Grambling State University director of bands Dr. Nikole Roebuck takes a bow to the OSU bands following her conducting the performance of the National Anthem on Saturday. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
In the midst of a hundred thousand people in a college football environment I witnessed humanity and grace, and how people with decency and honor treat each other. It was better than the football game, itself.
Three hours before game time on Saturday I walked from the stadium at Ohio State across Woody Hayes Drive to St. John Arena to meet some old friends and mates there to observe Alumni Band day at ‘Skull Session’ – pre-game rehearsal.
And as I passed the statue of Archie Griffin a group of four Grambling fans addressed me and asked if I would take their photo with the statue and the north rotunda of ‘The Horseshoe’ in the background. I did the deed, handed back their IPhone, and asked how far they had driven to see the game?
“From Louisiana, near Monroe,” said a young woman smartly dressed in Grambling gear. “A lon-g-g-g way,” she smiled.
They were African-American, all graduates of Grambling, an HBCU, and obviously impressed with Ohio State, its facilities, its football, and “the people we’ve met so far,” she added. “Everyone here is so nice. Thank you for taking our photo.”
Her words struck me because by now we’re all familiar with the incident from last Thursday’s Eagles-Cowboys game where Dak Prescott and Jalen Carter spit at each other, and Carter was subsequently ejected before the game even started.
How many of you, like me, were impressed by the irony of that incident, where all the NFL stadiums have painted ‘It Takes All Of Us’…or…’End Hate’ on the back line of the end zones?
And given the actions of Prescott and Carter, how many of you have grown tired of professional athletes maintaining they have “a platform” to speak out for change?
Is it a platform because they get paid more than the rest of us?
Is it a platform because they get more attention than the rest of us?
Or, is it a platform in paint and words only, and not action? Carter and Prescott certainly made a statement for the former.
In fact, what I saw Saturday was a whole lot of Ohio people warmly welcome and engage fans from Grambling…others taking the time to take someone’s phone and snap a photo for posterity, then hand it back with a smile. Bottom line, regular people showing better instinct for each other than the special people with the platform!
Grambling brought its nationally-famous marching band, an entirely different culture of band than that of Ohio State’s, and I observed people who made their way over to compliment band personnel following their halftime performance.
Grambling’s director of bands, Dr. Nikole Roebuck, took to the podium, pre-game, to conduct the combined Ohio State and the Ohio State Alumni Band for the National Anthem. It was obvious that the combined bands, numbering more than 500, was the largest assemblage of musicians on a football field that she had ever directed for the Anthem. All that sound…all those people watching…and all that pageantry and respect for honor during the song…she proudly directed the band to its conclusion, then bowed gracefully in respect for their performance.
Her manner was special, in the tradition of Fiedler, Bernstein, and Ormandy – her grace and passion for the magnitude of the moment.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
And then the game itself, which as it turned out, wasn’t much of a game at all. But no one spit on each other before, during, or after…at least so as we know.
There was nothing painted on the field, and there was no window dressing about platforms. Saturday was just a natural example of people being kind to each other, to visitors from another part of America…just people who showed up respectful as one person in another person’s home.
No fights…no blame…and no excuses. Just people acting like people – good people. I will remember the day, what I saw, and the good feeling.
Longer than most Michigan games I remember.
Other notes…..
We’ve written before about how people from all over the state have become interested in MAC football on Fridays, and especially when MAC teams show up at the OHSAA finals in Canton.
And we wrote last week about football fans contacting the site about the Friday matchup between St. Henry and Marion Local, who between them have won a total of 21 OHSAA titles in football. Respect and interest for the MAC has become a state-wide reality.
Our weekend metrics show that there were 402,850 page views, state-wide, for our Friday night coverage, with an overwhelming percentage centered on the Marion-St. Henry game. Our congratulations to the respective schools, and the conference, for being something that so many others believe is worth reading about, and emulating. Win or lose, kudos to everyone.
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