, I was saddened to learn that Mr. Briggs had passed away. When I went to burn the audio recording for his family, the tape was too big to fit on one CD and I discovered I was going to have to re-tape it and split the file. Time slipped away from me and it was one of those things that despite the best of intentions, never got done.

When I got home this evening there was a message from Robert's son on our machine reminding me that they would still like the CD, and how much the family was looking forward to hearing his voice. Having lost my own father one year at the Christmas holidays, I could identify with their feelings on this first anniversary without him.

Tonight I didn't procrastinate and am delighted to have ready for the mail a CD to Mr. Briggs' son. I hope Mr. Robert's children and grandchildren enjoy hearing their father and grandfather tell about his life and the early days of Ohio State, and that his voice once again brightens their spirits this holiday season.

If I have but one regret in this project, it is that Mr. Briggs is not my first storyteller to pass on before I could finish and get this book out, and I fear he will not be the last. For him and any others, I hope their memories can eventually live on in my work.

Tis the Season to Bash the Buckeyes....

My friend Matt Markey had a good answer to that in his End Zone Column in today's Toledo Blade, and said it much better than I could. Rather than link it, I am going to quote it here in it's entirety...I don't think Matt will mind (and if he does, I'll take it down...)

The End Zone: Ohio State haters form cult

By MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER

"Ohio State hating is now officially a cult. Like the Moonies, this cult's followers incessantly repeat a mantra -- "too slow, soft schedule." Like the Manson family, this cult has maniacal spokesmen such as Mark May or James Carville.

No, the cult hates them because they usually win, and they don't mind marching around in scarlet and gray wigs and celebrating it. If the Buckeyes went 6-6 every year, this cult would disband, or be forced to drink the Kool-Aid."

Well said Matt!!

By now you probably have finished last week's leftovers. I still have one from the Michigan Game.

I talked last week with my good friend Cornelius Green who had called me and left a message while I was in the Stadium at the Michigan Game. Cornelius told me that after that game, the first thing he did was call all of his Michigan Friends. None would answer the phone! (Imagine that...)

Finally one called him back and left a message. The message said,"Cornelius, if you call me back please don't let the phone ring loud....my family and I are down on the floor huddled in a circle....we're having a seance trying to bring back Bo Schembechler..."

Savor this folks....7 & 1......Years from now you'll be in a rocking chair telling the grandkids how you were there for The Tressel Streak.

Earlier this week I again read someplace about "OSU students burning couches after Michigan wins..." Never mind that that stuff happened years ago, or that it was often not OSU students, it is still perpetuated by the national media and stereotypes die hard. But I can offer a different perspective.

I have enjoyed games from many different parts of the stadium, from the press box to the sidelines to the club seats. Saturday it was my pleasure to sit with the OSU students in the student section in the North End.

I am proud to say I was impressed by those students around me and it was genuine fun ot be there with them. They were well behaved, into the game, into the cheering and were there first and foremost to support the team and watch the game. They were even quite friendly to this bald headed guy old enough to be their grandpa.

I am often struck by the dichotomy of some of the things I read about Buckeye football, the difference between what some write and what I experience and observe. As one of my storytellers told me..."Most do not understand it unless they come!" Saturday confirmed that.

Saturday morning at the game, a stranger walked up to me and said "This is for good luck."

He handed me a Buckeye which he said was from a tree in the Buckeye Grove. I carried it in my pocket and indeed it was good luck . This morning we lettered the score on it... OSU 42- UM 14, and the year. As we did, I wondered...whose plaque rested under the tree this came from....Les Horvath, maybe Jim Parker, Jack Tatum, could it be Hop Cassidy?

I will keep it with my Buckeye mementos as a reminder of the tradition, and of this year's whupping put on the funny winged helmets, and for good luck carry it to future Michigan Games.

Michigan Weekend has come and gone. Friday morning I was privileged to be the Pep Rally speaker at the annual Michigan Week meeting of the Dublin Rotary at Murfield Country Club. There were around 80 give or take in attendance and a good time was had by all. I shared some of my experiences over the last 2 years and an overview of this book project and well as a preview of some of the stories that will be in the book. It was quite a privilege to have been invited, considering some of their prior speakers have been Andy Geiger, Jack Park and Archie.

The Buckeye Hall of Fame brass band was present and those guys brought the house down when they played the premier performance of the new Michigan Fight Song.....

I'll Be Home for Christmas.......

I will post more on Michigan week as my schedule this week permits....

This time forty years ago (where did they go?) in the fall of '68, I was a high school senior finishing my football career. We didn't have state playoffs then and I have always felt cheated. Had we, our team was very good and I am sure we would have gone far. Instead, I finished my athletic career and one year later, in the fall of '69, I headed off to Ohio State.

When I arrived as a freshman first thing I did was went out and bought the obligatory beer stein. Don't know why. I didn't drink then, and never have, but hey...you were a freshman and that is what you did, you bought your own Stein.

I still have that Stein. I don't think it has ever held a drop of beer, but you can put a whole lot of pencils and highlighters in it. For forty years, it has sat on the corner of my desk. In the 40 years I have had many desks, several job titles, but one wife, one employer, one favorite football team, and yes one Stein.

I notice that stein every day...it's white ceramic and on the front, imprinted in red letters is the front page of the November 24th Columbus Dispatch Sunday Edition. The big bold headline reads "85,371 See Bucks Stomp Wolves - 50-14".

It's a daily reminder of the most perfect game the Buckeyes every played, the 1968 Michigan game, almost 40 years ago to the day this Saturday. Wouldn't it be nice for history to repeat itself this coming Saturday when Michigan again comes calling? Maybe next year, some freshman too can buy a memory that is good for another 40 years.

Michigan Week!!! Enough Said. Time to start the jokes rolling around the internet, the Richland County Alumni Party, The Earle Bruce Tailgate, the traveling alumni band, Scarlet and Gray Friday, and all that goes with this week, the greatest rivalry in all of college football. Time to go for 5 in a row and 7 of the last 8. It doesn't get any better than this.

Better enjoy this one though. It's the end of an era. Thanks to BCS mania, next time this rolls around to Ohio Stadium, the game will be held the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This time the students will be on campus all week. This time we will be around to decorate our grade schools and offices on Friday before game day. This time families will be concentrating on their tailgate parties instead of how they are going to get to grandma's on Thursday and then back for the game. This time the Buckeye players and the band will not have to worry about giving up a Thanksgiving with their families. This time the alumni band will not have to worry about driving all over town to play to empty office buildings on Hyperactive Friday. This time it will be what it's been for as long as I can remember. Take it in and savor it.

The ESPN documentary starts out with something like "It's forever been the third Saturday in November..." Well no more. Certainly, the University and Big Ten will have a different opinion. Obviously, things change. One of the joys of getting to my age though, is that you are perfectly free not to like it when they do!

As an old high school lineman who cut his teeth on trap blocking and grind it out, move the chains, smash mouth football, it didn't bother me a bit that the Bucks didn't throw much yesterday. My book will even have a story, told by one of the participants, on what has come to be known as simply "The Drive"... a famous Ohio Stadium series of 8 straight running plays that propelled the Buckeyes to a conference title and a national championship.

Of course yesterday did bother some fans who want to see them air it out like the west coast or southern teams. My friend Bob Hunter had some rather good commentary on that perspective, and what it means nationally. Since he said it much better than I could, I will simply suggest you read his story here.

If you are reading this blog, hopefully it is because you are interested in good Ohio State Literature. It has been my aim to share with all of you, books I think belong in any Buckeye library. There is a new one I highly recommend.

I had the privilege today to spend two captivating hours on the phone interviewing Dispatch Columnist Bob Hunter about Chic Harley, the Horseshoe, and Bob's just released book: Chic: The Extraordinary Rise of Ohio State Football and the Tragic Schoolboy Athlete Who Made It Happen.

It is a fascinating tale, described as "the untold story of the unassuming schoolboy who laid the groundwork for Ohio Stadium, as well as the story of the building of America's greatest athletic institution. Chic Harley is the ghost in the program, a tragic figure who--through the life of Ohio Stadium--gave as much sustained pleasure to as many people as any athlete of all time."

Everyone who has ever stood in Ohio Stadium and sung a fight song, shared a laugh, or shed a tear owes it to Chic Harley to read his legend. It is our birthright and the granddaddy story of all the Stories of the 'Shoe

You will be surprised, entertained, and enlightened and it would make the perfect gift in any Buckeye Stocking. Your local bookstore probably has it, or order from these links:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Last year at the Illinois Game, the University honored on the field all the ushers who were Veterans. It was an impressive sight. They stretched sideline to sideline, several deep. I snapped some good photos of that, both a group shot and pictures of individuals and group close-ups. I don't have everyone, but got quite a few of you. For the past year, I have been sharing those with any usher in that line who emails me. Still, I know there are many more of you who haven't gotten one.

If you were in that group and contact me at sdavis@q1.net. I will email you the picture or pictures, free of charge, no strings attached. It is my way of saying thanks for the help and cooperation that I have received from the Ohio Stadium Ushers the last two years, and my way of thanking you for your service.

Being it is Veterans Day, seems like a good time to give you a continuing update on my Texas Buckeye storyteller friend Fred. As you remember (or can read below), Fred is the WWII Veteran who I met in the 'Shoe at the spring game. His house was severely damaged in Hurricane Ike, so at age 92 he is rebuilding. The good news is Fred is back home, the bad news is he is living in a trailer awaiting the rebuilding of his house. Fred wrote me this week: "living in a 31' trailer rather than the house is rather confining. Saturday I went to the OSU Alumni club game watch at the SRO bar, since my trailer RV only gets 4 local stations. It's a 40 mile trip, but I'll take it again next Saturday". He is one dedicated Buckeye.

There is more heartening news. When Fred's son wrote me of his Dad's plight, I played a hunch and passed it on to Coach Tressel's Secretary. I was right. About a week later, I learned from Fred's son that a letter had arrived for Fred, with the return address of the OSU Football Office. Fred shared me the following about it: "When you see Coach Tressel, tell him I was very touched by his letter. It referred to the storm and rebuilding, and included an invitation to visit him the next time I visit Columbus."

Fred's daughter described the meaning of the letter to me much more candidly. She wrote, "He shows it to everyone, and you'd almost think it was printed in gold!"

All the best to Fred and all the Veterans on this their day.

I was a little quiet on here last week...taking advantage of the bye week and some time off to head with my son to the hills of Southern Ohio for a deer-hunting trip. I came back with no deer but recharged from a few days of sitting deep in the timber with nothing to disturb me but squirrels, and nothing to look at but the golden woods and the beautiful falling autumn leaves. It was heaven...no phone, blackberry, TV...not even a Columbus Dispatch.

It looked like some of the writers also had way too much time as a result of the bye week, and way too little to write about, as well. When I returned on Saturday, I read that the Teflon was wearing off Coach Tressel cause we had lost 2 games, that the Pryor situation had possibly been mishandled, and that former players were questioning the coaching. For good measure, there was a press conference which Coach politely walked out of after 5 minutes of questions on the discipline of one individual player. (Did they really think they were going to get Tressel to talk about an individual personnel situation in public and on the record.)

Of course I read and learned all of this just after watching Terrelle and Beanie scorch the turf and the Wildcats in Evanston. Apparently, those two didn't get the memo. Yep. Go figure....

After the disappointing loss, with a bye week coming up, I looked forward to getting away and a break. Last week found me traveling for my day work. Tuesday evening I was 600 miles from home in Ottawa, Canada, the capital city of a foreign country. I was with some U. S. State Department and Canadian government officials, leaning into a stiff wind and blinding snow, as we passed the Canadian Parliament Building and entered an Irish Pub with a French speaking clientele. It was about as un-Columbus and un-Ohio as one could visualize.

As we stood in the foyer of the pub, and shook the snow off our coats, I happened to look up. What did I see, but a big screen TV, replaying at that very moment, in agonizingly slow motion, Terrelle Pryor's fumble against the Nittany Lions.

As I said in a post to start this season, "The Buckeyes Are Everywhere."

I left the Stadium discouraged and after midnight Saturday night. I was cold, tired, and walking on hurting feet. Having arrived before noon, I had been walking or standing except for the ten minutes I sat down to eat a hot dog in the press box. I was not angry about losing but rather disappointed and felt especially bad for the seniors. As an old lineman, it didn't bother me there wasn't a lot of scoring. Smash mouth grind it out move the chains football suits me just fine, and a close game is more riveting than a blowout.

I heard another view Sunday Morning. Having stopped for breakfast on my way out of town, a pancake flipper behind the grill was talking about the game. I learned from him I had totally missed it...it was the worst coaching, worst play calling, worst game plan in the history of football. What a waste of talent...why the guy was an all world football coach and here he was asking me, "You want hash browns with that?"

Turns out I am not the only one that thought the guy was all wet. Bob Hunter had a nice column in today's Dispatch on a similar theme. It's good tonic and I encourage you to read it at: Bob Hunter Commentary

Two plus weeks ago I attended the post game press conference of Joe Tiller, after his final game in Ohio Stadium. I meant to comment at the time that a small group of OSU fans in section 29 showed a lot of class. After warm-ups, Joe walked off the field alone to the locker room. When he got near the south ramp at section 29, one person started applauding. Before long the whole section was giving him a nice spontaneous ovation. Joe looked briefly that way and nodded slightly, as much recognition as a head coach trying to get "into the game time zone" could give the opposing fans right before the game. It was a nice scene.

Later in his post-game press conference, despite the sting of defeat, he was gracious and patient with the media. He dispensed his wisdom and common sense to a room less than one-forth full, a final Ohio Stadium sendoff for one of the good guys in the game.

Saturday night another Joe came to Ohio Stadium. This Joe however, even though a legend, couldn't walk off the field...because of his health he was in the press box. I wonder, would he have gotten the same ovation? I like to think he would.

It was also a different scene when a victorious Joe Paterno hobbled with a cane into the visitors post game press room. TV lights flooded the standing room only audience. Everyone pressed together was there for the same reason I was...to see an icon. The first question to Coach Paterno was about his reaction. I'm happy for the kids," he replied. I marveled at the wit and vigor that belied his 80 plus years. I have done my profession for 36 years now. It seems like a long time. If I were to do it another 25, well then I would reach JoePa's age. Think of that. In an era when the Nick Sabin's of coaching are hired guns to the highest bidder, Joe is still where he put down roots. He has given millions to the University and probably unknown other charities.

At some point a question was asked about his health. He shrugged and indicated he "might sit down with the doctor" during the upcoming bye week. Up till now he has been too busy. Some have written that the game has passed him by, that he should step down, that he has lost control. All I know is that Saturday night, there he was, in the flesh, in charge, and in victory.

I will be rooting for the Nittany Lions to run the table and win it all. You should too. It will be good for the Big Ten. It will be good for the Buckeyes and could send us to the Rose Bowl. And, it would most certainly be a fitting sendoff for a genuinely good guy we all should admire.

You go Joe!

Ifs Friday night. The camera bag is packed and the tape recorders charged. I will be off early tomorrow for the Stadium. The game is huge, the night atmosphere electric, and I have a sideline photo pass. But it will be bittersweet. This is the last one of the year and I will be wrapping this up this fall, so this is probably the last time I will be down there. It has been the most amazing and indescribable experience.

What I will miss most may surprise you. It will not be being right on top of the action...actually it is a poor place to see the game. It won't be being down there with all those people looking at you. It won't be walking by the bench, an arm length from the players. No, I will miss most the many people I have met and come to know...the ushers, the field workers, the phone crew, the photographers, the writers, the band staff. While you all are watching the game, there is a small army of folks that are quietly and methodically doing their job...going about their business to make sure the pageant goes smoothly and seamlessly.

Unless you have been a part of it you have no idea how much it takes. All these worker bees hum away, mostly at the expense of getting to take in the game and the action like you do. Some are paid, but many are volunteers. They are pros and the best in the business. It has been an honor and a privilege to experience it. Hats off to all of them. Go Bucks!

When you spend two nights away with your wife alone in a hotel, and the most pleasing moment you have is eleven at night...all by yourself in the hotel hot tub with some latex tubing, a broom handle, and a barbell...well you are either 1) getting old, 2) really weird, or 3) have a problem.

Guess I better explain that one! No, I am not that old! I don't think I'm weird. But I must admit, I do have a problem.

It's been a while since I have given you the hand update and medical report, so here goes. I am still in therapy, and doctor is keeping his fingers crossed that there is no more surgery. Movement is coming back steadily, albeit very slowly and still quite painfully. I am typing this with two hands and that is the good news. Bad news is I still can't turn the hand over palm up, I can't use the mouse right handed, or lift anything very heavy at all. Pain is mostly a constant thing. For 6 weeks I have gone to therapy 3 days a week and have an every day regime of 20 exercises, 30 reps each, minimum 3 times each day. For you mathematically challenged, that is 1800 repetitions a day...with all kinds of gizmos, including a shovel handle, barbells, therabands, rubber bands, a hammer, putty and several squeeze contraptions. Our coffee table looks like a hardware store. Friday was also a "stretch day", which means the therapist inflicts additional pain by yanking it in all directions. By the time we got to East Lansing it was a major case of the hurts really bad.

Which brings me to the hot tub. The only thing that gives me any real relief from the pain is heat. My therapist has this big crock-pot full of hot melted paraffin that I stick my hand in before my exercises and it feels oh so good. The hotel didn't have that but they did have a steaming hot tub. So Friday night and again Saturday morning and night, I dragged all my contraptions through the lobby, crawled in the hot tub with them, and did my exercises as the hand soaked in the heat. It was pure ecstasy!

It also elicited a very strange look from the manager, who chased me out when he came in to lock the place down at 11:00 PM. What the heck, it was well worth it.

I have met many wonderful Buckeyes through this project and enjoy keeping in touch with my storytellers all over the country. Saturday morning as we walked through the campus I called one of them, my friend Erwin. Erwin comes back to nearly every home game, all the way from Texas.

Unfortunately, Saturday as we talked, I found him the lone Buckeye attending a wedding somewhere in Minnesota, the bride and groom to be certainly oblivious to the sanctity of a Buckeye gameday. Erwin was obviously chagrined that he was there and I was at the game. I mean one can get married 365 days a year, but the Buckeyes only play 13 times a year....only 13 days...why it's life and death 13 times. We had a nice chat and I promised to fill Erwin in on the game. When I later did, he answered my email with the following reply:

"Great report. Wish I had been there. Followed the game on my iphone during the wedding. Almost jumped up out of my pew when we recovered the fumble and took it in for a touchdown."

Now there's a Buckeye for you!

Michigan State is a great place to go to an away game. The quite scenic campus is full of old growth hardwoods and their fall colors were vivid against a blue October sky. The campus itself is not landlocked like OSU, hence it has wide lawns and lots of boulevards around the stadium, making for lots of grass adjacent to the parking for nice tailgating. Quite frankly, I think there was more tailgating than at OSU, and the locations are every bit as nice or nicer.

I have to tell you though, Spartan Stadium is no Horseshoe. It's nice enough, but Jenny compared the exterior architecture to a concrete erector set. Our seats were fine, but I counted I think 3 ushers for the whole upper east half. And, the view was good, but this ole man didn't enjoy halftime with one restroom in the corner to serve half the upper part of the stadium. Howard Dwight Smith would particularly chuckle about the one door to that one restroom, through which probably 5000 men with bursting bladders were trying to go both in and out at the same time! We're spoiled with what we have and one only needs to go elsewhere, (or read my book) to appreciate that.

Jenny and I have been to East Lansing the last 3 times the Buckeyes have played there. Each time we have been treated kindly by the Spartan Fans, more than one of whom before the game has come up to us and welcomed us to their campus and their stadium, and afterward has graciously complimented us on our victory.

Saturday was no exception. We had no longer left the hotel and were in line for breakfast at Mickey D's when a gentleman in green and white turned to me and said "Good luck today." We had a nice chat, and it turned out he was a neighbor of Coach Dantonio. We had plenty of time to walk the campus and before the game and were befriended or welcomed a dozen, or more, different times by Spartan fans.

After the game, we were in the stairwell of the parking garage and met headlong a man and his young son, both green from head to toe. It was obviously a much-anticipated day for the boy that ended in disappointment. As we passed on the stairs, the father offered "Good Game", and I thought what a nice example he was setting for his son.

I have heard second hand reports that some folks were not treated so nicely. But as for us, they were fine hosts and kudos to them for that. When I mentioned to the gentleman in MacDonald's how nice we were usually treated, he replied, "Well we're not Michigan!" Indeed, they aren't and I will be rooting for them this week when they play the team with the funny lookin helmets. You should too.

One of my many OSU football memories is not in the 'Shoe, but of 2006 in Spartan Stadium At the end of that game Ohio State fans owned the Stadium. With red in every corner of the stadium, we had O-H-I-O going round and round the stadium in the 4th quarter as the Green and White streamed for the exits.

Jenny and I were in East Lansing again Saturday. As Yogi Berra said, It was "like dejaveu all over again".

Shannon Shelton's lead story in Sunday's Detroit Free Press said it best...

"The empty seats in Spartan Stadium told it all....At the end of the game the only sound that filled the air in Spartan Stadium was that of Ohio State fans singing 'Hang On Sloopy' and chanting O-H-I-O. Just as they did in 2006.

Actually, one more sound did fill the air. That was Carmen Ohio. As our group of OSU alumni watched from high up in the corner of the end zone, the sun slipped from a cloudless sky to just below the horizon and the Musco lights glistened on the silver tubas, the band completely encircled the team for the playing and singing of the alma mater. It was a picture postcard ending to a football perfect autumn afternoon...an image that all of us there will not soon forget.

The Buckeye Offense and I had something in common last Saturday. Things could have gone a little better for them, and....well....there were a couple of things I could have done differently too.

It all started before the game. I was outside the press entrance on the west side and decided that I could use some crowd shots. It was right at that time when everyone was jamming in the walkway to get into the stadium and it was a perfect picture of a mass of OSU humanity. So I stopped on the edge of the walkway and was snapping away towards the north end of the Stadium, all the while the crowd pressing me more and more to the outside. Things were going great when suddenly, almost beneath me, I heard this fearsome growl and then "woof, woof, woof". Jumping about six feet in the air, I looked down to see that I had been leaning right against the "Danger - Police Dog - Do Not Approach" sign on a police car. Inside the Canine Officer was not happy! I got the heck out of there and thought, "Well I dodged that bullet."

It didn't start well, and shucks, it didn't end well either. In the fourth quarter, at the very end of the game, the sidelines get crowded. The writers, athletic department workers, and others come down and congregate...the writers heading to the press conference, the AD staff finished with their jobs for the day.

At the end of the game Saturday, I was snapping all kinds of odds and ends....stadium shots of various props that might be useful for the book. I shot things like the portal numbers, photographers, yard line markers, etc. I was getting a little bit of anything and everything, never knowing what one might need to use. I decided I needed some credential cards....those small placards on a string that hang around everyone's neck with their name on them. They say different things and are the bearer's ticket to access the different regions....field, press box, locker room, etc. I would say there are about 8 different kinds.

Anyway, about 6 feet away from me stood a guy...just an ordinary Joe.... with one around his neck. It stood out nicely on a solid color shirt. Without thinking, I just reached out with my zoom lens and snapped a few pictures of it. I even tilted my camera at an angle to get a little "artsy look"! Since I didn't take the person's face, I didn't even say anything to the individual.

It didn't take but a minute or two and the guy was right beside me. "Excuse me," he politely said, "Might I ask why you took a picture of my card?" Somewhat surprised, I explained that I was doing a book and that I was just gathering images of all kinds. I assured him I didn't take his face and didn't mean to offend him. Even handed him my business card!

"We'll, that's all well and good," he said, "But if you use it you're going to have to black out my name. I'm an undercover police officer!" After apologizing profusely, I assured him I would. And I will. Don't worry "Officer Whatwasyourname?" Your secret is safe with me.

Like I said...me and the offense....things started badly and went downhill.

I have met many Buckeye fans with many rituals and traditions. One of the noblest is the gang that does the "Ohio Stadium Cake". If you have never seen it, you are missing one of the great traditions of the 'Shoe. You can view the 18th annual cake prior to the Purdue game this Saturday beginning at approximately 8:00 a.m. on the south lawn of St. John Arena. The cake will be served immediately following the game for donations to the Stadium Cake Scholarship Fund. Stop by and contribute to the cause.

Thus far, Buckeye fans have helped raise over $87,000 for scholarships at Ohio State. Most of that comes from small donations. Over the past four years (since the Stadium Cake Scholarship Fund was endowed), the University has awarded a total of eleven Stadium Cake Scholarships to Ohio State students, and is set to award four more for this academic year.

As part of the fundraising efforts, there is again available a limited-edition, signed, and numbered print of an original drawing of Ohio Stadium. To see all of our sketches, click on this link

For more information about the Stadium Cake, please check out their web site.

Beanie and I both made progress last week. The pace was just a little different. All Beanie did was gain 106 yards on 14 carries (7.6 per avg), and flat out hurdle a Minnesota linebacker for good measure.

Myself, I made great strides too. (Well at least a few big baby steps.) I progressed to being able to turn the radio dial in the car and use a spoon with my right hand. I can hold a cell phone, all be it not very long. Yesterday I held my razor in my right hand. I'm sure I've had better shaves, but I got through it without too much blood. And the biggie...although it's slow and rather difficult, I am typing this with two hands!

As I said below, Beanie and I, we're a lot alike.....

I must confess. I missed last Saturday. It was the first home game I've missed in 3 years. It was a combination of no ticket, no press pass, and going on 9 weeks of being handicapped piling up with my need to do lists here at home. Living with one usable arm all this time has left me way behind in life's little chores, and I used the time to do some catch-up. My situation is temporary, but it has taught me great respect for those who live a lifetime with a permanent disability.

While my streak ended, it paled compared to that of one Buckeye fan I interviewed last week. Buckeye Bob as he is known (wonder how many of those there are out there) also ended his streak this season when he missed the Southern Cal game. Course Bob's streak was a wee bit longer than mine....33 years without missing as opposed to my 3. Oh, and did I mention...Bob's streak included all games, both home and away!!! Imagine that. Imagine being at every game since '75, every single one for the last 33 years. Now there is a story.

And oh by the way, Bob has for sale a vintage and mint 1975 VW Bus, fully restored and decked out in Scarlet and Gray finest. Wouldn't it be great to find someone that could take it to the 'Shoe for the next 33 years? If interested let me know and I will put you in touch!

Beanie and I are a lot alike! I told Jenny that the other day and was rewarded with a hearty snort. Actually, she said, "Trust me dear, you're no where close to Beanie Wells, and you can quote me on that one." (So there, I have!)

It's true though. Two weeks ago, Beanie was rehabbing like crazy desperately wanting to shed his shackles and thinking he would see the field. Of course he didn't, and hasn't still. Two weeks ago today my cast was to come off, my pins pulled out, and like Beanie, I thought I would go like a house afire. Fat chance! My cast did come off, only to reveal a wrist and fingers locked up tighter than the Buckeye's game plan and straighter than Jim Tressel's sweater vest. Like Beanie, I have spent two weeks in therapy, where progress it seems is measured in movements the width of a pencil point. I made huge progress last Saturday when I passed a milestone. I could actually pick up a paper cup without excruciating pain. (Not without pain, just not the excruciating kind!)

I was back to see Doc today and the x-ray's showed "I was doing great!" (I wonder what lousy would feel like?) He is "95% sure" the mend is not going to fall apart. Translated that means more weeks in the soft cast and more visits to my highly capable therapist Joan. (How could such a nice lady delight in inflicting so much torture, and be so good at it?) But, I've hopefully dodged the second surgery he was worried about! As they say, no pain, no gain and if it moves this thing along, I am more than happy to submit to every thing Joan can throw at me now that the doctor has turned her loose. Good luck Beanie....I'll race you to the discharge...after all, as I said we're a lot alike.

When I came and told Jenny the good news, she shrugged and said, "We'll I guess you are like Beanie after all. You're both probable!"

I went to the 'Shoe with trepidation Saturday. Protected by the soft cast, I babied the hurting wrist in the crowd of 100,000. Avoided crowded turnstiles. Stayed out of jammed portals. Found an empty seat beside me. Waited for the aisles to clear after the game. With a great sigh of relief, I made it through the game and out of the stadium with nary a bump.

You can imagine then, the look of horror on my face, when, as I stood outside the Huntington club after the game, a gentleman turned to me, grabbed my bum hand, shook it, and said "How you doing!"

I would have punched him on the spot, but I didn't think the Lantern headline "Stories of the 'Shoe Author Assaults University President" would do my book sales any good!

Fortunately, Dr. E. Gordon Gee is a kind and gentle man. His soft and careful touch did not hurt me in the least, he meant no ill, and he can shake my hand any time. We had a nice chat about my injury and I took the opportunity to inquire about his daughter and send my best wishes. It made for a funny Story of the Shoe.

I was in the Stadium last week; unlike some fair weather fans who took the weekend off since it appears we are out of the BCS hunt. Apparently, there were quite a few of you in that category. People often complain to me how hard it is to get tickets. Yet Friday night, they still could have been purchased on the Ohio State Website. Saturday, it was not hard to find a vacant seat, and I was told by someone afterwords that they could have bought more than one ticket for $10 or $15 outside the stadium.

It's too bad you missed it. In the course of this project, I can't count the number of people who have fondly shared their remembrance of being at Archie's breakout debut. I have no doubt that thirty-five years from now...those of us that were there last Saturday...and that are still around...will be telling some old geezers the same thing, recounting the time we watched Terrelle Pryor throw a record setting 4 TD's in his first start in the 'Shoe.

It was history in the making and for a few bucks you could have seen it.

You may have noticed I have been quiet since Saturday's shellacking. Two reasons. One, I am into my hand therapy and very busy, and two, I have been wondering what to say.

The beat writers and talk show callers have done all the postmortems: Who to blame, What went wrong, What to change. The national writers have done their gloating. Myself, I've accepted that USC played a whole lot better than we did and moved on to the challenge of the rest of this season... a Big Ten Championship and Rose Bowl appearance. So beyond disappointment, what's left to say?

What's left came to me last night in an email about a different aftermath. My regular readers will remember my posts below in tribute to Fred, my 92-year-old Buckeye friend who served his country and proudly represents the Scarlet and Gray in the state of Texas. I was looking forward to seeing Fred in the 'Shoe this fall. That changed with the email I received last night from his son. Fred's house, and the homes of five of his children, were all damaged in Hurricane Ike. I am reprinting the email below to share the plight of Fred and the people of the Gulf Region.

It makes pining over the score of a football game seem rather trivial.

I would like to share with my readers this email, received last night from Mike Machol, son of Fred Machol:

Steve...Unfortunately, it looks as though my Dad & I won't be making it to an Ohio State game this fall. Dad's house had over a foot of seawater and sand from the storm surge of Hurricane Ike. Of course, Dad had evacuated to a hotel in Houston and he is okay. Prior to the storm hitting last week my sister from Hallsville (near Longview) had come down and packed all his important papers, valuables and most of his cherished mementos.

Other family members had similar damage to their homes including the following; one sister's home in Friendswood has a very large oak tree in the living room (right through the roof). My older brother's house in Galveston has flooding & who knows what else, my younger brother's house in Seabrook also had flooding and water damage and another sister's house in Kemah also had flooding. My house in Clear Lake City had some structural damage.

Mike Machol

Knowing that the Buckeye Nation is everywhere, perhaps some of you would have some Texas connections to a reputable contractor. If you have some information that might be helpful to Fred's family, or just want to send Fred a note of cheer, you may write him at the address below. If you prefer to email, send an email to me at sdavis@q1.net, and I will forward it to them.

Fred Machol
c/o Mike Machol
14323 Little Willow Walk
Houston, TX 77062

Looking for the headphones tonight. In my view, there is one fight song that is even more nauseating than "Hail to the Victors". That of course would be the USC fight song. Fortunately, I won't have to listen to it because I put in my headphones, and listen to Paul and Jim on the walkman. It is a little bit of a challenge as the two best play-by-play people in the business are two seconds ahead of the TV. But I have a system. I hold the walkman in one hand the entire game, thumb on the volume wheel. At the start of each play, I turn the radio down. As soon as the play stops, the volume goes back up, and I get the best play-by-play analysis there is. Next play I repeat it.

A little work, but a small price to pay not to have to listen to the idiots on TV, nor that damn fight song over and over and over! The things we Buckeyes do.

Woody left us many years ago but the arrogance of the West Coast Writers lives on. "Ohio State Deserves to Lose" was the title of one of the milder pieces of malarkey I have read from out there in the last 36 hours. I would give you the links but why add to their advertisers web clicks.

As I stood on the sidelines next to the Ozone's John Porentas last Saturday, midway through the 4th quarter he turned to me and said, "If we play like this we'll be blown out". I agreed with that then and agree with it now.

But we're not going to play like that. I don't believe it and in reading John this week neither does he. Think about it. We have a group with the talent and experience needed to win this thing, Beanie or no Beanie. They have had to eat, breath, and sleep all that has been written about them nationally since last January. They passed up first round draft picks and big bucks for this chance. They will be ready, Tress will be ready.

You heard it here. You will be proud of our guys come Saturday night. Heck, come to think of it, my flag will go up this morning, a day early. Might as well make the most of what will be a wonderful weekend.

Go Bucks

A family sent me a story about their son titled Healing Power of the 'Shoe. It's a good one and will be in the book. I learned Saturday though that the 'Shoe heals more ways than one.

Buckeye fan and friend Catie Swendal is an occupational therapist at the OSU Medical Center Dodd Hall Rehabilitation Hospital. At the game Saturday, she shared with me that the website of yours truly is visited regularly by the patients at Dodd Hall.

Catie uses keyboarding in her rehabilitation and physical therapy to restore dexterity, hand coordination, and retrain nerves and muscles. I was flattered to learn that she has chosen storiesoftheshoe.com as a destination and website that her patients use during their therapy sessions.

To all the good folks at Dodd Hall I say welcome! I am proud for this site to be a part of the healing process and wish each of you all the best. Keep up the good work and keep your chin up; with Catie and the Dodd staff you are in great hands. As I type this with my one left hand, I am reminded that in two days my own cast hopefully comes off my right wrist, the seven pins out, and then I too will be joining you in the hard work of therapy and rehabilitation. We'll get better together! Go Bucks!

He was standing in front of the Rotunda yesterday and obviously up in years. "Been coming here long?" I strolled up and asked. "First time", he replied. "I'm nearly 70 years old, one of 15 in my family, and I'm the only one that has ever gotten to come to an Ohio State game. My nephew got the ticket and I am supposed to meet him here. I just called him."

He didn't know where the seat would be, but told me it didn't matter. His first name was Lloyd and he eagerly game me his number. I agreed to call him this week to record his first time experience. As I left him, he was anxiously looking for his nephew, concerned I am sure that he would make it.

Later in the third quarter I was on the sideline when a twenty-something guy, sitting above me in the third or fourth row, started screaming "Put in Pryor, Put in Pryor". As I watched him loudly berate Coach Tressel, I thought "well dressed, third row, 35 yard line, I bet this guy has been to plenty of games." I also thought of Lloyd setting somewhere high in the Stadium, having waited seventy years for the privilege to be here. "It's a fair bet," I thought, "that Lloyd isn't sitting up there screaming Put in Pryor."

Two guys. One right on top of the action, the other likely in the nosebleed section. Which one do you think had the best time?

We're leaving tomorrow at 7. They way this thing hurts I wouldn't go, but I only get 4 field- photo passes this year, so have to take advantage of them when offered. Plus I have a date with a 92 year old grandma who will be watching two grandsons play opposite each other tomorrow. Imagine her thrill! Maybe I can do her story justice.

With one arm it is a challenge to carry tape recorder, address book, business cards, pencil, a spare battery, camera and of course pain medication...all of which have to be accessible from the left side because my right pockets are worthless! I have a system, we shall see how it works.

It was a real joy Saturday to see again many of you who I have come to know and treasure through this project. Ordinary Fans, Stadium Workers, Football Moms, Bandsmen and Bandswomen, Ushers...the list goes on and on. You all are wonderful. Of course, everyone asked, "How's the book?"

The answer is the book is coming great. Obviously, I did not meet my target of bringing it out for this season. Last winter, the gates suddenly opened to many really unique and important story opportunities and I saw the opportunity to improve on what I already had. I made a conscious decision to pursue that with my available time and do this book better rather than do it rushed. A couple of years ago I thought I would be retired from my day job before now. Like many of you, I am not, so I am still at this project which I thought would be done by now.

When the OSU book field became quite crowded this summer...Coach T, Ken Gordon, Jack Park, Bob Hunter, John Porentas, to name a few...I didn't regret my decision to take another six months. This was especially true when my broken arm put me out of commission for more than six weeks.

I do have a book now and am making steady progress. I hired three wonderful ladies to transcribe the nearly 200 recorded interviews I have done with many of you, and they spent the entire summer working on these. It was a huge leap forward. I am now arranging, editing, and compiling both the transcripts and all the additional web material people have submitted, doing the heavy lifting of sweating each word to transform just a collection of words into a cohesive and worthwhile literary work. It will be ready for next years selling season.

I can always find room to work in another good story. If you have something, continue to submit it, but don't delay...the bar grows higher and the window shorter with each passing day

Thanks to all of you who have believed in and patiently supported this project. I am confident in what is coming together and I look forward to the day you and the marketplace will ultimately judge the success of my work.

For those of you new, I did a post last year titled Trolling for Stories. It is way down below, or click the link to read a sense of what this project is about. If you have already read it, this year's version would be very short and better titled "Fishing with Bobbers". Last year I was full of vim and vinegar and able to be all over the place; this year with a throbbing arm and a bone in eight pieces, I was lucky just to be there. Therefore, like the wise old fisherman who knows where the lunkers are, I staked out the prime spots and dangled my bait, waiting for the big ones to come by.

On the way in, I walked thru the Fawcett Center lot. I found it has the most willing storytellers. I was rewarded again Saturday when I met some new ones. Next, I sat outside St. John Arena at the moment the alumni band exited. From there it was off to the stadium press box where two of the writers agreed to let me turn the tables and call to interview them. On the way, I introduced myself to a proud football mom whose son was playing his first game in the 'Shoe. Then it was down to the sidelines where I checked off two more must haves. After trying for a year, I finally connected with the group of students who sign the national anthem. Lastly, as the alumni band came off the field I got the phone number of a fellow who had twirled in the 40's and was still out there cutting up a shine!

It was a good day's catch.

First report from this weekend....As I headed to the Cheerleaders Alumni Society banquet Friday night I didn't know if this arm would make it thru the weekend. Doc said I could go but to be honest, it had hurt all day, and had I not needed desperately to be there for this book and all the alumni bandsmen and cheerleaders coming back, I would have stayed home. Jenny graciously took off work to drive me, so with my arm riding on three pillows, and two vials of pain pills, we headed to the Longaberger House.

I made it through the two-hour cheerleader banquet and met some tremendous story contacts. (Thank you Torre Claus for inviting me as your guest!) But by the time I finished the alumni band social at 10:15 P.M., the arm felt like someone had put a stuck a bunch of knives in a blood pressure cuff, and then pumped it up on my arm. I don't like taking the heavy duty pain medication, but that night I took the maximum label dose!

Saturday dawned beautiful but as we approached the stadium, my rebellious limb was already throbbing. Would it hold up? After making the parking lot rounds, I picked up my pass and hit the sidelines just as the alumni band, more than 600 strong, made their ramp entrance. From ten feet away, I watched in awe as men and women, some in their seventies and eighties, marched with grit and determination to stay in lockstep and make crisp turns. Their appearance is truly one of the marvelous moments at the start of every season!

As I stood and watched, an amazing thing happened. By the time they were into Carmen Ohio, the pain was gone, the arm was quiet. I made it through the game with nary a problem. Today it is back to hurting again, but then, for three magical hours, it was sheer bliss! Was it the drugs? Medical science would say so. Me, I think it was just one more example of the magic of the 'Shoe.

It's a "remember where I was day". Some things from your childhood stick with you as you go through life, and this is one of them. Tonight, as America nominates the first African-American for President, I will think back to the moment.

Forty-five years ago today I was 12 years old and I remember our family sitting in the kitchen. It was dinnertime. My mother made sure the TV was on, and that we watched Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. Though I was just 12 at the time, with little inkling how many times I would hear those words in years to come, I can to this day see that TV, hear the power of Dr. Kings voice around our kitchen table and remember how my mother was moved by Dr. King's message.

One of my good Buckeye friends remembers that day as well. Last summer I traveled to Washington D.C. to interview this man, and as we walked together across the Georgetown Bridge, he pointed towards the site of Dr. King's speech. "That's where I decided to make something of myself," he said. "I was a young man," he explained, "and I saw all these people going somewhere. I didn't know where, but I thought since they were all going, I too should go see what was up and where they were headed". When he got there, the 'where they were going' was the Lincoln Memorial, and the 'what was up' was Dr. King's Speech.

"I listened to that speech and then and there decided that I was going to do something with my life", my friend said. He has. Part of that something was to come to Columbus and star in the Horseshoe, which you will read about in the book. But this Story of the 'Shoe will be not only what my friend did while he was on the field, but also about the work he is doing now, paying forward to the very ideals Dr. King preached those 45 years ago this day. The good Dr. King, and my friend's old coach, would be most proud of the man he is and the life he is now living. Who is this Buckeye? I'll give you a hint; his number was a lucky one. If you can't figure this one out, bone up on your Ohio State History, or wait for my book...it'll all be in there.

Back to the doctor yesterday. Good news and bad news. The good news is he okayed me to go to Saturday's game as long as I wear my sling. The bad news is the arm is healing slowly and I am relegated back to the couch to rest it two more weeks, with talk now of a possible bone graft. He dashed my hopes of soon getting back to work full time. And my long planned and eagerly awaited fishing trip to Canada next week is for sure canceled.

On the bright side, I can still run my tape recorder one-handed. Jenny has agreed to drive me to the game and Curt and Amber have offered up their couch in Westerville since I can't sleep in a bed. My schedule is the Cheerleaders Alumni banquet at seven on Friday night, followed by the Alumni Band social after their practice. I look forward to seeing many friends that I have made. Look for me on the sidelines and around the stadium Saturday. I will be probably the only guy in a blue sling. I know...that's sacrilegious, but it is the only color the doctor had! Go Bucks!

Its three weeks tonight since the bike crash shattered my wrist. I have been, and still am, confined mostly to the couch. The cast is still there, as are the seven (now infected) metal pins that stick out of the right arm within it. What can I do with it, the rogue arm? Absolutely nothing. The wrist is that immobilized. Without it, however, there's lots I can't do. I can't pick up a pencil. I can't cut my food. Heck, I can't even zip my fly! (Well it's true and Jenny's dang tired of that.) Doc says 3 more weeks in this cast.

Tonight's open practice is the first event in the 'Shoe that I have missed in 2 years. I had resigned myself to the fact that I just couldn't go. I'm a tough guy, but it hurts too much to jostle it around. It was easily rationalized. "With no cameras and no autographs, the crowd won't be that big," I told myself. No big deal. But as I clumsily peck away tonight with my left hand, it is a big deal, and damn I miss it.

I miss the atmosphere, the aura, and the storytellers yet to be met. Even harder is missing this time with two good hands to type. I had timed this summer to be cranking away on my writing right now and this book is bottled up inside me, burning to jump onto the pages, stories straining to be told. "Count your blessings dummy", I try to tell myself, "It could have been much worse". It sure could have. But that doesn't keep me from thinking of those of you in the Horseshoe tonight, and wishing I too were there, and I could move a little faster on this project right now.

I was at the birth of Buckeye Dreams: The Tyler 'Tank' Whaley Story, published recently by Ken Gordon.

It was Senior Week 2007, and one gloomy November, after practice the media was given unfettered access to the seniors. I was in the Woody Hayes Center as reporters swarmed soothsayer Kirk Barton and down-home-boy Tyler Whaley. My agenda was different. They wanted to hear about wins and losses, X's and O's, and what the stars had to say, I wanted to know about Ohio Stadium and the emotions of a senior playing his last game there.

I stayed on the periphery and interviewed the David Lisko's and other seniors who had labored and toiled just as hard but with not nearly as much fame nor field time. Many were glad to be interviewed; some perplexed as to why I wanted to talk to them.

As daylight waned, the reporters begin drifting away. I found myself alone in a room with Dispatch reporter Ken Gordon interviewing Tyler Whaley. Ken was gracious as I thrust my microphone into their space. Tyler was talking about coming to Ohio State as a walk-on, and what it meant to have arrived as a Buckeye. As I listened, I thought, "Wow, here is a story!" When Ken asked Tyler if he could follow-up over the holidays, Tyler gave his parents phone number. Not being stupid, I recorded that too. After Ken finished, it was getting late but Tyler patiently stayed and answered all of my questions about what it meant to him personally to play in the Horseshoe and walk in those big shoes.

The following Saturday, Senior Day in the stadium, I took some very nice pictures of Dave and Tami as Tyler's parents greeted him when he ran out of the tunnel the last time. I mailed them the pictures and then called Tyler's mother Tami. I was looking for a "football mom" story for my book and she was the perfect and willing storyteller.

Over the course of December, we talked on the phone for several hours about Tyler, his growing up, their family, recruiting and his passion to overcome adversity and be a Buckeye. Tami talked about his faith and the moral compass Coach Tressel provided him and the unbelievable experience of playing in Ohio Stadium. She was so proud that the Tyler they had sent to Ohio State five years earlier still had the values that they had instilled in him as a child and was graduating with a 3.2 GPA

We talked more than once, and developed a nice friendship. When the Buckeyes went to New Orleans, Dave graciously invited me to the private party the Football parents group hosted. I sat in a restaurant in New Orleans with the player's families, eating crayfish with Tami and Dave, and meeting grandmas and grandpas and aunts and cousins. They were down to earth people. It was a blessing for my recorder and a treat for me. When Tyler arrived, I recorded a neat story that I will tell in my book. I came away from the experience with admiration for Tyler and his family, and some great material.

I wasn't the only person who saw a story in Tyler Whaley. In December, Ken Gordon ran a nice piece in the Columbus Dispatch about Tyler and his family at their holiday dinner. He quoted Tyler's former coaches and friends as he followed Tyler around Ironton. I thought again what an amazing story.

So did Ken. In April of this year, Dave called me asking for some of my pictures "for Tyler's book". "Book?" I asked. Dave responded, "Yea, did you hear Ken Gordon's doing a book about Tyler?" "Dang", was my first reaction. "Scooped again; there go my stories!" That lasted about 5 seconds. Then I remembered the words a friend had uttered to me when I previously bemoaned another new OSU book. "There's room", he simply said.

There is. My book is about the stadium on a grand scale, and the people and moments that have made it grand. Tyler is but one of those, and the few stories I use will be a slice, in my own words, of his and his parent's moment in time. In contrast, Ken's book is an in-depth look at Tyler in a way that I do not have room. I quickly saw the synergism of the two and was happy for Tyler and his family. The plain truth is ten people could tell this same tale and you would not tire of it. It's that good.

Tyler Whaley is an amazing kid and the chapters of his life tell a wonderful story. Buckeye Dreams pays homage to that as Ken Gordon chronicles his rise from the sandlots of Ironton to the biggest stage in college football. Along the way, you will be entertained, enlightened and inspired as you come to know and admire the little kid that could and the family that raised him to do it. What Buckeye could not be proud of this tale and thrilled it is being told? Go. Get a copy. It's a great read. Enjoy it while you are waiting on me to finish Stories of the Shoe. While you are at it, look for my picture of Tyler on page 107, the one I took that says "I've Arrived". I gladly shared it with Ken and his publisher to use in the book.

It's available at: Barnes & Noble

At $11.65 it's a bargain!

Last night at the end of media day, most of the crowd was at midfield, where the writers surrounded Terrelle Pryor or Coach T. I looked to the south stands and there was James Laurinaitis, about the 20-yard line, all by himself. I headed down. About the time I got there a small child walked up with a football. James obviously enjoyed signing it. When he was done I asked, "Got a minute?" "Sure", he replied. It was just him, the recorder, and me. There we stood in the 'Shoe.

He talked about what it meant to be a Buckeye, to play in the Horseshoe... why he came there, why he came back... paying forward, paying back... his faith and more. The recorder running, I listened spellbound as Jenny snapped pictures. You may have heard James on television, but to be in his presence is just an amazing thing. Polite. Articulate. Kind. Honest. Intelligent. Religious. Grateful. Humble. Intense. Gentile. Genuine. Jenny was mesmerized and later agreed that all these words described the James Laurinaitis we had listened to.

I had him to myself for maybe 8 minutes, but eventually the other writers saw I had him cornered. Soon there was one, two, and then a dozen or more microphones joining mine. He went on another 10 or 15 minutes until everyone's questions were satisfied.

I am not one to wear a numbered jersey to a game. That's not me. But if I did the number would be 33. Anyone who knows him cannot but help be proud of James Laurinaitis the person, proud that he is one of ours, and proud of the way he represents The Ohio State Buckeyes.

I have spent the 10 days since surgery on my couch. Days are spent sitting with my arm propped on three pillows, nights I sleep there with it wedged on my chest so swelling stays down and I don't roll on it. Progress is s-l-o-w! Doc said I couldn't drive or go to work, but he never said I couldn't ride. So yesterday evening, with Jenny kindly offering to drive me to Columbus, and with my arm riding on 3 pillows, we made the 4 hour round trip to media day in the 'Shoe. It was great to get out and even better to be part of the festivities in the Horseshoe.

Media day is team picture day and the only time the writers are allowed unrestricted access to all the players and coaches. Mix in player's parents and families and it is a gold mine of memories of Ohio Stadium. It is held on the field, in the stadium. I made the most of it, coming away with 10 recorded interviews and several other contacts. I thought the OSU Gods were shining on me when I got eight minutes one on one alone with James Laurinaitis. Then, just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did. While about 25 writers mobbed Coach Tressel, I found Ellen Tressel patiently waiting by herself off to the side. I walked up to her and said, "They all want to talk to him, but you're the one I want to interview". She was most gracious when I asked if it was okay to turn on the recorder and enthusiastically shared some thoughts about the Horseshoe and it's meaning to the Tressel family. The high from those two interviews carried me all the way through the painful ride home

Left-handed...one handed...wrong handed... is an awful slow way to type. That's what I am reduced to right now. If my blog pen is a little quiet the next few weeks, you will know why.

Monday evening I wrecked my bicycle, which resulted in surgery to put 6 pins in my fractured right arm. I have spent the days since then on the couch, alternating between ice bags and Vicadin. I would love to say it happened ripping a mountain bike at warp speed down Mt. Everest. Truth is, it was just a freakish thing on a leisurely ride on flat pavement in our quiet neighborhood. I was cruising along when the front wheel caught an edge in the pavement. In an eye blink, it had turned 90 degrees and I went flying over the bike, landing on my wrist, shoulder, and the side of my face. Nasty as it was, I was lucky it wasn't a whole lot worse.

It is going to be a while before I am back to my on-the-go self! With the starting of fall practice, I had big plans to hit the book hard. This is definitely going to slow me down a bit for the next month; please bear with me. The pain I can tolerate, but the loss of time and delay is discouraging.

"...here, surrounded by the swirl of humanity in the heart of downtown in the Windy City, just beyond the shadow of the Sears Tower and a short walk from Navy Pier or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, you can't elude the aura of Ohio State football. 'It is all around you, and it is everywhere,' Buckeyes linebacker James Laurinaitis said yesterday..."

So writes Matt Markey in today's Toledo Blade, one of the better articles I have seen describing the aura of Ohio State Football and the coming season. Read it at:

The Toledo Blade

It's everywhere. Would it be everywhere if Thomas French hadn't had a vision for the biggest concrete stadium west of the Alleghenies....if Howard Dwight Smith hadn't designed a Horseshoe where everyone could see and that would stand for 86 years? Would it be everywhere if Bill Knepper and Elvin Donaldson hadn't developed the ramp entrance, if Eugene Weigel hadn't perfected Script Ohio? What if Paul Brown would have stayed at Massillon, or Woody in Oxford, instead of coming to the 'Shoe. Would everywhere be nowhere if Woody Hayes and Ohio Stadium hadn't given opportunities to African American athletes in the early 50's, when other colleges wouldn't do that?

Yes, it is everywhere, and I am having fun chronicling the role Ohio Stadium has played making our Buckeyes the everywhere phenomenon.

It's a sad evening at this household, as it is for Buckeye's everywhere, with the passing today of Dr. Gee's Son-in-Law. The loss of Dr. Alan Moore, so talented, with so much yet to give for the betterment of humanity, leaves a huge hole in all our hearts, and reminds Ohio Staters everywhere that life is so very fragile. Sometime this fall, someone near you in the 'Shoe will loudly degrade a player for a pass he drops, or a coach for a play they call. When they do, think back to this day and remind yourself what really matters.

In his speeches, President Gee loves to say, "The sun never sets on The Ohio State University." Normally that is true, but tonight is an exception and darkness has come to Buckeyes around the globe. The sun will rise Scarlet again in the morning, but tonight there will first be Gray and then the darkness.

Peace be with Gordon and Rebekah Gee.

Ever look yourself in the mirror and wonder how someone so stupid managed to get through grammar school, let alone beyond? It's one of those days. I never heard from Brian Williams about his day in the 'Shoe. His executive assistant had corresponded that he would try to follow up. Of course, he was off to Afghanistan right after he spoke, and then Tim Russert tragically passed away. So I understood when I didn't. Last night I thought, maybe now that things slowed down, I should send another gentle email and see if he might still respond. So I crafted a carefully worded message stating I understood his busy situation and had no expectations, but if by chance he had any thoughts I would still welcome them. Proud of my prose, I hit the send button.

I have been getting home late from work lately. Normally I see the NBC evening news most evenings, but this week I have missed it. I thought tonight "Good, I get to see the news." As we sat down to eat, I flipped it on, and there was Brian, reporting live from Berlin with the Obama trip. Sometimes my timing just plain stinks.

One last story from the book signing. As I stood in Barnes and Noble at the Gateway last Wednesday evening, the folks in line were over at least number 400. In the middle of the line, standing there patiently, like anyone else, was my friend Dr. Donald Steinberg. If you are versed in Buckeye History, you know Dr Steinberg played on the '42 National Championship Team. If you are versed in medicine, you know he was a highly successful surgeon. And if you are versed in Buckeye Literature, you know he wrote "Expanding Your Horizons- College Football's Greatest Team", the fascinating story of his team and teammates, and the book that Coach Tressel had the 2002 National Champions read before their winning season.

If you know the above, you also know that Coach Tressel is extremely close to that group of guys. They were his Dad's generation. I am pretty sure Don Steinberg is on Coach's speed dial, or at the very least could probably get as many books as he wanted signed by Coach, any time, any place. But there he was, in a line of 400 like everyone else. If you have read the stories of his teammates and his generation, and if you have interviewed Dr. Steinberg, as I have, it comes as no surprise that he stood in line and waited his turn.

As I left the South Gateway parking garage last week after Coach T's book signing, I passed a parked window van squatting low in the back end. The headlights were aiming towards the sky and it was filled floor to ceiling with white boxes. When I noticed the Illinois plates in the corner of my eye, I hit the brakes and backed up. Tyndale House Publishers is in Illinois! Sure enough. I peeked in the van from my drivers window and on the side of the boxes was stamped "Winners Manual".

Four boxes across I would guess, each stacked four columns high to the ceiling, and probably four or five rows of that. Maybe 50 books in each box? $25 a book. You do the math. I quickly looked around for the men with the machine guns, hoping they weren't trigger happy about this guy backing his vehicle up to the van! Seeing none, I shook my head in amazement and headed on my way. The next day I would read in the paper the rest of the story, how they ran out of books at the morning signings, and had another dispatched a truck that very day. Apparently, it had arrived without being hijacked!

One leftover from the book signing. It hadn't really dawned on me that Coach T was left-handed until I saw him signing all those J Tressel's. When I got home, I mentioned that to Jenny, a southpaw too who I often razz about being a "wrong handed" person, that Coach was left-handed. She simply smiled and replied "All the great ones are. Coach, Barack Obama, me ..."

Touché

Have you ever thought about signing your name 4000 times in one day?

I was at the book-signing event at the campus bookstore Wednesday night and I figure that's what Coach might have done during his marathon day for the Campus Library. I haven't seen any official numbers, but my mental math says the figure might approach that. The line I was in had wristband numbers up to at least 500 and was still going when I left. Most people had the 3-book maximum and some went around twice. Reports I heard from several sources indicated the two earlier signings were similarly swamped. Don't know if it is true, but I was told several times that all of the first day sales, not just Coach T's percentage, went to the library. If so, you do the rough math..... 500 x 3 x 3 x $25 each. What a wonderful gesture.

I was struck by several things...including the potpourri of fans. Young old, near, far, modest means and swankly dressed. Some were robust, others need help in walking through the line. I talked to people in their 70's and 80's whose spouse or children had sent them down at 6 AM to pick up wristbands. It was orderly, festive, and fun. Through it all Coach never stopped signing, and yet found a way personally chat with each fan; often it was a humorous comment or funny joke. As I stood in the shadows and marveled at his quick wit and the ease that he connected with people, I thought of the picture the national media often paints of him as the bland guy in the sweater vest. How little they know. Maybe this book will change that. We already know it is going to build a whole lot of library.

"If the game of life were to end tonight, would you be a winner?"

So begins the prologue of The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life, which hits the bookstores tomorrow.

I had no more than posted my "Expectations" piece last night when I had a chance to read Chapter One of Coach Tressel's new book. (I would claim connections, but truth is I found it on the publishers website just like you could have.) In Chapter One, "The Journey of Success", Coach writes it much better than I did:

"A win or a loss does not make you or me a better or worse human being. This is
where, in our society, we've so easily lost perspective on the truth about who we are. We have to separate who we are from what we do...

...Success is an everyday proposition. It isn't defined by a championship game or the day you get your diploma, get drafted by an NFL team, make the big sale, land the account of a lifetime, or get your law degree. Don't get me wrong, those are great days, and we should celebrate those accomplishments. But the key to a successful life is in the journey and the process. It's that emphasis on the journey to success that we work on each day, step by step...."

It didn't take me long to become engrossed in and devour Chapter One. Its clear. The Winners Manual is a winner. Don't expect X's and O's; rather this is a chance to learn about life from one who has mastered it. A rare opportunity, it as close as you will ever come to getting inside the head of a very public man and very private person.

I will be heading to the bookstore tomorrow to pick one up. Will you? The proceeds go to the William Oxley Thompson Library Renovation Fund. Would you expect anything less from a man who is a winner in the game of life?

Well it's officially there. The big red bulls-eye on the back of our Buckeyes.

As I write this, the evening sun streams in my west facing office window and directly into my eyes. I only get that for a brief period in the summer when the sun is far into the northern sky. Much to my chagrin we have passed the summer solstice, the days are getting shorter already, and the sun is making a slow drift south as each evening it paints a brilliant sky. An outdoors guy, I dread this point in the summer, knowing that the days are getting shorter and my summer to do list is not shrinking nearly fast enough. As we all know though, the saving grace of giving up an endless summer, of facing autumn (and the not far behind winter), is the arrival of Buckeye football. It won't be long till the pop of the pads punctuates the coming chill in the air.

It's a ritual a hundred and nine years old. (Did leather pads pop?). In modern times, another ritual precedes it, that of the pundit's preseason predictions. As is expected, in several of them the Buckeyes are among the top of the heap. "Expectations are high in Columbus...," they write.

I wish they wouldn't use that word. At this keyboard, hope is high. Anticipation is high. Excitement is high. But expectations? Nay. Expectations and entitled both begin with e and in today's "e-world", nothing less than a BCS national championship seems to matter. I want to get back to the National Championship so bad I can taste it. I want to put a hurt on the SEC to shut them up. I want to quiet the critics in the national media who know not of what they write.

But expect it? Entitled to it? I played enough football in my days to know all it takes is a slip on a wet field, a crosswind as the kick goes up, a ball bouncing left instead of right, an inch here or a hand there.....and the season slips away. The only expectation we are entitled to is that Coach Tressel and the Buckeyes will still be in the hunt when the Wolverines come to town, and that they will give us their best and then some. I am confident by that measure that we will again be a winner. Anything beyond is the joy of the journey. Enjoy the coming trip and I hope to see you in Miami.

Today is a day that we as a nation count our blessings. One of my blessings is the literally hundreds of people I have had the privilege to meet in the course of this project. If I never sell the first book, or clear a dime (highly likely), I will still be a rich man for having come to know, and developed friendships with, the nicest group of Buckeyes you could ever imagine. July 4th seems a good day to share with you some uplifting correspondence I received from one of them.

If you follow this space, you have read "The Hat" stories below and the follow-up D-day post "Tribute to Fred". A couple of weeks ago, I received an email in response to these posts. I am sharing it with you today, with the permission of the sender:

I want to express my thanks for the wonderful articles you wrote about the "man in the hat". The gentleman you mentioned in the "hat" is none other than my Dad Fred. Dad just turned 92 (your math was correct!) On June 12th, Father's Day, he threw a big party a his home in Seabrook, TX. When I got to Dad's house there was a huge block "O" on the front of his house! Since Mom passed away some six years ago there seems to be a new style of interior decorating - scarlet and gray and anything Ohio State.

Fred's Son Mike

Who is Fred? What is Mike's last name? All that and more will be in the book of course, and if I told you now, you wouldn't need to read it would you. Stay tuned for more details. As for today, count the blessings that your nation, and people like Fred, have given you.

Unbelievable. Did you see it tonight? History made that is. The lowest NCAA seed ever to win a national championship in any sport. The kids with dangling fingers. The fingers missing ligaments, fingers dislocated, fingers that made defensive play after defensive play. The team that was down by 5 runs and dangling by a twig over elimination cliff just 24 hours ago. The third baseman that gobbled up everything hit to him, and the right fielder that had the best night hitting in the college world series ever.

If you didn't, you missed it. Maybe you were like half of the country, who instead watched some overpaid pros who won't bunt, who won't slide lest they scratch their expensive bling. I'll never understand why college baseball gets such short shrift. But if you are a baseball fan, and you saw it, you know how special it was. Congratulations Fresno State!

Tomorrow night Fresno State plays for all the marbles in the College World Series. It's the equivalent of a #13 seed making it to the final four!! If you haven't been watching this, you are missing some of the best sports on TV outside of Buckeye football. To me, it's more exciting than the pros. These kids can make plays! I know to many it is the final four, but me, give me the College World Series any day.

I was fortunate to have gone there a few years ago. It is the friendliest atmosphere you could ever experience....and the city of Omaha does a fantastic job. Many of the fans are there just because they like baseball rather than following any one team, and there is more camaraderie, more respect for the game, and less smack from the stands. One of my dreams is that the Buckeyes make it there before I get too old to go.

Tomorrow night I will be rooting for Fresno State, the Underdogs Bulldogs, to pull off the unthinkable. What does this have to do with Buckeye football. With Fresno State and Georgia it will be the WAC versus the SEC. Need I say more?

It's been a week since graduation day, but there's one more recollection that I didn't get posted. It's official, as far as I'm concerned. Brian Williams is a Buckeye. He earned his Scarlett and Gray stripes, witnessed by thousands in a brutally hot, sultry Ohio Stadium, when he began his commencement address with a big O-H, and these exact words:

"I'll be brief here today, because I know how hot it is out there, but at least I don't have to speak slowly and measure out every syllable, and explain everything as I go along, like you have to do up in Ann Arbor."

It brought the house down.

What a tumultuous week Brian had. Sunday, speaking in the 'Shoe. Tuesday, reporting live from Afghanistan. And since Friday, trying to cope with the tragic death of his friend Tim Russert. He is a busy guy, but when I emailed NBC news before commencement, Brian kindly replied to me through his executive assistant that he would try to send a note with his impressions of graduation after his day in the Horseshoe. That all seems so long ago now, and with all that has transpired, it will be understandable if that gets overlooked in his profound loss and the grieving process. If I do get something down the road, I will share it with you in the book. For now my thoughts are with the adopted Buckeye.

Sadly, we lost one of the good guys today. I spent the evening listening to tributes to my favorite television commentator Tim Russert. In the age of in your face commentary, to me Tim always stood above that as civil, fair, decent and genuinely interested in the collective good of our society. Measured by his intellect, rather than how much he shouted, he was a giant, the model of what journalism used to be, rather than what it has, in too many cases, become. We need more Tim's.

You may wonder what that has to do with this blog. For me, there is a personal connection. Tim Russert was in part inspiration for this project. At the time I was pondering my idea, I picked up Tim's second book, Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons. In that book I read the collection of letters in which people shared their memories of their fathers...heartfelt tales of good times, funny times, sad times, tales of admiration, gratitude, and even tales of regret. As I read that book, and it's crafting, I saw in it my vision for what I was contemplating for this project. "This can work", I thought, the encouragement I needed at the time to develop this idea and take it on. Thanks Tim. When our time is called, we all should aspire to have lived our life as meaningfully and as decently as you did.

It was brutal today, but I, like thousands of other proud parents and grandparents, braved the heat to be in Ohio Stadium . I have been to many big football wins in the 'Shoe, but none can compare to emotion unleashed just outside that stadium when the new graduates first meet their proud parents and grandparents diploma in hand. For many it's the highest of high. Graduations run many emotions.....in and around the 'Shoe today I heard graduation stories that could be described as inspiring, historic, bittersweet, and some even sad.

For all of you who I gave my business card to today, and anyone else, please consider sending me your personal graduation story. What better opportunity, to honor for posterity, a son, daughter, niece or nephew. For the graduates, what better way to honor Mom, Dad, Grandpa or Grandpa, or anyone who sacrificed so that you might say you are a graduate of The Ohio State University. What better way to honor someone who cold not be there with you today in the flesh, but certainly was there in spirit? Email or call and if need be, I will help you with the details of how to tell your story.

Go Bucks!

If last night was any indication, perhaps a tradition was born. I, along with 300-500 parents and graduates were on the oval for the candle lighting ceremony. It was a simple but moving event. We heard from Dr. Gee, Archie and a student chosen to give the 2008 class address. We saw video highlights of the class's four years. Then, with the sounds of Orton Chimes in the background and the Oval lights dimmed, Dr. Gee and Archie each lit a candle, and the flame passed person to person until the entire 500 or so candles bathed the Oval in a soft warm glow. With that, the Glee Club led the group in the singing of Carmen Ohio.

I am off for the first ever candlelight ceremony tonight on the the Oval and will be in the stadium for commencement tomorrow. Look for the guy short bald guy with the white shirt and the Story of the Shoe lanyard!

As I was driving to Columbus this morning, the radio announcer mentioned that today, June 6th, was the 64th anniversary of D-Day. D-Day may not have the meaning to the younger generation that it does to someone like me, who can remember as a child sitting in a drive-in theater with my parents and watching on the big screen the first run of the movie The Longest Day. It should.

When the announcer mentioned it this morning, I thought of Fred. Who is Fred? One of my storytellers of course, who you will meet more fully and properly in the book. I have been privileged to meet the most remarkable Buckeyes over the course of this journey. Fred is one of them. Like many of his generation that I have talked to, Fred's story of the stadium and his years at OSU are intertwined and inseparable with World War II. Sixty-four plus years ago, Fred was in military intelligence and one of the men in the room when General Eisenhower and others planned D-Day, the invasion of Normandy. At the time, it was the largest navel invasion in the history of mankind. Who knows what our lives would be like today had it failed?

Fred, to you and all the others of your generation, we remember and on this day give thanks to all who had a part in it.

Blow the whistle. Time out is over. I'm back.

The wedding was wonderful! Newlyweds Curt and Amber have been to Jamaica and are back and settled in Columbus. The flowers are all planted, weeds pulled, and mulch spread. It is time to get back to work, and that I have, picking up several stories today at a very hot and muggy graduation rehearsal in Ohio Stadium.

It is not often I will use this space to praise a Wolverine. Today I will. My friend, professional colleague, and U of M graduate John Crumrine is retiring today.

I have known John for 30 years, give or take. A forester by training, John has been a talented conservationist and dedicated his life to public service. He retired a few years back from our agency, USDA - NRCS. That didn't last and he came back to work for the National Center for Water Quality at Heidelberg College. Today John leaves that post, this time he says it's for good. He will be missed. In a time when our land is being pressured to produce more food and more fuel, we need a lot more people like John.

John was one of those guys who came early, stayed late, took the high road, and just plugged away and did his job. His work with the land touched thousands of people. The soils of Seneca County, the trees of Northwest Ohio, and the water in Lake Erie will forever be better because of his work. They don't make them like John any more. Part scientist, part teacher, he was a gifted communicator who could take a complex issue and boil it down to something practical that the person on the street could easily understand. John would say it was because of his Michigan degree; of course I would joke that it is in spite of it.

For 364 days a year John and I are the best of friends. On the 365th, that 3rd Saturday in November, under the cold gray skies, well John and I agree to disagree. Even though he is a Wolverine, John graciously contributed his very own Story of the Shoe that will be in my book. You would like John, and when you read the book, I know you will like his story. It's a good one.

All the best to John and Susan.

You may have noticed my update pen has been quiet lately. Two reasons. Football news is slow and I've been busy.

The Davis household had a wedding and to get things ready I had a pretty long "honey do" list. On May 10th our youngest son Curt (the Architect of this website) and Amber Recker were married in a beautiful ceremony on a gorgeous sunny day. Jenny and I are thrilled we have gained another daughter and wish Curt and Amber all the best. The newlyweds will be residing in Columbus and Amber will be starting a new job as a cardiac care nurse at the OSU Roth Heart Hospital.

The second reason I have been busy is this is the planting season at the Davis ranch. Each spring my goal (much to the chagrin of Jenny and the neighbors) is to cram as many blooming plants...annuals, perennials, grasses, and bulbs....as I can on my half acre of paradise. The weather has not been cooperating, but I am about done....there are only about 8 flats and 12 gallon pots on the front porch yet to be planted. (I know, it's a sickness but what can I say? Some people play golf. Me, I grow things.) Of course, the Buckeye Bed is planted just outside our kitchen window, and come September, the mix of scarlet Impatiens and Gray Dusty Miller will be in its prime, just in time for opening day.

I will be back in the saddle tomorrow night though, as I am going to have dinner with Coach Tressel and hear him speak at the fund raiser for the Wilson Football Museum in Ada Ohio. Should be a great time. Report to follow.

If you haven't read the "Hat post" below, scroll down and read that first. In that post I wrote about my new acquaintance, who I shall simply call The Man in the Hat for now. My friend is back home in Texas and I called him one night this week. It ended up being a two-hour phone call. He talked and I listened. In between Buckeye stories, I got the most fascinating history lesson hearing his experiences in WWII.

When you come all the way from Texas, you make the most of your time in the 'Shoe. He told me that he and his daughter were among the last ones out of the Stadium. (Long story there) In any case, when they tried to leave from the Southeast corner by the team locker room, they found the gates already closed and locked. Of course, who should appear, and unlock the gates to let them out? It was none other than Coach Tressel and his wife Ellen.

As Coach was unlocking the gates, my friend said he cracked, "I see you're closing the place down". Coach laughed. Then my friend added, "I suppose your going to do the laundry as well!"

To which Ellen responded, "Oh gosh, please don't suggest that. He'd do that too!"

Some days it amazes me the breaks I get.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember that I already used this title in a post below. Last fall I told the story of getting so close to Dr Gee several times, but always coming up short. Finally one day I ambushed him in the press box. In the best tradition of the paparazzi, I thrust my recorder in front of him (an act of which I am not proud), and he graciously gave me some remarks for the book.

I have recorded more than 200 interviews over the course of the last year and a half. For most, I have even used two recorders. Each night after every home game, I diligently and carefully transferred the digital files from the recorder to my computer and then backed them up on a second hard drive. Somehow, in this process, I lost three files out of the 300 to 400 files I had. Guess who one of the three was! Of course, it was Dr Gee. Of course, it was one done with a single recorder and of course, it was as the song says, "gone, gone, gone!"

Or so I thought. Saturday in the 'Shoe I was talking to the man with the hat (see post below) when he said to me, "there is Dr. Gee". I turned and "there" was six inches from my elbow standing right next to me! I introduced myself, put my arm around Dr. Gee's shoulder, fessed up to being a real klutz, and said "We're gonna do this again!" Before he knew what hit him, he found a recorder in front of him and once again, he kindly obliged with some words of wisdom.

Thank you Dr Gee! (Oh, and this time I have it safely tucked away on four different drives, one of which is off-site and another that will be going in the bank vault real soon!

His hat caught my eye, but it was his story that warmed my heart during yesterday's spring game.

It was halftime of the Lacrosse game and the gentleman was sitting on a motorized scooter parked the walkway around the stadium. His daughter was on a folding chair beside him. From their vantage point at the west side of fifty-yard-line, it was obvious they had gotten there early.

Kneeling down beside him, I said, "My, what a hat that is." That's all it took for him to acknowledge me and begin his story. "The Hat" was a Veterans of Foreign Wars style hat. War medals and pins covered the right side, patches from the European Theatre of WWII the left. He told me his story began in 1934, when he enrolled at Ohio State during the depression. He was there for the Francis Schmidt era, attended the infamous '35 Notre Dame Game, and was involved with track and one time ran against none other than Jesse Owens. After graduating with a mining degree, he fought in Europe in the war that saved democracy.

As he was telling the many aspects of his Buckeye story, I was doing some mental math and figured his age to be somewhere around 92. He had come all the way from Texas to see this game, a game that sometimes the beat writers deride as a glorified practice. He had family in town, and when they picked him up at the airport, they had made a tape for the car ride home. The first song on it was "I wanna go back to Ohio State, the old Columbus town..."

While his words were fascinating, a simple action told the real story. As we were talking, I heard the band on the field strike up the chimes for Carmen Ohio. I stood up and removed my hat. He stopped talking, leaned forward, and with both hands, firmly grasped the railing, diverting his attention from our conversation to the field. The band struck two more chimes. He thought a minute. The stadium was silent, the crowd standing. He had every right to remain seated, but then with great purpose, effort, and strain, he slowly and deliberately pulled himself up to stand at attention. He removed his hat and placed his hand over his heart. Together he and I sang Carmen Ohio. I did not turn to see if there were tears in his eyes, partly because I did not want to embarrass him and partly because I didn't want him to see the ones trickling down my cheeks. When it was over, he turned to me and said simply "I love this place".

I have heard or read many times people try to explain 'What it means to be a Buckeye'. None have done it as remarkably as this gentleman did yesterday. Who is this man? What is the rest of his story? You will find it in Stories of the Shoe.

Spring game is here. If it at all works, load up the kids Saturday and go. It's one of my favorite events.

Last year, one of the beat writers wrote a rather jaded column to the effect that "the game" was overrated and it wasn't that big a deal. Perhaps it isn't, if you get to see every home game for free from the comfort of the press box. But for those who aren't alumni, or don't have a ticket connection, or the really big $$$$ to take the whole family come fall, Saturday is a real bargain. It is still the 'Shoe, with all its grandeur, pageantry, colors and sounds. For a 7-year-old kid who has never been there, or who only gets to this event, it's the chance for a little while to wear the Scarlet and Gray and Be a Buckeye. Walk around as I do, talk to them; watch the sparkle in their eyes and the smiles on their faces. Then "tell me it doesn't matter?"

Sure, the football is a little rag tag and disjointed. Sure, the band that will be there is not the regular marching band. (Rumor has it that it is tradition that some of the regular band members show up to mock them that their rows aren't straight...) Who cares on this day? For the struggling young family with little kids, it's still Script Ohio. It's still Buckeye Battle Cry. It's the 'Shoe. It's family. It's what it's all about.

Get there early. You'll get a good seat and support the Lacrosse Team. Fifty years from now your kids will be telling about the time they were in the stadium to set the attendance record. Go Bucks!

As a subscriber to coachtressel.com, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Jersey Scrimmage yesterday in Ohio Stadium. It definitely was a football day...cold, gray and windy and just the anti-dote for three months without football. I was up at 5 to be down there at 8:30, and on the drive down I thought what the heck, it's a football Saturday. I put in the marching band CD and as I drove along, I was soon swaying to Hang on Sloopy and singing Carmen Ohio. (As my family will attest, with my singing ability, it's a good thing I was the only one in the car.)

As for the scrimmage, well what can one say? It was not a game, but still interesting to get a look at who was doing what. The beat reporters have covered it better than I could so I'll say no more. I will say it sure was nice to just be in the stadium with other Buckeyes and to hear the pop of the pads and realize that the opener will be here before we know it. Oh yea, it was good to meet some potential story tellers too!

What does a violin have to do with Ohio Stadium? Today I interviewed an OSU Football player from the early 40's. Part of the greatest generation, he shared with me how he went from the playing in the Horseshoe to flying bombers over Germany. During World War II, approximately 8,939 Allied Airmen were imprisoned by the Germans at Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany. Shot down over Germany, this Buckeye was one of them. As I was poking around the internet to learn more about that, I found this memorial site... http://www.merkki.com/violin.htm ....and ended up reading The Prison Camp Violin. If you enjoy a good story check it out. There are many stories on the site and it's wonderful that someone has recorded these. "The Prison Camp Violin" keeps the story of Stalag Luft I alive; my project will preserve the story of a Buckeye that was imprisoned there. Therein is the connection.

When I interview people they always want to know what I do. For those curious, you can check out this feature on me that was on our agencies national news release the week of April 8th, and also see why I have been a busy guy.

They even have a photo of me in something besides scarlet and gray.

If I have talked with you, interviewed you, or if you have sent me something, don't be surprised if you get a call or email one day. It may have been 6 months ago, or a year and a half ago, but I will be getting back. I have all of the recordings I have done, and stories received, triple backed up, and another copy in our box in the bank vault.

I am in the process of working all these up, editing, shrinking, and polishing them if needed into a tight and interesting story. I will get back to you for a look at yours before it goes on to a copy editor somewhere. With I think about 150 recorded interviews (I gave up counting), it is taking a while. Nevertheless, have some patience; the wait will be worth it.
If you have a question where I am at with your story, feel free to call or email me.

It's great that the recent announcement of Terrelle Pryor has put some football buzz back in a cold, dreary and lingering Buckeye winter. It's nice to have something new to write about, but I must confess that it also left me shaking my head a bit.

On Wednesday afternoon after the announcement, driving home, I turned on a Columbus station to see what they were saying. "They" turned out to be callers to a talk radio show and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The ink wasn't even dry and here were a bunch of people dissing an 18-year-old kid, a few even comparing him to you know who. It was clear evidence of the dumbing down of our airwaves by much of what passes for talk or news any more.

I had to laugh though as it reminded me of a similar incident a few years back. I remember to this day exactly where I was when it happened. That day too I was driving, and that same Columbus station had just announced the hiring of a new Buckeye coach by the name of Jim Tressel. The announcement wasn't even done reverberating when they went to their phones that day and their callers started ragging on OSU for hiring a no name and predicting the end of Buckeye football. History has shown how brilliant those minds were, hasn't it? I chuckled once again, turned the malarkey off, and went home to judge for myself the real impact of this day in Buckeye history.

I found it that evening in a Yahoo Sports page that had the actual video of Terrelle and his remarks. (http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=787763 ) The video showed me a caring, articulate, and intelligent 18 year old kid who knew where he wanted to go and who did a good job of describing what it was like to live in the magnifying glass these past few months. (Lest you doubt that, by Wednesday evening that video had already been viewed 46,000 times!) I wondered how those radio callers would have fared going through what this kid has been subjected to.

I wasn't the only one impressed by what I saw. Yesterday, friend John Porentas at the Ozone wrote his usual masterful analysis of the days events, (http://www.the-ozone.net/football/2008/pryorsigning.htm) If his column doesn't get you excited about the potential of things that could be to come, nothing will.

I am quick to acknowledge that we are talking about an 18-year-old kid, and no one has a crystal ball on the future, on injuries, on growth and development, on any of that. But in everything I read, there was one word that said it all to me, one word that told me we're talking here about a whole lot more "Stories of the 'Shoe"! One word that still rings in my mind three days laterand that one word that said "this is big"!

That word? "Giddy". Dispatch writer Ken Gordon described Coach Tressel as "Giddy". Can you imagine? Coach Tress, giddy? If Coach was giddy, then Wednesday was huge.

Welcome, Terrelle, to the Buckeye nation. Never mind those idiots on the radio! We're glad you chose to be a Buckeye. Now that you're one of us, you'll never regret putting your faith in the man behind the vest.

Go Bucks!

Well not really.

Here in Ohio, I and most are ready for warmer weather, budding trees and green grass. Instead, yesterday we got a blizzard and 12 to 20 inches of snow depending on where you were.

With everyone snowed in it seemed like a good day to find people home and catch up on some calls still on the list. That it was. A player's mother, a 40-year program seller, and a third generation Buckeye lady all were home and quite willing to share their unique and quite different stories of the 'Shoe.

If you were at the Illinois game last fall in the 'Shoe, you know that the scoreboard had Illinois ahead at the end of the game. However, I interviewed one Buckeye fan last Saturday that said that Ohio State and all Buckeye's were really the winners that day. When you read the heartfelt story, and see where this loyal fan is coming from, I think you will genuinely agree.

It has been awhile so time to update you. I am turning a corner and off in a fresh direction. Having spent almost two years interviewing and pounding the pavement n search of your best stories, I now am certain I have more than enough high-quality material to make this a worthy book. So I am concentrating my efforts more now on the compiling, editing and arranging part of this. There is still a ton of work to do, but for me this is the fun part...the challenge of choosing the words and arranging them on paper in a way that does justice and brings alive all the powerful memories you have shared with me over the last two years.

I am still taking stories and can make room at any time yet for good ones. Also, there are still a few holes to fill or lighter spots in some of the topics, so keep them coming. But if you have a story, and have been meaning to get it to me...well sooner rather than later is now the best advice because at some point down the road it will be too late. That is still a ways away, but every evening I chip away to bring it closer.

IIf you are like me this is the dreaded time of the Buckeye year. I get to few or no basketball games, and OSU baseball is still a ways off. The spring game is likewise, and there is not much football news in the papers. Thus, there is not much occasion to wear my scarlet and gray garb, nor to mix with other crowds all decked out. This morning however, I got a real treat in a visit from some Ohio State faithful who were wearing their Buckeye finest.

I was sitting at the breakfast table and 10 feet outside my window were three bird feeders silhouetted against deep green Canadian Hemlocks and a pure white drenching of new fallen snow. Flittering around the postcard perfect scene were four pairs of Cardinals.... 4 males and 4 females. They would light on the feeders, grab a sunflower, and then perch in the Hemlock. The females wore their gray Buckeye sweaters on their chests and their scarlet lipstick on their beaks. The males were drenched from head to toe in the most glowing scarlet you could imagine. I suppose some knowledgeable naturalist would tell you the males' radiant color was so vivid right now because the mating season is fast approaching. Myself, I think it is because they are proud of their Buckeye heritage.

Whatever the case, the brilliance of the scarlet males, just 10 feet away, against the richness of the subdued gray females, for some reason reminded me of a bright sunny day in the 'Shoe. As the birds flittered around, I could imagine an O-H-I-O making its way around the stadium or the crowd jumping up and down for the score. What a way to start a cold winter morning. Most people know that the Cardinal is our state bird. Few realize it is actually because they are Buckeye fans who every day proudly wear the school colors.

Have to take a business trip the next few days for my day job and will be gone till Thursday night. If you contact me I might not respond right away. I will catch up as soon as I return. It will be fun though...nothing beats walking through the Detroit airport in Scarlet and Grey with an O on your hat!

People often get teary eyed when telling me their stories. I had one this week in which the gentleman got choked up, to the point of having to stop and compose himself, not once, but several times.

What moved this grown man to sobbing, over something that occurred 50 years and 2500 miles away in time and distance? And why is it healthy? You will learn the answers to both in the book. The reason may surprise you, but then again, if you're a Buckeye it probably it won't.

It has been awhile since I have posted an update. The flu and cold knocked me back for a nasty three full weeks and I have been busy, both at day job and on the beat. Here is a reprint of a nice column that appeared in the Urbana Citizen newspaper....

Alumni share 'Stories of the Shoe'

BREANNE PARCELS
Staff Writer

Steve Davis had a busy day recently in Urbana.

The author from Pandora met with several Ohio State University area alumni for anecdotes and photos for his upcoming book, "Stories of the Shoe," which will feature tales about Ohio Stadium.

"I conceived the idea after hearing people tell of memories of their time in the stadium and reading accounts that people would send to newspapers," Davis said. "I thought someone should preserve that stuff."

Local individuals he interviewed included "Buckeyeman" Larry Lokai, Dr. Jan Ebert and Malcolm Reich.

Lokai is known for passing out hand-crafted buckeye necklaces and catching cameras with his wild costume during televised OSU games. Ebert serves as the TBDBITL Alumni Club historian. The acronym stands for "the best damn band in the land" and Reich is also a proud past performer in the 1936 and 1937 marching bands. Reich's claim to fame? Participating in the very first "Script Ohio" formation.

Davis said the seed for the book was planted in the fall of 2005, when his son Curt was an OSU senior majoring in visual communication design.

"At the time, he also was working in an internship in the athletic department doing football game day programs, media guides, etc.," Davis said. "He needed a project for a senior thesis and was struggling for an idea. One day we were talking about it and I joked, 'You ought to do a Web site about Ohio Stadium where people could send in their stories. Then, when you are done I could do a book.' He rolled his eyes at me and said, 'Right Dad.' We both laughed."

But as time went by, the Davises were encouraged to pursue the concept.

"In June of 2006, we took Curt's thesis materials to OSU trademarks and licensing, thinking we had better check this out," Davis said.

OSU's Rick VanBrimmer said in order to avoid infringing on the university trademarks, the materials needed to be licensed, with a percentage of the book sale proceeds going to the university's scholarship fund.

That required a five-month process for Davis to submit sample writings, and he also had to pay an annual advance to the school, before selling a single book.

The Web site at www.storiesoftheshoe.com was launched in fall of 2006, and there have been more than 1,000 visitors since then, Davis said. Many of the site visitors have submitted stories.

"I have also traveled across the state and to home and away games to interview people," he said. "I have done in-depth interviews of, at last count, 91 people, and probably have taped at least that many fans at games the last two years. I walk around the stadium, recorder in hand, and go up to people and ask, 'What's your favorite Ohio Stadium memory?'"

Davis said the storytellers contributing to the book range in age from 10 to 103.

"Ohio Stadium means so many things to so many people in so many different ways and I hope the collection of short stories will capture a flavor of that," he said. "Some of the stories are humorous, some historical, some sentimental or inspirational, and some even sad. Collectively they will tell the stadium's story."

Wow. I’ve been busy. Down three days with the flu this week. Interviews with a players mother, two players from the 50’s, one from the 90’s, a delightful afternoon with the first female band person to march in Ohio Stadium, and oh yes....the priviledge of meeting another gentlemen that marched in the very first Script Ohio ever performed in the ‘Shoe. Enough said for now.

No, there was not a bunch of dancing girls... Just a group of guys talking Ohio State Football.

The occasion with the St. Henry athletic department fund raiser last night in St. Henry Ohio. I was there, along with an estimated 500 or so others, in an annual event that I would guess raises around $30,000 to $40,000 for the Redskin athletic programs.

As I sat in the crowd and watched and listened, I marveled at what one small community has contributed to the ranks of the Buckeyes and professional athletics. It is remarkable and truly Buckeye country. Congratulations Redskins.

Ryan Miller, Nick Mangold, Tyler Whaley and Anthony Gonzalez entertained the gathering, roasting each other with (mostly) good-natured ribbing and of course St Henry’s own Todd Boeckman. It was all taken in good stride and Todd gave as good as he got! In addition, my favorite, Jim Lachey, (my nominee for nice guy Buckeye of all time and best ever color commentator) reminisced about how he was part of starting this event some twenty years ago. Just think what twenty years of this event has done for the athletic resources and the young men and women of St. Henry High School. What a tribute to the vision of a great Buckeye and genuine good guy.

Host Tim Boeckman even gave yours truly a brief spot on the program to report on progress of my project. It was fitting since I spoke there last year, and last night I counted at least a dozen of my storytellers in the audience. Hopefully a few more will step forward and share their memories. I would guess there were ten-thousand years of Buckeye football represented by the 500 individuals in that room! I could get a lot of memories out of one on one interviews with those folks.

“Plan on 3 hours,” Terry, one of my storytellers told me. “Yea, right”, I thought.

I was on my way to see a gentleman that “had a lot of Buckeye Memorabilia in his basement.” Terry had put me in touch with him. I walked into the gentleman’s basement promptly at 3:30. When I walked out later I looked at my watch....it was 6:30 on the mark. “Damn, Terry was right”, I thought.

In between, I was treated to the greatest display of Buckeye memories this fan has every seen assembled in one place.

There may well be bigger collections, but I have not been to them. Every square inch of this 20 x 30 room was crammed with buttons, pictures, pennants, programs, footballs and more. There were maybe 150 signed photographs, numerous footballs including one signed by every OSU Heisman winner, pennants signed by tailgaters from around the country, and I would guess a thousand buttons from more than 50 years. A second room included videotapes of all the games from roughly 1980 on, 4 file cabinets of OSU programs (home and away) and other things too numerous to describe.

And every item had a story. Who was this fellow and what were the stories? Well now, you will have to read the book to find that out won’t you.

I have said before and I will say it again. I am meeting the most fascinating, interesting, and loyal Buckeye fans. You all are great! What a ride this is.

When I started this project, one goal I had was to interview the oldest living Buckeye fan. I am fairly certain I did that yesterday!

It was my pleasure and privilege to visit with and interview a Buckeye fan that is working on a birthday well beyond the 100 mark. What a fascinating personal history this person had to tell. I came to know a most extraordinary and inspirational individual; and listening to this loyal Ohio State Football fan was for me a truly remarkable experience.

How old? Well, let’s just say the person turned 18 the year the ‘Shoe was dedicated. You figure it from there. Did I find the oldest living fan? The person and I agreed that we did in my book, at least until someone proves us otherwise. Who is it? Well now, that’s why you will need to read the book isn’t it.

One more thing, if you know someone you think can top this, I would certainly like to meet him or her too!

I was in downtown Chicago for my day job Monday evening and about 6 PM or so called Jenny back home. We talked for a few minutes and hung up. Ten minutes later my cell rang. I looked at it and it was her calling back. Oh, no I thought...this could not be good....calling me back so soon. “Has something happened, is someone hurt,” I thought?

I pressed answer and the first words out of her mouth were “James Laurinaitis is coming back! It was just on the news.” I thought now how many places in the country would that be worth an immediate phone call. Not many, but it is with the Buckeyes.

I hung up, bundled up, and headed out of the hotel in a cold, snowy, windy, Chicago winter night, on the way to a business appointment. I hadn’t walked two blocks when I passed a man in a dark suite wearing a nice winter top coat. Topping off his outfit was a red stocking hat with a Block O. “O-H” I shouted as we passed. “I –O” he answered.

“Did you hear the news?” I asked. “Laurinaitis is coming back!”

“Wow! That’s great!” he answered.

And then we were each on our separate way...two strangers in a strange place...united by a common bond, and an admiration for a famous guy with a common flair, a guy who chose team, commitment, and dedication over the $$$.

When he replied to my friend Jan (below), Coach Tressel wrote, “Our kids are special.” How right he was. Hats off to James for the message he is sending.

To my readers.....I received a follow-up from my friend Jan Lust tonight about his story “Words of Wisdom”, which I posted below. A link to this post was placed on the TBDBITL alumni news group, along with Jan's email address. Since that time, Jan has received nearly 500 emails from Buckeye's around the country moved by his message! The outpouring inspired Jan to send an email to Coach Tressel with the following words of encouragement. With Jan’s permission, I have reprinted below his email to Coach. Jan's story and experience is emblematic of what it means to be a Buckeye....Steve

Coach Tressel:
My name is Jan Lust. You don't know me, but I am a great fan of yours and The Ohio State University Football Program. I am 63 years old and played in the Ohio State Marching Band from 1962 thru 1967. I now live in Florida (of all places). After the game Monday night a series of events were triggered that led me to write an e-mail story to my friend Steve Davis (Author of Stories of the Shoe). He has placed that e-mail on his website, which is linked below, and underneath that, I have pasted the story I sent him.

I know your job demands that you must always come up with ways to keep the team motivated and inspired, but who inspires the coach? This is why I am sending this to you. Please read the article, I think it can help inspire a great coach in these times! Your team might well be interested in this little bit as well. Even in recruiting, it is much better to expand on what we did rather than didn't. I have received hundreds of supportive e-mails, including one from Dave Koehler (Channel 10 News)...he and I were in the band together. I hope this in some small way can help everyone feel better about knowing what it is to be a Buckeye.

I just wanted share this with you, and say thank you.

Jan Lust

Friends, I received the following email from Jan Lust, one of my good friends and story tellers. It certainly contains words of wisdom applicable to Buckeyes everywhere across this vast country, and with Jan's blessing, I am sharing it with you intact and in it's entirety.....Steve

To My Ohio Friends:

Well, today was the day for me. I was off Monday and Tuesday. Today I had to go back to work...in Florida...and face ALL the nay-sayers, laughing and finger pointing from my working collegues. Florida is probably the worst place for a Buckeye to live after a loss to an SEC team.

I delayed as much as I could. Finally, I pulled myself together...ready to face the music and the ridicule I probably so richly deserved. (I did my share of trash talking before the BIG Game). At 7:15AM this morning, I went out the door to go to work. I thought about calling in sick, causing an accident on the way in, or inventing some sort of crisis to keep me from the dreaded moment of truth, facing Gator fans and their accusations ... the Big Ten is too slow, Ohio State is 0 and 9 against the SEC..and on and on and on.

I walked to the newspaper dispenser in front of the Complex Office where I live. Gathered in front of the door were the workers and maintenance men, waiting to begin their day. They were all talking and eating bagels, and donuts. Some were puffing on their cigarettes and relaxing. My world suddenly changed. On the bench at the edge of the sidewalk, placed directly under a beautiful green palm tree was one of the workers...a man named Vincent. He was dressed in blue jeans, wearing an Ohio State T-Shirt with the number 45, and a baseball cap with a BIG OSU logo in the middle, between his eyes. I looked at him in disbelief. Vince was sitting there with his legs crossed, relaxed, reading the morning news. I suppose this is when my world changed. Here I was dressed in anything BUT scarlet and gray, and trying to figure out how I was going to slither in to work un-noticed....when I see Vincent....DECKED OUT IN BUCKEYE PRIDE.

I walked over and stood directly in front of him. "Nice day Vincent, eh?" "Yup, it is." he replied. Silence. More silence. Then, I just had to ask. "Vince, dammit, how do you handle the B___ S____ from all the SEC folks here?" Well," he replied,"when they start the "jawin'" I just wait until they are finished and I tell them I have one question to ask. Where was your team this year? Maybe we lost, again, but at least we were in it. Did your team make it to the big game? So, friends, before you throw buckeyes at me, check to see if your house can take the same barrage. Unless your school is LSU, you have nothing to say to me. And then there is silence as I walk away with a half Buddha smile.

At least WE, Ohio State were there! This is why I am proud to be a Buckeye. In the end, what really matters is what we did, not what we didn't. What we did was show up. We were number One. How many schools would like to make it that far? Win or Lose, I'm a Buckeye. And my last words to you my friend will always be...Go Bucks, Beat Michigan."

I went on to work. Held my head high. Had a great day.

How was yours?

Jan Lust, R-Row, 62-67,TBDBITL
Go Bucks!

Tuesday afternoon, killing time in Gulfport airport on the trip home....

I have often talked about how this project has introduced me to most gracious and fascinating Buckeye’s and the finest fans the nation has to offer. This trip proved no exception.

Friday evening I found myself alone in New Orleans, a strange city that is not the easiest or safest for someone to get around in by themselves. By chance, there was a Buckeye family and their Buckeye friends staying in the same B&B that I was. They had known each other all their lives and here I was a stranger. They graciously invited me out to dinner with their group Friday night and befriended me with their hospitality over the weekend. I came to know them and their deep Buckeye roots. They are loyal fans, accomplished alumni, professionally successful and kind people. Once again I was reminded why true Buckeyes are the Best Fans in the Land.

It didn’t surprise me at all when I learned that one of their Buckeye stories had ended up in the HBO documentary on “The Rivalry”. It’s a really neat story that will be passed from generation to generation in their family, and I will be sharing that one and some others with you in the book.

To Troy, Katie, Linda, Garret, Jeff, Joe, Sarah, and all the others whom names have escaped me, thanks for your kindness.

Well, we saw how close my prediction was didn’t we. Guess that shows why I’m not a sports analyst. I thought about deleating that post before many of you read it, but instead I will face the music and take my lumps.

Some people say the game wasn’t as close as the score. I could argue on the contrary, that several times early we had them on the ropes and failed to deliver the knockout punches. On the second series, 2nd and goal and we are a couple of Beanie runs from going up two full scores. Later, a 10-10 tie and we give up a blocked field goal which would have put us ahead. Start of third quarter, we miss the ball blocking a punt in their territory by inches after holding them 3 and out to start the second half. They go on to score. It’s potentially a 14 point swing. They put the ball on the ground twice and it bounces up to them both times.

Don’t get me wrong. They beat us. We had the chance to make plays and didn’t get it done. We made way too many penalties. You can’t win a big game if you do that. Hat’s off to LSU. But when people say we are a failure because we went 11-2, finished #4, had a shot at all the marbles and came up short for the second year in a row....well I just don’t buy it. Not in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.

Hats off to what the Buckeyes did accomplish this year. As for the 33% of people that graded this team a “C” in the Dispatch online pole....I am sure there are some fans at other schools that would trade places with you.

Received a call Saturday night from my good friends Mark Kuntz and Mike Miller from Channel 44 TV Lima. They were looking for a local connection to the game and want to film me at the Superdome monday afternoon going through my “trolling for stories” routine. The story will air on Wednesday evening, I assume on the evening sports. If you get Channel 44, keep your eye out. (Hopefully when the camera rolls, I will actually be able to get some interviews and find a story!)

Logged on to the Dispatch this morning and saw they had the game predictions of all the big name experts from around Ohio and the country. Funny thing, they must have missed me! I will have to use this space to give you’re the real scoop. Buckeye’s 20, LSU 16!

While many of the Buckeye fans were partying in the Quarter yesterday, I spent the afternoon with dozens of the player’s parents at a friends and family party. I read everything that is written about the Bucks, have met people around the program, know the families of some of the players. The resounding message that is coming through to me down here is focused-focused-focused and prepared-prepared-prepared.

I have no doubt that the Buckeyes have the will and talent to win this one and could not be in a better mental state to go after it. We will find out tonight if that is enough, if it all comes together, and which way the ball bounces when it lands on that pointed end.

For some of you a loss tonight would be crushing. For me the sun would still come up tomorrow, knowing that these players have given everything they possibly have to position themselves to leave it all on the field tonight. Let’s support them either way!

Go Bucks!

This space has been quiet since I arrived in New Orleans. The computer connection here is not easy and the fans and city beckon. There have been two (tame) evenings of dinner in the French Quarter, yesterday’s Best Damn Band In The Land Practice, the pep rally, and the players families party.

With all the national coverage I figure you are saturated, so I will post my game predictions and hit the streets again early this morning.

The bags are packed and in a couple of hours I will be heading for the Detroit airport and a 6 AM flight to New Orleans. Safely tucked away will be my game ticket,which courtesy of my friend Virginia, turned out to be on the 50 yard line, halfway up in the upper deck. Look for the guy in red.

If the internet connection works, I hope the next post will be some interesting reports from New Orleans. Check back!

One of the rewarding things about what I am doing is preserving memories of times in the ‘Shoe that otherwise would be lost. Amidst the excitement of the upcoming BCS Championship Game, a pause and time out is needed.

I was saddened to learn yesterday that one of the storytellers I had interviewed, who had attended Ohio State in the mid ‘30’s, had passed away at the end of November. When I interviewed him in mid September, we had such a nice visit, talking for more than an hour about his time in the ‘Shoe more than 76 years ago. He knew, and I knew at that time, that he had an untreatable illness. He was most interesting and I am so glad I had the opportunity to meet him and get his story on tape. With the help of his family, I hope to insure that his story and his memory live on.

Now that the school up north is not playing, and my friend Dave Hackenberg is no longer drinking the water up there, his vision has cleared up and he has seen the light. He is right on target about the Buckeyes in his column today about “The Myth”....

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/COLUMNIST08/801030417/-1/SPORTS

The Bucks Arrive!

Since I am not in New Orleans, I will have to rely on others until my Saturday morning flight. After that, I hope to post some live reports. Until then, today’s goody is a nice video of Tressel meeting with the press upon his arrival. You can view it at:

http://blog.nola.com/gladow/2008/01/bcs_championship_ohio_state_ar.html

Hats off to the Wolverines and to Lloyd Carr yesterday. Despite him being a Wolverine, I have to say he was a class guy in a sport that needs more, and it was good to see him go out putting one on the Gators.

Having said that, were you like us, and most of the people I talked to, yesterday? Did you set out to root for them and then couldn’t quite do it? Or, did you find yourself jumping up and down when they scored and then think, “This isn’t quite right?” Did even the damn “Hail to the Victors” not sound quite so annoying? Did a “go blue” spout from your lips and you then felt as if you needed to wash your mouth out with soap?

Don’t feel bad. We all did it. You‘re excused. What’s done is done. It was allowed this one time.

The only thing I would add though is, “We ain’t ever goanna do that again.”

Leftover from yesterday's bowl games.... Did you see the one where a hot dog from the team with the winningest coach in college football intercepted one and then dove into the end zone with a somersault when he ran it back for a TD? The player was immediately flagged for a penalty that almost proved disastrous on the next kickoff. At halftime, they interviewed that winning coach who proceeded to ignore what the kid did and rip the officials for throwing the flag.

Can you see Coach Tressel in that same interview? He would be ripping someone, but it sure wouldn’t be the officials. It reminded me of the class that Coach T brings to our program is and how proud we should be of that.

The munchies are ready, the TV schedule outlined, and it’s time to watch some football, actually a whole lot of football. I have a treadmill and stationary bike in front of the downstars TV , so sometime during the Rose Bowl I will probably be climbing the walls from sitting around and it will feel darn good to do a couple of miles while I watch the game. (After about the third game Jenny banishes football to the basement TV anyway!)

It is going to be a little different today because, after listening to all the SEC crap, I will even be ...uh, gasp, egads....rooting for the team with the funny lookin stripped helmets. I have had enough of ESPN’s Malarkey Mark and the speed blarney he and others have been spewing. So today, it’s Big Ten all the way. I will even say go Blue! Na, on second thought let’s just say go Big Ten and leave it at that.

I have changed my room reservation from the deal I had in Gulfport to a reasonably priced B&B I purchased in New Orleans, courtesy of very disappointed Missouri fans who had booked prematurely! This will put me closer to the action and provide more time to be out mixing and talking with Buckeye fans everywhere.

I am hoping it does more than that. I will be staying at the Degas House, home to the famous French Impressionist Painter Edgar Degas. Degas resided in this house in 1872 & 1873, creating at least twenty-two works of art. From his work emerged the Impressionist Movement and Degas was an unquestioned pioneer in artistic freedom that changed Art and the World forever.

I figured hey, if it unlocked all that creativity for him, imagine what that house can do for an aspiring writer like me! Gosh, I just need a little bit of it to rub off and my pen and my manuscript will become famous too! Think it’ll work?

Just in case it doesn’t, I will be doing things the old fashioned way, out pounding the pavement with recorder and notebook in hand. Look for the guy with Stories of the Shoe on the front of his shirt, and a picture of the Archie and the 'Shoe on the back.

Go Bucks

Dear Santa....now that you brought my early Christmas present of a BCS ticket, uh, there is a little something else you could leave in my stocking when you pass through Pandora on Christmas Eve.

If you could Santa, I am in need of a volunteer or two. You see, I now have over 75 hours of taped conversations with Buckeyes from famous personalities to ordinary fans. It will be bigger than that when I return from New Orleans. I need Santa, some volunteer or volunteers to help me in transcribing them. Many out there with basic typing skills could do this. There are some requirements though Santa.

I don’t mean to be picky Santa but there are certain non negotiable requirements. The person would have to be of impeccable trust and character and be willing to sign a simple confidentially agreement. You see Santa nothing is more important to me than the word I give my storytellers. (And there are some tapes no one will hear but me). The person would need to have ordinary typing skills, but speed would not be important. Of course being a Buckeye fan would provide familiarity with what was being talked about on the tape.

There would be some perks though Santa. The person would get to hear many fascinating Buckeye stories, and some material there might not be room for in the book. I would provide the person with a foot pedal and some simple software that would turn their pc computer into a dictation machine. With the system I have, it would be very easy for them to play my recordings on their computer and be able to stop the tape with the foot pedal (actually it is a digital audio file), fast forward or back up as they listen and type at their own pace. They can even slow the voice speed down to make it easy to keep up. It is so simple even a Wolverine could do it (Well maybe not that simple!). Most any reasonably modern pc will work.

The volunteer Santa could work at his or her own pace on this over then next 2-3 months. If you know of anyone interested Santa, drop the person down my chimney or better yet Santa; just have them call me at 419-384-3363 to discuss.

This post is about the Leader of the Band. Yes, I have visited with the leader of the Ohio State Band. But this leader is someone else.

I was saddened yesterday to learn of the death of singer-songwritter Dan Fogelberg. His song “Leader of the Band” had special meaning to me. “Leader of the Band” was a tribute he wrote of his father and it always reminded me of my father. Although my dad couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, he was in every other way the man Dan Fogelberg immortalized. Dec. 24th will mark 26 years since my father collapsed of a heart attack before our very eyes on Christmas Eve. As I heard Dan’s song on the radio yesterday, it hastened the time when I will do what I do sometime every year at this time, and that is go off someplace by myself and have a good cry.

As I do, the thought of Dan and his song will come to me:

I thank you for your music and the stories of the road, I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go, I, thank you for the kindness and the times that you got tough, and pap I don’t think I said I love you near enough.....My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man, I am a living legacy of the leader of the band.

Yes!

It came tonight. The call. A wonderful and kind lady, who has been following the book, and whom I am now forever indebted to, has a ticket for me! I will now be “In the Dome” on Jan 7th to “show them Ohio’s here and send the earth reverberating with a mighty cheer....”

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause, and in this case her name actually is Virginia! Thank You!

Go Bucks!

Every once in a while I come across a gem of a column. My good friend Dave Hackenberg of The Blade wrote a beauty yesterday about the Buckeye’s Nader Abdallah, and what this game means to him. It puts all the talk of last years BCS loss, and the spectra of this years $1500 and $2000 tickets, in real perspective. In the spirit of the season, you all should check it out at:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/COLUMNIST08/712140407

By the way, you probably remember Dave. About 3 weeks ago, he penned a column that infuriated many Buckeyes. He wrote that OSU fans should think twice about wishing for a BCS game against West Virginia since “the Mountaineers are probably 10 points better than Illinois” and implied Ohio State didn’t belong. Dave didn’t infuriate me because I know his paper makes him cover that school up north, and the water up there does something to the brains of people that spend much time there. So I overlook his occasional transgressions.

Speaking of skinny though, in that same column Dave also wrote, “I have a better chance of waking up skinny and good-looking than Pitt has of beating the Mountaineers.” Which reminds me, I need to email him and ask when The Blade is changing the picture on his column?

I think it’s time to get out the notebook. After reading lately about the speed conference and the best conference and the toughest conference and the badest conference...none of which is the one the Buckeyes play in ....well I wonder why the Buckeyes would even bother to show up. That’s why a little reading of the notebook is in order.

The notebook? Well you see, in 2002 they wrote the same articles and said the same things. Week after week after week. I started printing and keeping a notebook. I still have it. It is more than an inch thick. The first half inch is all the articles telling us we couldn’t. The second half? Well, that is all the articles by the same writers telling how great we were when we did. ‘Nuff said

Oh, by the way, still waiting on the elusive ticket.

Hotel Reservation, Check. Rental car Reservation, Check. American Airlines Bargain Basement Ticket, Check. Game Ticket, Che....OOOPs.

Tickets, tickets, who’s got the tickets. The packages were more than this emerging writer could justify (especially as Jenny reminds me how much I have already invested in this book which in her words “is still not finished”), so the Davis family decided to save our nest egg for some future Rose Bowl. As a result, I’ll be leaving by myself on a cheap jet plane and heading to the Big Easy to be where the stories are, but like many of you still looking for the elusive game ticket.

I may have a line on one, depending on how the lottery goes. But if anyone out there is looking to unload one to a loyal Buckeye at a reasonable cost, rather than selling your soul to make big money from some tiger fan, I’m your guy.

If not, well I’ll still be there and watching it with many of you in the parking lot. I'm not alone it appears. As I sat in Gene Smith's office recently waiting to interview him, I heard his administrative assistant say to more than one caller, "Sir, you'll have to talk to the ticket office about that."

Well the Buckeyes are off to the New Orleans! Congratulations to Coach Tressel and the Buckeyes! It’s great to see them get the chance to play for all the marbles, and deservedly so. I feel good for the players and for Coach Tressel. Bring home the crystal!

At the same time, last night it was hard and weird to know who to root for. You see Jenny and I are big gardeners and I grow over 30 rose bushes and tons of flowers. We have always wanted to go to the Rose Bowl and to the parade to see the floats, but never had the chance. Between OSU having not been there for 10 years or so, and putting two kids through Ohio State, it has just never been in the cards. This year however, things were lining up and we felt we could afford to take our one dream trip and go. (It’s not in the cards for a schoolteacher and civil servant to do that every year). So all the while, we were cheering passionately for the Panthers, and then screaming for the Sooners, we knew our own dream was slipping away so the Buckeyes could pursue theirs. But cheer for them we did and it was winning and losing, and losing and winning, all at the same time. Weird, it was just plain weird. In any case Go Bucks!

Like Buckeye fans everywhere, I was saddened to awake this morning to the news of the passing of Bill Willis. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of this pioneer.

I had always hoped to be able to visit with Mr. Willis to get his own words for this book. While I never made that goal, in the course of this journey I have met many people who knew Bill, not only as a player, but also as a father, civic leader and Christian man. His story and his legacy beyond football will live on through the words of those that knew him.

Years from now when I look back on all of my times in Ohio Stadium, one of my signature memories will be the moment I was on the field in the photographers’ line during the ceremony retiring Bill’s jersey. I was close enough that day to see through my shutter how genuinely moved Bill was; close enough to feel the love of his proud family and to feel it in a way that couldn’t possibly have been experienced high in the stands. It was particularly telling that on that occasion the people at midfield whom Bill chose to surround himself with were his family and members of his church. Afterwards on the sideline, I heard Bill’s son relate the excitement in his father’s voice the night he went to the house and Bill told him “Coach Tressel called. They’re going to retire my jersey!” One could sense how much that historic occasion, and the people surrounding him that day, meant to Bill Willis.

It was such a fitting and deserved event and a blessing that Ohio State made it happen while Bill could still be present to receive the tribute. If you were in the stadium that day, know that in Bill Willis, you witnessed a legend, not only in the game of football but in the larger, more important, game of life. Would that we all could be surrounded with so much love and respect in our twilight hours.

If you have a story that would honor the memory of Bill Willis I would love to hear from you and help you tell it to future generations.

Peace be with Bill and his family.

At my meeting in Dearborn today I sat down to our luncheon. A lady who I had never met was seated next to me, and she remarked to someone at the table, “Well, I thought I was going to the Rose Bowl this year.”

I leaned over and quietly whispered to her, “That’s okay, I’ll be taking your place.”

By the way, if you weren’t in the stadium Saturday, you missed a magical moment. Go to the Ozone link below and play their slide show of Carmen Ohio.....pretty cool!

http://www.the-ozone.net/arts1.htm

Driving to a meeting in Detroit this morning for my day job, I flipped on WJR just as the Lloyd Carr press conference was beginning. I must say it was a solemn moment. Woody, Earle, John, Bo, and now Lloyd. The Michigan rivalry has been apart of this Buckeye’s life for 38 years now. They have all had a role in making it all that it is and now Lloyd too is moving on.

I know many Michigan fans are glad to see him go, and of course I myself never, ever, forever want to lose to the school up north. But Tress was right when he said about Lloyd that you judge a man by his whole body of work. And on that account Lloyd is going out a winner. He has represented college football and Michigan with civility and integrity that is rarer and rarer these days. It’s a shame that is not enough in the times we live in, where winning matters above all else.

Respecting Coach Carr in no way diminishes my pasion for the Buckeyes and my disdain for our opponent on game day of the rivalry. So as I crossed the border into Michigan I called a truce and silently listened giving Coach Carr his due....but only for a little while..... after all, it’s only 363 days till we play the school up north again!

The flyover was cancelled yesterday but the sonic boom showed up in the Big House anyway. Sometime late in the 4th quarter it hit! You could feel it coming a long way off. Booming out from the south scoreboard, it raced down to the best damn band in the land, skipped on to the upper levels on the east sideline, and then ricocheted over to a group of OSU parents in the southwest end zone. The snoozing Wolverine fans never knew what hit them as O – H – I – O went round and round the stadium. Once they woke up, some made a futile attempt to drown it out with boos; others headed streaming to the exits.

Admittedly, it wasn’t your typical Ohio Stadium measured and practiced O-H-I-O. It was more an o – H – i – O with some sections stronger than others. But round and round it went. Each pass grew in volume and in the number of Buckeyes proud and confident to stand up and give the hand signals along with it, to pour an added measure of salt in the wound. In the end, the Wolverine fans left in their house were powerless to stop it as we relished in the realization that at this time and on this day, the Buckeyes owned this game and this stadium!

If you were there, you will forever have that o – H – i – O imprinted in your OSU special memories. Give others the magic by sharing your story of yesterday’s game experience for the “Michigan Memories” chapter of Stories of the Shoe. While it may not have physically taken place in the Horseshoe, remember, Ohio Stadium is not only a place but also a state of mind!

Thirty years from now, you can pull out the book, give it to your grandkids, and tell them “I was there!”

He was standing in front of the wrought iron fence surrounding Michigan Stadium Looking distinguished, friendly, nicely dressed in scarlet and gray that screamed huge fan, he was obviously a stop for this author. All it took was a Go Bucks and we were engaged in a pleasant conversation.

We had chatted several minutes without even exchanging names as Buckeye fans can easily do. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. There they were. Three pair of small gold pants on a gold chain around his neck, the dangled right in front of me. It dawned on me what I was looking at! I had never seen pair up close. (Man you need a bodyguard I thought.)

“You must be either a former player or a player’s parent,” I said to him.

“I’m a father of a current player,” he told me. He graciously went on to share some wise and interesting thoughts about his son, this team, Coach Tressel and what playing for the Buckeyes means to his family. You will enjoy reading his insights that I hope to include in Stories of the Shoe. Stay tuned.

I witnessed some remarkable post game restraint and class by one of the OSU players yesterday.

I was outside the OSU locker-room to observe and give a few congratulatory handshakes to some of the player’s parents whom I have come to know through this project. Knowing this is their special time, I was doing my best to just soak up the moment and stay out of their way.

By this time, we all had been penetrated by the cold damp mist we were standing in; I imagined how the players felt after what they had gone through. One by one, they would come out, find their families, and attempt to enjoy some time while hounded by the autograph seekers. Michigan had not provided anywhere that the families could be separate from the fans, we had just won a championship, and the players only had a couple of minutes to see their families before they were off to Columbus.

You can imagine the throng that greeted James Laurinaitis. For many minutes James patiently signed autograph after autograph (as did his father). Finally they started honking the bus horn to load up. James said no more and moved off to hug his mother.

One guy followed and continued to pester him. The fellow, in his early twenties and old enough to know better, was in his face like a two year old.... Please, James, please James he pathetically begged as he shoved a picture in James face... James politely stared ahead and ignored him for a while. Finally, he politely said, “I’m trying to spend time with my family”. I could see the pressure building as the bus was honking, James was trying to talk to his mother and this idiot was being a real pest to a guy that could have taken his head off with his little finger.

James did his best to ignore the person and take the high road. When he headed to the bus the fool was still following him.

I don’t know if he ever got the autograph but I hope not. I couldn’t see what was so important about it to him in the first place unless he was going to sell it. I mean, for gosh sakes, the jerk was wearing a Michigan sweatshirt if you can believe that!

Going to a game as a visitor gives you a feel as to what it is like when an opposing fan comes to our house. I got an extra dose. When I took my seat, there wasn’t any red within 10 - to 15 people in any direction. Two rows in front of me I stared at a guy’s back on which was the “Top Ten reasons Ohio State Sucks”. Some would have been quite clever had he not resulted to vulgarity to express himself. I have never understood the psychic of someone who would wear a shirt with a vulgarity on it in public and that goes for Buckeye fans as well as Michigan folks...we ourselves are far from lily white on this one.

Right before kickoff a guy in front of me shouted something about... “after how they treated me down there last year, I ain’t gonna be nice to them”. Then he turned and looked right at me.

I just smiled, extended my hand and said “Good luck”. Realizing I had him, he reluctantly took it, smiled and shook it and said “All right, but that’s the last time we’re gonna do that today!”

I must say though I was treated very nicely by many Michigan fans. This included the people I had pleasant pre-game chats with, the people beside me with whom I talked about how well their punter was doing and about their take on Lloyd’s retirement rumors...to the friendly man that chatted with me on the long walk to the restroom at halftime. Afterwards, many fans shook my hand, congratulated us, and wished us well in the bowl game.

Yes there were the crazies, but I observed them on both sides of the ball and that includes the Ohio State girl who without any class, repeatedly yelled “whimps” one time when a Michigan player was injured and down on the field.

All in all, I wonder if we will treat them as well when they come to the ‘Shoe next year. I hope so. We can hate their guts when the whistle blows, but Woody and Bo respected each other before and after, and we can do that as well if we really respect the rivalry.

Tomorrow morning I head for Ann Arbor by way of Columbus and the Earle Bruce Tailgate Party, with an evening stopover for the TBDBITL concert in Toledo. The car is packed but weather Saturday looks brisk so better double check: Long Johns, check. Red Coat, check. OSU scarf , check. Best Fans in the Land Button, check. Red Hat, Correction Red National Champions Hat, check. And finally, ticket for this ole man in the Michigan student section...check, check, check!

It doesn’t get any better than this!!!

Go Bucks

Kudo’s to the Richland County alumni group who know how to host a Michigan week bash. The told me there were over 900 people attending and I met many of them. Coach Bruce was his usual hellfire and brimstone in working the crowd to a frenzy. The OSU traveling pep band was great, including a script Ohio that snaked all over the room. But for me, the memory that will stick was gentle giant Pete Johnson, his rich baritone voice leading 900 people in an ocupello rendition of We don’t give a damn about.....

Nearly a year ago I was contacted by a gentleman from HBO who was working on a documentary about the OSU-Michigan game. He was looking for names of people to contact and had seen this website. I provided him a few names. Tonight that production debuts on HBO at 10:30, as Michigan vs Ohio State:The Rivalry. (...nice title but it should have been Ohio State vs Michigan... we never take the back seat to those folks!) I don't know if they used any of my contacts but will be eager to see. Unfortunately, I don't have HBO and will be returning from the Richland County Alumni beat Michigan bash at that time, so I will have to find someone that taped it or wait until it is available on DVD. If anyone has a copy let me know. What a privilege it is for all of us to be part of the number one rivalry in all of college football.

It has taken a while to know what to say in this weeks post game report and get up enthusiasm to write it. As I was sorting my pictures yesterday and looking at the four jets I captured in the National Anthem flyover, I realized the game started with quite a bit of blue sky overhead. By the ending pictures, the sky was dark and foreboding. So went the game. It began with the exhilaration of the opening score, teased us with the deafening roar of the third quarter comeback attempt, and then of course ended with the long, slow, agonizing and oxygen depriving realization during the last Illinois drive. Like all of you I drove home empty (and in my case alone). I thought of a whole chapter, another national championship season that potentially had just vanished from my book

I grounded myself yesterday. By eight A.M., I had read dozens of internet posts and even more than one newspaper column playing the blame game...blame the coach, blame the QB, blame the line, blame, blame, blame. It was easy to get angry at those posts; at those who can’t criticizing those that can and those who worked long and hard for a year to give their all in Saturday’s game.

As I sorted the pictures, that all evaporated at picture #4918. There was the first of several photos of the family of Ray Mendoza. Ray Mendoza, former OSU wrestler, loyal Buckeye fan and Marine Corps officer, was honored on the field for the ultimate sacrifice, having giving his life for his country in Iraq during 2005. The picture sequence showed a wide range of emotions throughout the ceremony...a proud Buckeye family, a yearning son, a grieving widow, and finally a thank you so much smile to the 105,000 standing and cheering Buckeye fans.

As I looked at the pictures it was obvious how much Ray’s family would have given to have him with them at that game and I counted my blessings.

From what I have read of Ray, he was a wrestling great and probably the fiercest of competitors. No one would have been more disappointed or discouraged at the outcome. I suspect though for Ray and his family, it would have been enough for him just to have been in Ohio Stadium with them, to be together and take in the sights, sounds, pageantry, suspense and excitement of a Saturday in the ‘Shoe. I wondered. How many of those playing the blame game enjoyed the opportunity to do that Saturday? How trivial did it make their postings look? What can we learn from the honoring of Ray Mendoza?

You won’t find the blame game in Stories of the Shoe. What you will find is memories: memories of the Ray Mendoza’s of the Buckeye nation, memories of family times, memories of big games won and more vivid memories of even bigger games lost. In the ‘Shoe, like in life, in the end all you have left is memories. You hope the good ones are plentiful and the bad ones few.

With that, it is time to turn the page from a Gray Sunday to a Scarlett Monday and make some new memories. It’s Michigan week! It’s another chance to thump the team up North! It’s an opportunity to go to the Rose Bowl. It’s an excuse to wear red every day this week! The team needs us all to get on the bandwagon and I will be there for them. Will you?

It will be a busy week for this author...the Richland County Alumni bash Tuesday night, the Earle Bruce pep rally Friday noon, the OSU Band Concert in Toledo Friday night, the Alumni Beat Michigan Bash in Ann Arbor Saturday morning, and finally a ticket in the student section in the Big House for the 12:30 kickoff.

It doesn’t get any better than this! Gotta go now though...time to help keep the Michigan jokes rolling across the Internet.

Go Bucks!

If I could go to but one game each year, it would probably be Senior Day. It has become such a class event since Coach Tressel has arrived. Tuesday evening the seniors were made available to the media in the Woody Hayes Center and I was there to record some of their thoughts for the book. Tomorrow I look forward to being on the sidelines when each one of them makes that long run out the tunnel to the waiting arms of Coach Tressel and their parents. Between that, and this weeks game being "for a big marble", it should be electric.

Well it isn't the New York Times, but our local paper has an excellant overview of this project:

http://www.putnamvoice.com/story.php?IDnum=45484

I was going to write a Victory bell follow-up story, but the Lima News did it for me.

http://www.limaohio.com/story.php?IDnum=45543

I am working hard to capture stories of defining moments in Ohio Stadium and this weekend I was privileged to be part of three. Twenty-five or fifty years from now people will still talk of each one.

What an honor it was to stand on the sideline and watch the retirement of Bill Willis’s jersey. I was close enough to zoom the camera in and see the tears of joy well up on Bill's face during the ovation he received, to capture his smile when a young fan shook his hand, and to hear his son tell of the joy in his heart the night Jim Tressel called to tell Bill they were retiring his jersey. To be there and witness it was indeed moving.

The history lesson continued when the Buckeye’s set a new Big Ten consecutive win record....all the sweeter since the former was held by that team with the ugly helmets. Yours truly celebrated by helping ring the Victory Bell in the tower in the southeast corner of the stadium.

To finish it off on Sunday, I attended the Alumni Band and OSU Marching Band Celebration of Life for Richard Heine. Longtime composer and arranger, Mr. Heine more than anyone else was responsible for the sound of The Best Damn Band In The Land.<