blog: Area’s Craziest OSU-Michigan Celebration?

By Tom Archdeacon | Friday, November 21, 2008, 01:59 AM

I think this just may be the area’s craziest celebration of the annual Ohio State-Michigan game.

When halftime arrives Saturday, the folks watching the game on the various televisions at McSobers Saloon in Coldwater will head out into the parking lot where they’ll do a rag-tag reenactment of Script Ohio, the signature performance of the OSU marching band, a.k.a. The Best Damn Band in the Land.

At McSobers, some people bring along old instruments from home, others pick from the collection of plastic and homemade ones kept in the bar for just this occasion. Someone with a baton leads the snake-like procession — just as they do in Columbus — and one lucky person in the crowd will be chosen to tote the big, white sousaphone and dot the “i.”

The Script Ohio tradition at McSobers has been going on for the better part of three decades through two sets of owners and two different bar locations.

To help Saturday’s crowd mine its musical talent — actually they do it during every Bucks game — McSobers sells beers for 51 cents in honor of OSU linebacker Ross Homan, who graduated from Coldwater High and now wears No. 51 for Ohio State. And they sell 17 cent hotdogs in honor of OSU quarterback Todd Boeckman, who wears No. 17 and is from nearby St. Henry.

This is about The Best Damn Celebration I’ve heard of for this game.

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blog: In St. Henry, Boeckman embraced, not Tressel

By Tom Archdeacon | Thursday, November 20, 2008, 07:25 AM

No sporting event in the state is more anticipated than the annual Ohio State-Michigan football game. And no place in the area has the match-up been more anticipated than in St. Henry, the sports-mad Mercer County town of 2,300 that has more ties — per capita — to Buckeye football than any place in the state.

Seven St. Henry High players have gone to OSU to play football and three have become stars. Place’s like Fish-Mo’s tavern on West Main St. are decorated with Buckeyes souvenirs from floor to ceiling.

And yet this Saturday’s Nov. 22 game between the Bucks and visiting Michigan arrives with a previously unthinkable amount of mixed emotion — and in some cases outright disinterest — in St. Henry.

“Since I’ve been in the bar business, I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Matt Stelzer who runs Fish-Mos. “Some people who come in don’t even want to watch the (Buckeye) games now.”

What’s happened?

A lot of people believe Jim Tressel has turned one of their favorite sons into a Buckeye scapegoat. It’s not that the Ohio State football coach benched St. Henry bred quarterback Todd Boeckman in favor of freshman phenom Terrelle Pryor, it’s the way it’s been handled and how Boeckman — last year’s All Big Ten quarterback — has been exiled to the scarlet and gray version of Siberia.

“There was a lot of respect here for Tressel, but now a lot of people here have turned on him,” Stelzer said. “There a lot of dislike for him. Some just hate him. They feel he threw Todd under the bus.”

I detailed this story in a column that’s in today’s newspaper and on this web page.

When a veteran is replaced by a freshman player there are always going to be some bruised feelings and any coach — not just Jim Tressel — would draw fire from some quarters. But could this have been handled better? I think yes.

That point — more than just their kid being replaced — is what sticks in the craws of some St. Henry folks. Especially when they see how Boeckman has taken the high road in this and never spoken an untoward word about Tressel or the OSU program in public.

That fact is especially embraced by Boeckman’s teammates.

“I always knew how talented Todd was, but I’ve grown a new respect for him,” said senior linebacker and fellow captain Marcus Freeman.

“He’s a competitor and wants to be on the field — that’s got to be eating at him — but he’s doing all the right things. I see him on the sidelines and at practice trying to help Terrelle and that says something.

“A lot of guys — if their spot gets taken — they ain’t helpin’ nobody out. They got that ‘it’s-all-about-me’ attitude — but Todd isn’t that guy.”

Tight end Rory Nichol echoed that sentiment:

“He’s never backed away from being our leader. He still gets up and speaks in front of the team every Thursday like the other captains do. He’s doing everything he can to be a role model and set an example and a lot of guys here are really proud of him for that.”

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blog: Thoughts from the Dayton Flyers opener

By Tom Archdeacon | Sunday, November 16, 2008, 11:48 PM

Here are some quick thoughts after watching the UD Flyers open their season Sunday night against Wofford:

— Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss their early season schedule of second and third tier teams — Wofford, Delaware State, Bethune Cookman, Mercer — as a cakewalk.

The Flyers had all they could handle in Wofford. They trailed much of the game and were out-rebounded — an unbelievable 35 to 25 — by a team they had a height advantage on at every position. The Terriers— led by 6-foot-5 Tim Johnson (13 rebounds) — just out-worked them inside.

— As of right now, UD looks like a two man show. High-fliers Chris Wright and Marcus Johnson combined for 34 points and eight rebounds.

It’s great to see the muscled-up Wright running the court, jamming ally-oop passes, swatting opponents’ shots and showing the initial flashes of what I think will be a season as one of the A-10’s greatest stars — especially after last year’s injury-plagued downer.

— Who in the world will give UD another offensive threat from the outside? Ron Lowery, Mickey Perry and London Warren were a combined 3-for-13 from the field. They combined for twice as many turnovers as field goals.

— How does Brian Gregory keep things straight with so many substitutions? The scorers table at UD Arena is busier than Grand Central Station at rush hour.

— Early in the game, Kurt Huelsman called for the ball inside, then faked one way, took a drop step the other way and drove up and under the basket for a beautiful reverse lay-up.

He didn’t do much of that last season and I thought, “Okay, new season, smaller opponents, he’s going to make some offensive hay tonight.” Turns out it was his only basket of the game. He only shot twice in 29 minutes…In 25 minutes, Charles Little made just one of five shots.

— UD did play some good defense — although Wofford’s 6-foot-2 Junior Salters gave them some problems from long range — but by my count, six different Flyers missed lay-ups and Lowery missed two.

Afterward Gregory was mostly optimistic. For Flyers fans, I hope he’s right.

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blog: WSU — Problems with the Spotlight

By Tom Archdeacon | Saturday, November 15, 2008, 11:55 PM

Using the Dayton Dragons as a model, Wright State athletics director Bob Grant and his troops are trying to make Wright State basketball games a fan-friendly experience this season to go alonmg with the always-promising product coach Brad Brownell puts on the court.

For the season opener Saturday night against Illinois State, there seemed to be something new in the arena.

Two big murals depicting great players and moments from Wright State’s basketball past graced the top of the Nutter Center walls.

There were green ambiance lights at another end of the arena, banners of the other Horizon League teams across from that and hanging from the rafters above the court, colorful reminders of the Raiders’ past NCAA Tournament teams.

Behind one basket were two lounges —one with leather couches, the other with tables that included basketballs and hoops — and up on the concourse there was a Kids’ Zone play area.

There was free admission to anyone wearing something with Raiders’ colors, but the truth is, you got in whatever color scheme you wore. While the cold, rainy weather held down the crowd somewhat, WSU still drew 6,371 fans — better than all but five crowds last season.

There was only one real staging problem in Saturday night’s opener.

“The spotlights got here too late,” Grant shrugged. “They were coming up from Cincinnati and there was a big wreck by Middletown. The guy got tied up in traffic. So we didn’t get the real effect with the spotlights.”

Then again, they weren’t really needed. Saturday night there wasn’t a whole lot to spotlight— at least not out on the court.

In the words of Raiders’ guard Vaughn Duggins, Illinois State “out-toughed” WSU, 69-61.

Illinois State — a team that won 25 games and made the NIT last season — shot better from the floor, over-powered the Raiders on the backboards and made the pressure plays the few times the game did get close.

While a few Raiders did have some shining moments during the night — reserves Cooper Land (12 points), Kyle Pressley (five rebounds) and Troy Tabler (three straight three pointers) come to mind — a couple of other WSU players had some untimely meltdowns.

Transfer Scott Grote had four turn-overs — including three in a row — and no points. He’s coming back from preseason injury and likely felt some nerves debuting at the school where his dad and uncle starred, but Saturday’s performance eventually will fade and I believe as the season unfolds. he’ll show himself to be one of the true stars of this team.

It should also be noted here that Illinois State is a formidable opponent from the Missouri Valley Conference. This isn’t like the University of Dayton opening today with Wofford, followed by Delaware State, Bethune Cookman and Mercer.

That said, this game was one WSU could have won had it played the first 15 minutes of the second half they way it did the final five when its aggressiveness cut a 13-point deficit to three points with 2:54 left.

Another problem that showed itself Saturday night was the lack of an inside presence. Scotty Wilson and Jordan Pleiman graduated and their replacements — some of whom are promising — are new or logged very few minutes last season.

“I thought the crowd not only was good, but it was excited and energetic,” Brownell said. “I wish we would have played better in the second half and given the fans something to cheer about. To be honest we didn’t give them enough chances to become players in the game.”

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blog: Farewell, Captain Tony

By Tom Archdeacon | Friday, November 7, 2008, 11:18 AM

A dear old pal of mine has died in Key West.

Captain Tony Tarracino — fisherman, charter boat captain, gun runner, one-time barefoot king of the hippies, legendary hustler, ribald raconteur, former mayor (“I kissed the mothers, not the babies”), perpetual womanizer, father of 13 children ages 22 to 72 — died last weekend. He was 92. His funeral is this Saturday.

I’ve known Captain Tony for some 30 years. When I lived in Miami, I spent a lot of time in Key West, much of it at the Greene Street saloon bearing his name. I came for the libations, to shoot pool, listen to the music — I remember Jimmy Buffett, fresh out of Alabama, just starting off there for a few bucks a night — watch people and mostly just talk and listen to Tony.

Key West has been home to Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Tom McGuane, Phil Caputo and dozens of other novelists and playwrights, yet Captain Tony was the island’s greatest storyteller.

Over the years everyone from Walter Cronkite, Ted Kennedy, Strom Thurmond, Tallulah Bankhead, Jerry Jeff Walker to Buffett — who immortalized Tony in his “Last Mango in Paris” — soaked in his tales.

A book on him — “Life Lessons of a Legend” by Brad Menard — is just out and another is in the works.

I wrote about Tony over the years and some of those stories still hang in the bar. He gave me my own bar stool — my name stenciled in yellow letters across the seat— just as he did Muhammad Ali, Dustin Hoffman, Bob Dylan, John Candy and another pal of mine, Shelby Strother, one of the country’s best sportswriters who died way too young.

After his death in Detroit, his wife Kim and I went down to Key West, put the urn with Shelby’s ashes on the bar he loved so much and spent the night giving him the kind of raucous wake he would have loved. The next day — bobbing in a dinghy, with a hangover, a heavy heart and some thoughts written on a bar napkin — we spread his ashes at sea.

“Hell of a send-off,” Tony said that night. “He deserved it. He was the best.”

And so was Tony.

To remember him today, I’ve included a story I wrote back in 1995 after one of my trips from Dayton back to Key West.

TONY STILL KEY WEST’S MOST COLORFUL PERSON

KEY WEST — “I’m 78 years old, been married three times and had 10 great relationships in my life. From all that, my oldest child is 58, the youngest, 8. Thirteen kids in all. Now, truth is, I’d like to make it an even number. So if you know a healthy girl up there in Dayton.”

The glorious sunset — with the big, orange orb lowering itself into the horizon and the clouds glowing Technicolor pink and magenta — had been over for hours and that meant the high-wire walker, the bagpipers, Cookie Lady, Iguana Man, fire eater, steel drummers, xylophone and zither players and the hundreds of sunburned tourists who pack Mallory Square for the daily ritual were gone, too.

Turns out it was nothing but a warm-up act.

Now it was well past midnight and the most colorful phenomenon in Key West finally was coming to life.

Tony Tarracino — “Captain Tony,” as immortalized by Jimmy Buffett song and worldwide embrace — had walked into the sagging, mustard-yellow saloon bearing his name, pulled out a bar stool dedicated to Tennessee Williams and settled in for a nightcap. Once that meant Cutty Sark and water. Now, it was just a draft beer and another Lucky Strike.

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blog: “Your country Is amazing!”

By Tom Archdeacon | Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 09:44 AM

I have never been prouder of my state. My country. We have shown what we truly are made of. We went through a hotly contested —sometimes quite nasty — election process and then voted vigorously and peacefully and, once again, showed the world what true democracy can be.

A couple of weeks ago here — in a dispatch entitled “Ashamed of Some Fellow Ohioans” — I was critical of some folks in this state who had been spewing racial and religious hate at a Sarah Palin rally. While they may have been a minority, they were loud and unwavering in their disparagement of Barack Obama.

I said we are better than that here in Ohio — and while some people took great offense to that — in the end, we showed just that.

For the most part people here were concerned about the economy, health care, the war, the way we interact with the rest of the world and not the color of a man’s skin.

Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States and Ohio played a big part in it. When he won the state and its 20 electoral votes Tuesday, it sent a a ripple across the country. As Charles Wilson on Slate.com put it: “An Obama win in Ohio preserves the state’s role as an election kingmaker.”

People embraced Obama’s message of hope and his non-polarizing style along the campaign trail. They saw his focus and certitude and they believe in his competence.

As was said in Wednesday’s USA Today: “If racial prejudice and mistrust die in a thousand moments of progress, this is the most important one in a long, long time.”

No one helped that thought along more Tuesday night than Republican candidate John McCain, who once again showed what a good man he is.

His concession speech was full of grace and good will and showed more than anything how much he loves his country. He’s given long service and much sacrifice to our nation, has stood up to the most partisan of advocates and regularly has reached across the Congressional aisle and shown the power of compromise to get something done.

In the years to come, it would be great to see him playing a pivotal role with the new president in moving this country back in the right direction again.

I know there are some people who still don’t get it. As I do almost every day, I stopped by the United Dairy Farmers store at Brown and Stewart Streets early this morning and a guy had just been in there on a rant that was full of prejudicial passion.

He told everyone “This is the worst thing to happen to American… It’s the end of the world.”

The end of his world maybe — and we are the better for that.

As I watched the returns come in last night — and saw the huge crowds gathered across the country from Chicago’s Grant Park to Times Square in New York City — I remembered a scene that struck me three days after the Olympics ended this past summer. I was still in Beijing, staying at a media village that housed people from all over the world.

I walked into our communal dining area for breakfast that Wednesday morning and saw everyone — people from across Europe, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean — all fixated on the television. It was tuned to CNN and because of the time difference. it was still Tuesday night here in the U.S.

Everyone was watching the Democratic Convention. People were mesmerized by it. They all wanted to know what was going to happen in America.

A couple of days ago, I got a phone call from one of my best friends — a columnist in London — and all he talked about was the election. He wanted to know how Ohio would vote, what black athletes thought, what people in the farmlands of northwest Ohio where I’m from were thinking.

Another columnist at his paper — prefacing a recent story with “why so many of us love the United States,” — noted how the first 26 U.S. presidents could have owned the possible 44th as a piece of property and then marveled about the remarkable transformations our nation undergoes.

And then this morning, I got the biggest surprise.

I got an e-mail from a sportswriter I know in Estonia. His message contained just four words:

“Your country is amazing!”

Like I said, I’m proud today.

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blog: Obama and McCain feel embrace of sports

By Tom Archdeacon | Monday, November 3, 2008, 04:31 PM

On the eve of Tuesday’s presidential election, here’s one thing that stands out.

Sports and politics in America haven’t been this intertwined in a generation.

Tonight — in their last major chance to appeal to Americans during a much-watched spot on prime-time television — Democratic hopeful Barack Obama and his Republican counterpart, John McCain both will make half-time appearances during the Monday Night Football game between the the Pittsburgh Steelers and the host Washington Redskins.

Earlier today each candidate was to be interviewed separately by MNF half-time anchor Chris “Boomer” Berman and those tapes will be shown at the mid-game intermission. Since Monday Night Football has been averaging 12.2 million viewers this season, the audience will be substantial.

By the way, Obama first appeared on MNF on Dec. 11, 2006, when he opened the broadcast of a game involving his hometown Chicago Bears by poking fun at his upcoming official announcement that he’d run for president.

“I am ready,” Obama said before donning a Bears cap and grinning, “for the Bears to go all the way, baby!”

When it came time for the official nominations, both candidates got them at big sports venues. Obama accepted his at Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos, while McCain got his at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, home of the NHL Minnesota Wild.

In the months that have followed, sports owners, coaches and even pro athletes — too often more comfortable side-stepping politics and throwing their support to either Nike or Reebok, where they can make a buck — have gotten behind either Obama or McCain.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Los Angles Lakers forward Luke Walton, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Bengals linebacker Dhani Jones, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker, Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney and long-time Republican Charles Barkley all are supporting Obama.

So are Magic Johnson, Detroit Pistons President Joe Dumars, Penn State QB coach Jay Paterno, Portland Trailblazers big man Greg Oden, Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Phoenix Suns forward Grant Hill, former NFL running backs Marshall Faulk and Emmitt Smith and Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi.

Muhammad Ali posed with Obama on a 2007 cover of Vanity Fair magazine, and was in the audience in August when Obama addressed the Democratic National Convention.

James donated $20,000 to a pro-Obama committee and led a Last Chance Rally for Change last month in Cleveland along with entertainer Jay-Z.

Even Michael Jordan — usually political Milquetoast — has contributed the maximum $2,300 to the Obama Victory Fund.

In turn, McCain’s supporters include John Elway, Troy Aikman, Nolan Ryan, Jack Nicklaus and Richard Petty. Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn and tackle Joe Thomas both took the stage at a rally in northeast Ohio and publicly embraced McCain.

Among McCain’s donors are NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Phoenix Suns chairman Jerry Colangelo, former University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

McCain’s biggest athletic supporter has been Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. The two men have been friends since 2000, when Schilling joined the Arizona Diamondbacks..

The two have worked together on a variety of issues including melanoma — both McCain and Schilling’s wife, Shonda, are survivors of skin-cancer — and the pitcher has been on the campaign stage with the Republican hopeful several times.

One of Obama’s most fervent backers has been veteran NBA center Alonzo Mourning, who last played for the Miami Heat and spent much of the past offseason at rallies and colleges around Florida, registering voters along with former Georgetown teammate Patrick Ewing and encouraging everyone to vote for Obama.

As he told MBCSport.com Ethan Skolnick of NBCSport.com:

“Unfortunately, people are afraid of memorabilia sales, endorsements, political biases, things of that nature. I’m not concerned about that. I’m not afraid to stand up to what I believe in. We live in a country where we have that God-given right.

“It’s up to us as adults to educate our younger people on that right, and to remind them of the people that lost their lives for them to have that right, to make a decision that will dictate their futures. I’m not ashamed to bring up the past, and helping people understand what their future will be.”

This political season several other sports figures have felt the same.

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