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Thursday, November 01, 2007
ST. HENRY — These days — at least up here — even the best "I do" is no match for OSU.
"I went to a wedding over in Fort Recovery this past Saturday," said Al Stammen. "The place was packed, but then right before 8 p.m., the whole place emptied out. They had an open bar, but no TV, and it was time for Ohio State-Penn State.
Extras
"I felt sorry for the bride and groom, but I guess that's what they get for scheduling a wedding in the middle of football season."
Matt Stelzer — standing across the bar from Stammen at Fish-Mo's, the St. Henry saloon he owns that's sort of the Smithsonian to suds and sports in this town — agreed:
"We've had a lot of that this year. People say, 'What were you thinking?' "
It's not that folks around this Mercer County town don't appreciate a good tie-the-knot time. In fact, in trading the wedding for a TV screen, they were celebrating what's become a perfect marriage this fall:
The Ohio State Buckeyes, ranked No. 1 in the nation, are being quarterbacked by one of their own: St. Henry High School product Todd Boeckman.
That he's the son of Tim Boeckman — St. Henry's athletic director and former football coach whose teams won four state crowns — means everyone has watched Todd grow up.
He was on the sidelines since, as Tim smilingly puts it, "he could walk and mostly behave himself." From water boy, Todd eventually became the starting quarterback for four years.
He's also the latest in a string of favorite sons — seven have gone, five have played — who've joined the Bucks football team.
"It seems like every 10 years we have someone go on to play big-time college football," said Bobby Hoying, Ohio's Mr. Football at St. Henry before quarterbacking the Bucks and in the NFL.
"The one thing that's different between Todd and me is that I got thrown right into the fire my sophomore year at Ohio State, and he had a lot of time to sit back and watch some great guys."
Boeckman had so much time — two years of grayshirt and redshirt limbo — that many people doubted him when he took over this year for Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith.
Tim said when Nike produced OSU jerseys for the souvenir shops at the start of season, his son's No. 17 was not among them because of the so-called "question" at quarterback.
That's why Charlie Gels — who runs Gels IGA — hooked up with a Piqua company to print salable jerseys bearing Boeckman's No. 17 and the No. 51 of OSU linebacker Ross Homan from Coldwater.
The other day, Gels had one Boeckman jersey left and said he couldn't get any more: "They made two batches for me and said that was it, but I think Todd's gonna force them to think otherwise."
Last Saturday, Boeckman threw three touchdown passes as Ohio State ran roughshod over Penn State. With 21 TD passes on the season, he's now third in the nation in passing efficiency and this week was named one of 15 semifinalists for the Davey O'Brien Award, which goes to the nation's top quarterback.
"It's like 'pinch me, pinch me,' " Tim said with a grin. "It's like, 'Is this really happening?' "
Rallying around OSU
St. Henry — one of those little towns in the upper reaches of the Miami Valley — lies in the middle of a flat, farm-field landscape broken only by church steeples, grain silos and the light poles at football fields of places such as Coldwater, Versailles, Minster and Marion Local.
But no place is like St. Henry.
While the town has two stoplights and no fastfood restaurants or movie theaters, it does have — as the big signs on the outskirts of town proclaim — 19 state titles in four sports to its name.
It also boasts four pro athletes — OSU All-America lineman Jim Lachey, who was an NFL All-Pro; Jeff Hartings, another All-Pro lineman just retired from the Pittsburgh Steelers; Hoying; and Cincinnati Reds great Wally Post.
As for why the town produces so many state champs and big-time athletes, no one has an exact answer.
"I think it's the tradition we have here, the work ethic and the fact there's been some examples for each group of kids to follow," said Ken Lachey, who was wearing his son Jim's Big Ten championship ring and Rose Bowl jacket when he stopped for lunch at Fish-Mo's.
In this area, everyone seems to embrace Ohio State football, which is why McSober's Saloon in nearby Coldwater — run by Todd's older brother Trent and Mike Moorman — sells 17-cent hot dogs (Boeckman's number) and 51-cent draft beers (a nod to Homan) on OSU game days.
"During the Michigan game, everyone goes out at halftime and we do Script Ohio," Moorman said. "People bring old instruments, someone has a baton, and we even dot the i."
Still, no place outdoes Fish-Mo's, where the walls are decorated with Ohio State and St. Henry memorabilia.
While Todd Boeckman has one picture in Fish-Mo's, it's younger brother Toby who has the most famous keepsake in the bar.
As is tradition, each state championship team dances across the bar at Fish-Mo's. With the place packed, Stelzer gives the players special "At St. Henry we talk the talk ... then we walk the walk" T-shirts. Then Queen's "We Are The Champions" is blasted from the bar's speakers.
"The whole thing doesn't last real long, but it's the neatest thing you can imagine," Stelzer said. "Kids are crying. Parents are crying. Everyone's high-fiving everybody else."
Which brings us to Toby, who forgot about the opening that allows the barkeep passage back and forth. He fell, gashed a shin and ended up with stitches.
Stammen said that problem has been solved: "Some of the parents got a piece of wood supported by two-by-fours for the opening. It's called The Toby Boeckman Bridge."
Improving every week
As for Todd, rather than a connecting span, some worried he'd be the gaping chasm for this year's team.
"Everybody I talked to at the start of the season was nervous," Stelzer said. "It was our kid, and you want nothing but good for him. But he'd been on the sidelines so long, you didn't want him to go out, throw eight interceptions in three games and never heard from again."
Even Tim admits some early-season trepidation: "The scariest thing in my mind was, after four years, would there be some rust?
"But he always said you had to remember that he ran the scout team for three years, so every day in practice he went against one of the best defenses in the country. That's a great way to learn, and now each week, he's growing more and more into the job."
And because his line is keeping him upright and his receivers are catching almost everything he throws, Todd wanted to reward them, his dad said with a laugh:
"He called and asked me for some money. He wanted to take his lineman out to eat, and then his receivers and backs."
Although he phones every fall Friday night to find out how St. Henry High did, Boeckman rarely comes home. There are the rigors of football and the fact he has a steady girlfriend, Shannon Heacock, daughter of OSU defensive coordinator Jim Heacock.
Townsfolk, though, keep dropping off balls, caps, jerseys and pictures with Tim and Trent, asking them to get Todd to sign them after games. Each week the box of souvenirs keeps getting bigger.
"There were doubters, but they've all become believers now," Trent said with a grin. "They realize Todd's really fit into the quarterback's role at Ohio State."
And that's just the kind of marital bliss all those folks who fled the wedding were looking for last Saturday night.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2156 or tarchdeacon@DaytonDailyNews.com.
