After the game up date:
CONGRATULATIONS to those Louisiana Tigers who have won the national BCS championship. http://www.lsusports.net/
I was surprised to learn the LSU head football coach, Les Miles, is a native of Elyria, Ohio. He played and later coached for the University of Michigan's Bo Schlembacher.
http://www.secsportsfan.com/les-miles-biography.html
Buck up you Buckeyes -- you're still winners -- there's always next year!
Written before the game:
Ohio State University and Louisiana State University representing the NCAA' s Big Ten Conference and the Southeastern Conference, respectively, are set to play each other at New Orlean's Louisiana Superdome in the 2007 national Bowl Championship Series BCS.) Ohio State has been designated as the "underdog" in this game.
Some folks prefer to support winners. Others pride themselves in championing the underdog's cause. The criteria for applying the "underdog" label is sometimes loosely used, but those who do so are usually well-intentioned. The result when that happens, though, is we don't always agree on who is really an "underdog."
Readers of earlier posts I've written, know the Ohio State University Buckeyes past two football seasons have assumed a special significance for me since my husband's death two years ago. He was an avid OSU fan of his alma mater's team. Then, his older sister, in her eighties, who religiously attended every game, though she had not been an Ohio State graduate, joined him this past year. I have fantasized here that they resolved some of their serious (to them, but especially her) disagreements from previous years, over the fortunes of this team, which enabled OSU to have the winning season they did in '06, but lapsed for their final bowl game.
Well, I'm convinced these family members have come to some 'meeting of the minds,' possibly with the counsel of many great sportsmen with whom they've been able to consult in that great football stadium in the sky. They're up there with Woody Hayes, a famed OSU coach in his heydey and whose teams my husband and I witnessed win many a game in the horseshoe shaped stadium in Columbus, Ohio.
Another expert able to offer them his perspective on the game, Bo Schlembacher, an Asst. Coach, with Hayes, later became the winningest coach in the University of Michigan's history. Michigan and Ohio State have continued to be arch rivals in the NCAA's Big Ten Conference.
I believe we have two winner teams in this BCS bowl game, that on any given game day, one could defeat the other. I think my husband and his sister have finally managed to merge their two perspectives and coaching styles, that the results of this game will reflect their strength working together with an outcome they would each desire.
Yeah, I'll be rooting for those Ohio State Buckeyes to win that national championship title.
Showing posts with label Ohio State University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ohio State University. Show all posts
Monday, January 07, 2008
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Rivalry at the 50 Yard Line
Affected by Siblings
in Heaven ?
Who in their right mind wants to crawl out of bed at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning just to watch a football game on television? For reasons beyond my ken, I'm likely going to do just that a little later this morning. So what if it's a long time rivalry between two famous teams, the Ohio State University Buckeyes and the University of Michigan Wolverines. I think viewing a football game at that early morning hour seems a bit strange, but due to the three hour time difference between many Big Ten Conference Team locales and West Coast time, that's when the game starts. Starting that early can make for a really long day of football in many households as it once did here, for my husband, but he thrived on what would have been sports overload for me.
These football teams are each others arch enemy. They can be counted on to upset the other's winning streaks in any given year, so it should be an exciting game. For the second year since my husband's death, I find myself drawn to watching this game on television on his behalf, I guess, for reasons I do not understand. I just cannot excise this game from my thoughts since learning the action is to be televised locally. The last time we saw Ohio State play was in San Diego some years ago at the Fiesta Bowl. Their appearance triggered so many memories for me at that time, I actually got a bit weepy-eyed when Ohio State's famous marching band took the field forming their unique "Script Ohio" (see a YouTube video) -- an old friend, Merv Durea, had once earned the honor of "dotting" the "i" in Ohio. Later during the game the band launched into John Tatgenhorst's popular arrangement of "Hang On Sloopy" -- more memories for me of our flying days when that OSU alumnus and his young wife joined us on a flying trip to the Sandusky /Lake Erie area of the Great Lakes.
You see, the Buckeye's were my husband's favorite team, as might be expected of an OSU alumnus who spent so many years living in the Buckeye's home town. He likely might have had an Ohio State football scholarship the fall after he graduated from high school, had it not been for two significant factors. World War II caused OSU's athletic program to be placed on hold and he was diagnosed with a serious medical problem requiring his lengthy hospitalization. Many years later when we met and married, the team's horseshoe shaped football stadium sometimes accommodated us in the stands. We watched as their fabled coach, Woody Hayes, repeatedly guided the team to victory through primarily ground play -- a running game characterized as "ten yards and a cloud of dust."
A few years later when we moved to the West, one of the great disappointments my husband experienced was his inability to regularly view his Big Ten Conference OSU Buckeyes on TV. Even the local Los Angeles Times newspaper sports pages relegated news of his team to very little commentary, if any at all. For reasons he did not want to accept, the college and university teams of the area in which we lived always took priority gaining press attention over his Buckeyes. His sister, commiserating with his plight, sent him a game program after attending each year's opening home game, clipped all sorts of newspaper clippings regarding the team and sent them to him. National networks often televised Ohio State's games, but they were not aired in our region, again catering to local preferences, much to his displeasure. So, when such a game was actually available to view here, my husband's plans revolved around the start time schedule for the event. Perhaps I'm conditioned now to do the same, at least this year again, I guess.
Ohio State's undefeated season last year was one my husband had longed for them to experience for many years. When that finally happened, I couldn't help wondering if somehow where he resides now, behind those pearly gates, he was able to exercise some ethereal influence that enabled the team's success. Unfortunately, he must have been distracted when they later played that bowl game that didn't turn out quite right. But that was last season.
A few weeks ago, his sister, an equally or even more avid Ohio State fan joined him. She was in her eighties, attended home games religiously with their season tickets even after her husband died. I think she and her brother (my husband) are putting their heads together in an effort to enable this team to have another winning season. The Buckeye team has had an unexpectedly spectacular season until being upset in their most recent game. I have to tell you I think that loss happened because he and his sister are butting heads as siblings sometimes do. They're still trying to agree on what various individual players need to do to improve their game. More importantly, I suspect their individual views are quite divergent on how best to coach this team to another winning season. I surely do hope they've gotten their differences worked out, 'because game time is fast approaching as I write this.
I must get to bed now, because I want to see the very opening of the game's televised coverage, just in case that's when the Ohio State Marching Band plays, and performs(see YouTube Video) the "Script Ohio" formation.(See YouTube Video.) I'd prefer to see all the bands at half-time, but corporate greed dictates the television network programs video clips of other games that viewers could easily wait to see later and talking heads spew their replay analysis with statistics during that time. (See YouTube Video University of Michigan Marching Band at a half time Rose Bowl performance.)
in Heaven ?
Who in their right mind wants to crawl out of bed at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning just to watch a football game on television? For reasons beyond my ken, I'm likely going to do just that a little later this morning. So what if it's a long time rivalry between two famous teams, the Ohio State University Buckeyes and the University of Michigan Wolverines. I think viewing a football game at that early morning hour seems a bit strange, but due to the three hour time difference between many Big Ten Conference Team locales and West Coast time, that's when the game starts. Starting that early can make for a really long day of football in many households as it once did here, for my husband, but he thrived on what would have been sports overload for me.
These football teams are each others arch enemy. They can be counted on to upset the other's winning streaks in any given year, so it should be an exciting game. For the second year since my husband's death, I find myself drawn to watching this game on television on his behalf, I guess, for reasons I do not understand. I just cannot excise this game from my thoughts since learning the action is to be televised locally. The last time we saw Ohio State play was in San Diego some years ago at the Fiesta Bowl. Their appearance triggered so many memories for me at that time, I actually got a bit weepy-eyed when Ohio State's famous marching band took the field forming their unique "Script Ohio" (see a YouTube video) -- an old friend, Merv Durea, had once earned the honor of "dotting" the "i" in Ohio. Later during the game the band launched into John Tatgenhorst's popular arrangement of "Hang On Sloopy" -- more memories for me of our flying days when that OSU alumnus and his young wife joined us on a flying trip to the Sandusky /Lake Erie area of the Great Lakes.
You see, the Buckeye's were my husband's favorite team, as might be expected of an OSU alumnus who spent so many years living in the Buckeye's home town. He likely might have had an Ohio State football scholarship the fall after he graduated from high school, had it not been for two significant factors. World War II caused OSU's athletic program to be placed on hold and he was diagnosed with a serious medical problem requiring his lengthy hospitalization. Many years later when we met and married, the team's horseshoe shaped football stadium sometimes accommodated us in the stands. We watched as their fabled coach, Woody Hayes, repeatedly guided the team to victory through primarily ground play -- a running game characterized as "ten yards and a cloud of dust."
A few years later when we moved to the West, one of the great disappointments my husband experienced was his inability to regularly view his Big Ten Conference OSU Buckeyes on TV. Even the local Los Angeles Times newspaper sports pages relegated news of his team to very little commentary, if any at all. For reasons he did not want to accept, the college and university teams of the area in which we lived always took priority gaining press attention over his Buckeyes. His sister, commiserating with his plight, sent him a game program after attending each year's opening home game, clipped all sorts of newspaper clippings regarding the team and sent them to him. National networks often televised Ohio State's games, but they were not aired in our region, again catering to local preferences, much to his displeasure. So, when such a game was actually available to view here, my husband's plans revolved around the start time schedule for the event. Perhaps I'm conditioned now to do the same, at least this year again, I guess.
Ohio State's undefeated season last year was one my husband had longed for them to experience for many years. When that finally happened, I couldn't help wondering if somehow where he resides now, behind those pearly gates, he was able to exercise some ethereal influence that enabled the team's success. Unfortunately, he must have been distracted when they later played that bowl game that didn't turn out quite right. But that was last season.
A few weeks ago, his sister, an equally or even more avid Ohio State fan joined him. She was in her eighties, attended home games religiously with their season tickets even after her husband died. I think she and her brother (my husband) are putting their heads together in an effort to enable this team to have another winning season. The Buckeye team has had an unexpectedly spectacular season until being upset in their most recent game. I have to tell you I think that loss happened because he and his sister are butting heads as siblings sometimes do. They're still trying to agree on what various individual players need to do to improve their game. More importantly, I suspect their individual views are quite divergent on how best to coach this team to another winning season. I surely do hope they've gotten their differences worked out, 'because game time is fast approaching as I write this.
I must get to bed now, because I want to see the very opening of the game's televised coverage, just in case that's when the Ohio State Marching Band plays, and performs(see YouTube Video) the "Script Ohio" formation.(See YouTube Video.) I'd prefer to see all the bands at half-time, but corporate greed dictates the television network programs video clips of other games that viewers could easily wait to see later and talking heads spew their replay analysis with statistics during that time. (See YouTube Video University of Michigan Marching Band at a half time Rose Bowl performance.)
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