Kudos To A Coach

I can’t say that I was shocked by Urban Meyer’s announcement today that he is retiring as the head football coach at The Ohio State University.  There have been too many news stories — and way too much speculation — about his health issues to make the decision a true surprise.  And I can’t say that I regret his decision, either.  He obviously needs to put his family, and his health, first.

I’d like to thank Coach Meyer for his hard work at a very demanding, and at times thankless, job.  He’s provided some great moments for the millions of members of Buckeye Nation.  We won’t forget his perfect, 7-0 record against That Team Up North, and I’ll never forget the Buckeyes’ dominant performance in Dallas when they brought home a national championship.  Coach Meyer brought the football program at The Ohio State University to a higher level than it has ever occupied before.

But Coach Meyer wasn’t just about wins and losses.  He has been, first and foremost, a coach.  Anyone who’s ever been coached, or has ever tried to coach others, knows how difficult it can be.  Coaches are motivators, teachers, mentors, supporters, challengers, and a mixture of a bunch of other important characteristics and roles.  Good coaches can mold young people and make them better, and great coaches know when a player could use a hug — and when a player needs a kick in the butt instead.

Urban Meyer is a great coach by anyone’s measure.  His record establishes that beyond any rational argument.  But if you really want to know what kind of coach he was, pay attention to what his former players say about him.  Their tributes make it clear that he has been a influential figure for many young men who appreciated his guidance and learned from his teaching and his example.

Some people hate Coach Meyer and have long been eager to malign him.  I suspect that much of that ugliness is due to resentment about his astounding success.  But if you really want to know what kind of figure he has been at The Ohio State University, you should listen to the players.  They’ll tell you in no uncertain terms what kind of coach, and person, Urban Meyer really is.

Good luck to you, Coach Meyer, and Godspeed!

Milking Moola From The Midwest Cash Cow

Recently the University of Michigan announced its operating budget for 2018.  Normally a red-blooded Buckeye wouldn’t pay attention to anything having to do with That School Up North, but in this case we’ll make an exception, because the operating budget included information about how much money TSUN expects to receive from the Big Ten as its conference revenue distribution next year.

And the projected revenue number (drum roll, please) is:  $51.1 million.  That $51.1 million in expected revenue distribution will go not only to the despised Maize and Blue, but also to the good guys in Scarlet and Gray and all of the other schools in the 14-member Big Ten Conference.  Do the math, and you will quickly determine that the Big Ten will be dishing out more than $700 million to the schools that are lucky enough to be part of the Old Conference in 2018.  Say, do you think the school administrators and athletic directors at Rutgers and Maryland are happy about their decision to join the Big Ten back in 2014?

The story linked above says the big driver of the Big Ten’s enormous projected 2018 distribution is TV revenue.  The Big Ten’s TV deal is expected to produce $2.6 billion in revenue over six years, generating lots of money to dole out to Big Ten members.  The Conference has been pretty far-sighted in maximizing its TV revenue, having created its own network before other conferences did and driving a hard bargain in its negotiations with networks.  The Big Ten has two aces in the hole that give it incredible leverage:  huge schools with lots of graduates and supporters who are spread out around the country, are passionate about sports (primarily football), and want to watch their team play every weekend during the fall, and a conference that now stretches from Nebraska all the way east to New Jersey and Maryland, covering many of the biggest media markets in the country.

The $51.1 million in projected Big Ten revenue for 2018 is just each member school’s share of the Big Ten’s common revenue.  The powerhouse schools like Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State also generate lots of cash from their individual merchandising, licensing and “partnering” deals.  Those schools know that their fans want to wear their school’s gear and put up school merchandise in their dens and family rooms and “man caves,” and they’ve got prized brands that also contribute lots of dough to the bottom line.   We’ve reached the point where educational institutions have developed, and now own, some of the most valuable brands, logos, and mascots in U.S. commerce.

In the largely midwestern footprint of the Big Ten, football is a cash cow that produces lots of moola.  The Big Ten Conference and its member schools are milking that cow for all it’s worth.

Connecting City And Campus

The Ohio State University has long been a huge part of what life in Columbus is all about. Residents of our fair city know that the college is a key driver of its economy and social and cultural activities.  Now the University wants prospective and current students to understand that Columbus can and should be a big part of their college experience, too.

This wasn’t always the case.  When I was at OSU in the ’70s, campus was the exclusive focal point of student life.  Living “off-campus” simply meant one of the at-that-time run-down areas right next to campus.  I covered the Statehouse for the Lantern so I drove downtown regularly, but that was just because it was part of my beat.  The city really didn’t seem to offer much of interest to my campus-oriented world — but many of us ended up staying in Columbus after graduation, anyway, because there were jobs here.

Columbus has gotten a lot more interesting since those days.  Back then, the Short North was a scary place of vacant storefronts and XXX theaters; now it is a thriving, uber-cool neighborhood of shops, restaurants, and art galleries.  The Arena District, another focal point of the Columbus social/cultural scene, didn’t exist.  Downtown was a sea of surface parking lots that closed down about 6 p.m.  And German Village — where the initial wave of rehabbing was still underway — seemed incredibly far away.  Now all of those areas not only are much more interesting, they also are easy (and cheap) to reach via COTA’s free CBUS circulator, which runs on a continuous loop from Victorian Village right next to campus down High Street to German Village and back again.

Colleges are competing fiercely for students, to the point of building lavish dorms and state-of-the-art workout facilities and other amenities.  If the school happens to be located in a city that features lots of great social and cultural activities and economic opportunities, why not feature that in its marketing effort as a point of distinction with schools located in small-town America?  Ohio State’s decision to tout Columbus to its current and future students is not only good for the city, it’s probably good for the University, too.

Back To The J-School

From 1977 to 1979, I spent huge amounts of time in an unassuming brick building tucked away at an anonymous intersection on the sprawling campus of the Ohio State University.  It was the home of the School of Journalism, known to its denizens as the “J-School.”  It was where I met Kish and where my friends were, and the epicenter of my little college universe was the Ohio State Lantern newsroom found on the second floor.

Last Friday afternoon I had the chance to go back again, thanks to a kind invitation from Dan Caterinicchia (who helpfully goes by “Dan Cat”), the Director of Student Media at OSU and faculty advisor to the Lantern.  Dan asked if I would come out and talk to his class of Lantern reporters, purportedly to discuss journalism ethics but in reality to give an aging ex-reporter a chance to share some memories with fresh young people about a time and place that still evokes many warm feelings.

During my visit I got a chance to see the Lantern newsroom, pictured above, which has changed tremendously since my era at the J-School.  During the ’70s the newsroom was a long room that ran almost the entire length of the building.  It was filled with rows of desks covered with electric typewriters where reporters were furiously typing copy, pods of desks where copy editors and section editors were marking up stories, a dark and smelly photo lab, and a “wire room” where constantly clattering marchines were spitting out reams of reports from the Associated Press and United Press International.

There was a tremendous buzz and energy in that long room, with reporters trying to meet their deadlines and the pressure of putting out a newspaper that was published every weekday and distributed to a community of more than 50,000 critical readers.  The newsroom was filled with an ever-present blue haze of stale cigarette smoke because everyone seemed to smoke like fiends in those less cancer-conscious days.  The ashtrays were dented silver film canisters, and they were always jammed to overflowing with crushed butts.

For an aspiring reporter, it was a little slice of journalistic heaven that made you feel like you were part of a real newsroom — and you were.  When I worked briefly for the Toledo Blade after graduation, the look and feel of its newsroom was not materially different from that of the Lantern.  I felt like my J-School experience had trained me well.

The newsroom looks a lot different now.  The long room has been cut in two, with one half devoted to a TV studio for Lantern TV.  The newsroom part is smaller, cleaner, and quieter.  There is no need for the long desks of typewriters or the noisy wire room, because reporters can just type their copy on laptops and email it to the editors, who work on huge Apple computers to put the newspaper together.  There’s no indoor smoking, either, which is a good thing.  Although a lot has changed, I imagine that the Lantern staffers of our day and of the present day would quickly find common ground — at least, the stack of empty pizza boxes on a trash can at one corner of the newsroom suggested as much.

I was a bit flummoxed about what to talk to the class of Lantern reporters about, but the flow of memories and stories came easily and the students listened respectfully.  Dan made things easier by calling up some of the newspapers and stories of my day — the Lantern now has a terrific, easily accessible on-line archive of its editions from 1881 to 1997, available here — and displaying them on a large screen as we talked. I’m not sure the students got anything out of the talk, other than random recollections and references to cultural touchstones that are now decades out of date, but it was fun to remember some of the issues and challenges that we struggled with so long ago.

I was impressed by the journalism students, who seemed as bright and inquisitive and interested in the world as the J-School rats of the ’70s that became my friends — but much more polite, of course.  And I also was impressed by Dan Caterinicchia, who has an excellent record of work as a professional journalist with the AP and also obviously has a  good rapport with his students and a keen eye for how to keep the Lantern meaningful in a changing, digital, social media world.

I would say to my fellow ex-Lanternites — and you know who you are — that the Lantern is in good hands, and that the J-School, and the on-line archive, are worth a visit.

Mumps On Campus

The Ohio State University is reporting an outbreak of 23 cases of mumps on campus. Eighteen students and one staff member — as well as others with links to the University community — apparently have the disease.

Mumps is one of those diseases, like scarlet fever or measles, that people used to get as kids before vaccines became commonplace. I had mumps when I was a tot, and so did all of the kids in my family. I remember being tired and having a sore throat and swollen glands, but getting to eat ice cream and drink 7-Up and read Archie comic books in bed made it bearable.

We tend to think of childhood diseases as not so serious, and usually they aren’t — at least, not if you get them when you’re a kid. If you get mumps as an adult, however, it can have more serious consequences, including swelling in some tender areas for post-pubescent males. Mumps also is the kind of disease that sounds tailor-made for transmission in a college campus setting. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

“Mumps is spread by droplets of saliva or mucus from the mouth, nose, or throat of an infected person, usually when the person coughs, sneezes, or talks. Items used by an infected person, such as soft drink cans or eating utensils, can also be contaminated with the virus, which may spread to others if those items are shared. In addition, the virus may spread when someone with mumps touches items or surfaces without washing their hands and someone else then touches the same surface and rubs their mouth or nose.”

Now, compare that description of mumps transmission to the close quarters and hygiene standards found in the off-campus residences and dorm rooms maintained by college students, and you’ll soon find yourself wondering how big an outbreak of mumps on a college campus could become. (If you’re an Ohio State basketball fan, you also find yourself hoping that all of the members of the team have been vaccinated.)

Which raises one final point: you don’t get mumps if you had it as a kid or you’ve been vaccinated. I thought vaccinations for mumps was pretty universal in the United States. An outbreak of 23 cases of the mumps suggests that understanding may be unfounded — which is deeply troubling. Aren’t parents getting basic vaccinations for their kids these days? If they aren’t, why not? It makes you wonder if other basic public health steps are being ignored, and what other outbreaks and consequences might lie in store for us as a result.

French For A Dummy

I’m going to be spending some time in France in a few months, so I’ve decided to brush up on my French language skills.  Actually, calling them “skills” isn’t quite accurate — unless the meaning of “skills” can be stretched to include a capability that really doesn’t exist.  I can read a little French, and I remember that jambon means ham, but that’s really about as far as it goes.

I took French in junior high school, in high school, and at OSU until I met my language requirements.  Despite these years of patient instruction, I never moved past the most basic levels.  Not surprisingly, my French class memories don’t involve having rapid-fire conversations with proud and dazzled teachers.  Instead, I remember trying to get some “extra credit” by helping my high school French teacher decorate her classroom for Christmas.  To my befuddlement, she wanted me to hang up the letters of the alphabet.  After I did so, she asked me if I got the reference.  When  gave her a confused look in response, she gestured at the letters, barked out a short Gallic laugh, and said “No L!”  I shrugged at this weak example of French humor, then remembered that sophisticates in that country considered Jerry Lewis a genius.

In college, our pleasant if somewhat beefy French instructor wanted to give the class an example of the importance of precise pronunciation.  She explained that, during a recent visit to Paris, she was being pestered by a beret-wearing, cigarette-smoking man.  She meant to dismiss him with a gruff cochon, which means pig, but instead she said couchons, which unfortunately suggested a desire to do the horizontal bop.  She then barked out a short Gallic laugh as the members of the class snickered at her embarrassing predicament.  The only other things I remember from my college French classes are that we students thought mangez mes sous-vetements, which means “eat my shorts,” was a hilarious insult even though the exasperated teacher pointed out that the French never use that phrase, and we also put n’est ce pas? at the end of every conceivable statement because it at least ended our halting sentences with a smooth closing.

So, trying to get up to speed on French in a few months is probably futile — especially since studies indicate that trying to acquire new language skills becomes more difficult with age.  I’m going to try anyway.  I’ve reserved some French language instruction CDs from the library and am going to listen to them on our morning walks.  I’m starting with French for Dummies.  The title is a bit insulting — but it’s probably accurate, n’est ce pas?

College Changes, College Stays The Same

Yesterday I attended an excellent “On The Road” presentation by the Ohioana Library Association.  It focused on the history of the Ohio State University and included a trip to the recently renovated William Oxley Thompson Library at the apex of the Oval in the heart of the OSU campus.

Our visit coincided with move-in day for students.  When I looked into the beautiful reading room at the library, pictured above, I was surprised to see a number of students reading and working, even though classes have not begun.  Wow, I thought — college really has changed a lot since I got my degree so long ago.

Then we got back onto our bus and drove back to Ohioana, and on the way we passed some off-campus housing where three shirtless guys — one of whom nevertheless wore a tie — were drinking beer in front of a hand-painted bedsheet sign that read “Daughter Drop-Off.”  A block or so later we passed a big keg party featured people dancing on the roof of a porch.  So . . . maybe college hasn’t changed that much after all.

A plug for the Ohioana On The Road programs:  they’re great.  You can get more information about them here.

Fun With Dog Butt

More (Sigh) Black Eyes For The Scarlet And Gray

Today the Ohio State football team, through Head Coach Urban Meyer, announced disciplinary action against four — four! — student athletes.

Running back Carlos Hyde was suspended from football activities pending the outcome of criminal and student code of conduct investigations.  Hyde reportedly was named in a police report relating to an alleged assault of a woman in a Columbus bar.  In the meantime, cornerback Bradley Roby was involved in a disturbance in a bar in Bloomington, Indiana and faces misdemeanor battery charges.  A freshman, Marcus Baugh, won’t be participating in team activities and will have to sit out the first game after being arrested for underage possession of alcohol, and yet another freshman, defensive lineman Tim Gardner, was sent home and will not be part of the 2013 team after being charged by Columbus police with “obstruction of official business.”

I hate to read this kind of news, because it is an embarrassment to the University.  It plays into every stereotype about Ohio State being a football factory.  After dealing with a series of NCAA violations that left the team ineligible for a bowl last year, the Buckeyes had been working hard to refurbish the team’s, and the school’s, reputation.  This news just makes the effort to restore the University’s reputation that much harder.

I recognize that student-athletes are young, and young people often make bad decisions.  That rationale may work for freshmen, but there is no excuse for upperclassmen like Hyde and Roby to be in a bar in the wee hours, putting themselves in a position where bad things predictably could happen.  They are supposed to be leaders, not problems.  Rather than setting good examples, they’ve made Urban Meyer’s job that much more difficult — and have provided more fodder for more crass jokes and snide comments about The Ohio State University.

“Ohio’s Public Ivy”

If you’ve been in or around central Ohio recently, you’ve probably seen the signs or heard the radio spots.  They tout Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, as “Ohio’s Public Ivy.”

I think Miami is a fine school.  Although I am a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, many of my high school friends went to Miami, as did my cousin and a number of my current and former co-workers.  Tucked in the southwest corner of the state, it’s a well-regarded school that has many satisfied and loyal graduates.

But . . . “Ohio’s Public Ivy”?  It’s kind of a strange slogan, isn’t it?  I suppose “Ivy League” schools are associated with academic excellence, and that’s what Miami’s campaign is trying to invoke.  But “Ivy League” schools also suggest privilege, and arrogance, and snobbery, and other qualities that don’t really fit all that well with a heartland state like Ohio.

And, let’s face it — “Ohio’s Public Ivy” has a bit of a desperate wannabe element to it.  Miami isn’t an Ivy League school, and won’t be, so why is it trying to trade on an Ivy League rep?  Why not just stand on your own, and be proud of where you are and what you are?

That’s why I like “The Ohio State University.”  I know the “The” drives some people crazy, but I think it sends a message about the school and its pride about what it is.  It’s not trying to be anything else.

Goodbye Gordon Gee

According to the Columbus Dispatch and other news reports, Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee has announced that he is retiring, effective July 1.

Gee’s retirement comes on the heels of some ill-advised comments about Catholics that were intended as humor but struck many people as disparaging.  Gee insists that he is not retiring because of the comments, but rather because of his age and the University’s need for long-term planning.  Whatever the real reason might be, it’s clear that Gee’s jibes about Catholics — and some of the other curious comments he has made in recent years — have not been well-received by some members of the University community.  His most recent remarks were criticized by the President of the Board of Trustees and he was put on a remediation plan that sought to change his behavior.

Gee, 69, served twice as the University’s President.  My guess is that most people believe that — gaffes notwithstanding — he has left the University stronger and better positioned than it was when he first took office.  He has been a tireless fundraiser, and with his bow tie and constant public appearances he became something of a celebrity.  Speaking as an OSU alum, I wish President Gee well, but I’m also interested in seeing who will be hired to replace him and whether they might take a different approach to what is a very big job.  In Ohio, the President of The Ohio State University can and should be a very significant and influential figure in the statewide community, and it will be a huge challenge to find and hire the right person for a very important position.

Mr. Obama Comes To Town

Today President Obama is in town to deliver the commencement address at the Ohio State University graduation ceremony.  He will be the third sitting President to address OSU graduates.

It’s like old times — or, at least, it’s like the run-up to the 2012 election, when the President and Mitt Romney and Joe Biden and Paul Ryan and their minions seemingly were somewhere in Ohio every day.  Since then, Ohio has dropped off the political map a bit, and that is fine by me.  It’s been nice to return to our daily lives and get to the point where a visit by the President is once again a big deal, rather than a tiresome cause of another pre-election traffic snarl.

I’m envious of the graduating students, and their parents, who get to hear the President today.  I don’t remember anything about the speech given when I got my diploma from The Ohio State University in March 1980, although I have a vague recollection that the commencement address was an delivered by a female educator from a Midwestern university.  Her remarks left no impression on me, one way or the other.  I’m guessing  that hearing President Obama is something that today’s graduates won’t soon forget.

The Mirror Lake Jump

What’s Michigan Week without a jump into Mirror Lake — the scenic little puddle that OSU students jump into every year before The Game against That Team Up North?  Tonight’s the night for the traditional Mirror Lake Jump.

This year participants will have information their predecessors didn’t:  OSU science students have tested Mirror Lake and determined that the waters are packed with microorganisms, animal dung, urine, sweat, and God knows what else.

Ah, what’s some garbage water between drunken friends, anyway?  The important thing isn’t the risk of disease, it’s recognizing the need to Beat Michigan!

(Not) Thinking About Sex

Here’s something else that makes me proud of my alma mater — researchers at The Ohio State University have studied how often male and female college students think about sex.  Thank God that our scarce scientific resources have finally been directed at that crucial, too-often-ignored topic!

In any case, the study debunks the canard that men think about sex every seven seconds, which would mean that men think about sex 8,000 times in a 16-hour day.  Instead, the study found that the male subjects reported thinking about sex between 1 and 388 times each day, and the female subjects admitted to thinking about sex between 1 and 140 times per day.

On average, the men thought about sex 19 times a day, and the women thought about sex 10 times a day.  By way of comparison, men thought about food an average of 18 times a day and sleeping an average of 11 times a day, and women thought about food an average of 15 times a day and sleeping 8.5 times a day.

So, according to the study, men aren’t thinking about sex every waking second, and women aren’t either.  In fact, sex, food, and sleep account for only 48 of the thousands of the daily thoughts that college men presumably have.  But that just begs the question:  what in the world were these male college students thinking about the rest of the time?  Here’s my guess on some of the likely results:  (1) sports (200 thoughts per day); (2) beer (200 “thoughts” per day); (3) “This class sucks” (50 thoughts per day); (4) “Whoa, this room is trashed!” (40 times per day); (5) “When you think about it, Captain Picard was actually a better starship captain than Captain Kirk” (25 times a day).

Terrelle Farewell?

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that Terrelle Pryor — who was already suspended from the first five games due to an NCAA violation — has decided to forego his senior season at Ohio State.

The story is based on an interview with Pryor’s attorney, who read a statement from the Ohio State quarterback.  The attorney quoted the statement as saying:  “In the best interest of my teammates, I have decided to forego my senior year of football at the Ohio State University.”  It is not clear at this point whether the University has confirmed Pryor’s decision.

If Pryor does in fact leave the Ohio State program, it will simply be the latest domino to topple in the memorabilia sales/tattoo scandal that has brought down Coach Jim Tressel and given the University a tremendous black eye.  Pryor would leave with a checkered career that began with his status as a much-heralded recruit, saw him lead Ohio State to victory over Michigan and to some other big wins, but also saw him unable to deliver the National Championship that some Ohio State fans thought might be won with Pryor under center.  His on-field successes, of course, will be forever tarred by his role in the ongoing scandal.

How the wheel of fate has turned since Ohio State fans celebrated Pryor’s decision to commit to Ohio State!