The only two-time Heisman winner, Archie Griffin, bows to the crowd after dotting the ‘i’ on Saturday. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The opening of the college football season and what we observed, heard, and talked about during a 52-6 whipping of Akron at Ohio Stadium.
I don’t think you can ask for a better place to people-watch than Ohio Stadium on a Saturday afternoon.
You see it all…you hear it all.
You can cut the culture depictions with a blade.
Publisher and editor Sonny Fulks writes the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.com.
As you know, we write about the importance of winning on these pages, and much to the chagrin of those people who hang out the banner…”that winning isn’t everything. It’s how you play the game.” But hang that banner from C Deck on a football Saturday and see how long it lasts. No one seems to care at a Buckeyes game.
The opponent doesn’t matter. Even schools like Akron…they believe should feel the wrath of expectation for Ohio State football. When it was 17-3 at halftime you could hear he mumbling – the grumbling.
“We still can’t run the ball.” I heard that up and down both sidelines, first row in A Deck.
“This is Chip Kelly offense?” someone with plenty of beer and belly demanded.
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“We can’t beat Oregon playing this way,” a security man said, not noticing that I was standing with one foot on the restraining line.
When in fact, Oregon struggled itself on Saturday, beating mighty Idaho by just ten points, 24-14. It was 14-7 going into the fourth quarter, and I can’t imagine the response had Ohio State led Akron by 14-7 with fifteen minutes to play.
As it was the fans got what they came to see. The Buckeyes outscored the Zips 35-3 in the second half, won 52-6, and they all left to go home and focus more on how winning isn’t everything…it’s how you play the game.
When I was at Ohio State fifty years ago I played baseball, yes, but I also played in the marching band. And I was there the day that Bob Hope dotted the ‘i’ in Script Ohio. I stood about twenty feet away from him as he came out with the drum major to take his place and bow to the crowd. Here’s what I’ve noticed about the marching band over the years, because people constantly talk about then, versus now.
They ask…is OSUMB really the best band in the land? It’s certainly the most unique, because it’s still an all-brass band. And there’s still really good musicians in the band, like the days of trumpeter John Harner, when I was there. Harner could hit a double high ‘C’ on a B-flat trumpet. No one else could come close.
But now there’s a lot of really good college bands across the country, and it all depends on what you like. But what I like most about Ohio State’s band…it’s never changed except to become co-ed in 1974. The look, and sound…time and change still surely shows.
Proof that there’s joy in winning…the Buckeyes’
Denzel Burke celebrates his first half interception.
They did two Script Ohios on Saturday, something that I never remember during my days. Back then, we rarely did the Script more than four times a year at home – opening day, Alumni Day, homecoming and Michigan – or at away games and bowl games. Now, they do it nearly every week because it sells. The crowd demands it for the total Ohio State experience.
And I was happy to see Archie Griffin dot the ‘i’ during the halftime Script, taking his place alongside Woody Hayes and Bob Hope. Archie is one of the best people I’ve ever met, I saw him frequently when we were in school together, and he treated everyone the same…wonderfully. He still does.
You can always find Jon ‘Big Nut’ Peters at a Buckeye game, home and on the road. A factory worker for Whirlpool Corporation, he sits in the first row of A Deck by the north end zone. Over the years he’s become as much an institution with Ohio State football as whoever the head coach is at the time.
He poses for pictures from the time he arrives ’til the time he drives back to his home in Fremont. And I’ve never known him to show “tears of a clown, when there’s no one around.” Smoky Robinson might have known Jon Peters. When times get tough for the Buckeyes he’s ultimate Ohio State, with, or without, all that paint.
As popular as the game itself…Jon ‘Big Nut’ Peters is a constant fixture at home Buckeyes games.
As you can see and read for yourself, there’s a lot of media coverage with Ohio State football, and one of the best parts of being there is talking shop with other media guys (like WDTN’s Jack Pohl on Saturday). There’s always something different.
There’s an irony with media people that you might never suspect. On topics like high school, OSU, UD, the Reds, Bengals, and the Browns, the ones that cover them daily see the same things you see – have the same opinions you have. Things you’ll never see in print. A lot like Vegas, what’s said here, stays here.
They’re incredibly talented people, the same people you’ve read and listened to for years; and many agree that it’s going to be an interesting sports year – one with a lot of surprises. Pertaining to the twelve schools that will make up the championship tournament at the end, someone said this.
“The more people you invite, the more that can go wrong.”
And Lee Corso said it best.
“There won’t be any unbeaten teams that make the final twelve,” he guaranteed this week. “A two-loss team can get in.”
He turned 89 years young in August, and when you get that far it doesn’t matter if what you say gets printed, or not.
We’d all like to be like Corso, someday.
* And then this….In my Friday night column about the Marion Local-Franklin game, I made a reference to the fact that it doesn’t seem to matter what division Marion plays, they always play the same. The outcome is the same. Written in the spirit of respect for Marion and their current 50-game achievement. I said: “They took the opening kickoff, marched down the field and scored, needing 1 minute and 19 seconds to do it. Just like they might have done against New Bremen or Parkway.” And they have done that, on many occasions.
This was construed by some as a negative comment directed at those two schools, fellow members of the MAC. But it was not, just a comparison…in this case between how they played against a bigger, unfamiliar Division III school, and how they play on a weekly basis against smaller, familiar, Division VI and VII teams. It was brought to my attention, and with apologies…to anyone offended there was no disrespect intended. SF
