As an alumnus of The Ohio State University, I do apologize for the more fanatic among us.

I was saddened by the passing of Coach Schembechler, who played for Woody at Miami of Ohio & who coached under him at Ohio State.

Mike

Do have fun, Eric.

Dave Powell

Having grown up in the Philadelphia area, I am, as I have said here a number of times, a lifelong, die hard Eagles fan. I have a high tolerance for frustration.

Eric

I live in the metro Detroit area which is next door to Ann Arbor. Today’s Detroit paper had an 8-page special section devoted just to THE GAME. Life as we know it will come to a standstill in SE Michigan come 3:00pm tomorrow.

It is topic numero uno here but I still don’t think it’s as crazed as in Columbus. They’ve actually felt it necessary to warn MI fans NOT to frequent OSU bars or to wear the maze and blue too conspicuously!

BTW, are you a pro football fan? For some reason I’ve never been able to explain, I’ve always been a hardcore Browns fan, even though I’m not from Ohio. Talk about some crazies, they’ve got ’em in Cleveland on Sunday afternoons in the fall — ESPECIALLY if some poor unfortunate soul is seen wearing black and gold.

Paul

I hear you loud and clear.

Being from Michigan I, naturally, wish them the best and victory. I don’t remember in Michigan the kind of behavior that you describe–but things could have changed in the 20 years I have been gone.

But if you think Columbus is nuts, come to Austin and see Longhorn fever. Sometime I wonder if there is something deeper going on–like, if Texas beats your college team, then we are superior to you. It gets a little personal.

When I first moved down here, I heard of a church that, before the evening prayer service, would play the Cowboy game over the sancturary speaker system literally right up until the moment the service began. That is sick.

Until common sense returns, I am sending you

Best wishes always,

Lanny

Your post explains a lot but I still cannot fully understand the bizarre thinking of the Ohio fans. To call some of them lunatics is an insult to demented people in my opinion. Allow me to explain my experience with some of them.

I too am a native of Pennsylvania. Ten years ago my son, Mike, transferred from our corporate division here in Pa to the Big Bear division in Columbus at their request. Mike told me that he was constantly harassed because of their revulsion to Penn State to the point that it was difficult to implement the program they had recruited him to do.

Mike became ill after about eight months in Columbus and was diagnosed with a life threatening brain tumor. As Mike was taken into the operating room he told me that if he didn’t make it to not let the Ohio guys near his casket. I knew he wasn’t joking at a time like that so I took him seriously.

On the morning of his funeral, these Ohio friends drove four hours to Pennsylvania. When Mike’s brothers met them at the door and informed them of Mike’s request they confessed that they indeed planned to put Buckeyes and Ohio State pennants into his casket.

To me that is just plain sick! Sorry to rant but I needed to get that off of my chest.

That truly was a shame. I will be interested to see what sort of tribute OSU pays to him tomorrow. Schembechler was one of the truly great coaches, and people around here seem to respect him highly, so I have to expect that there will be some sort of a tribute to him before the game. Anything less would be inappropriate, given the role he played in the years of drama leading up to this weekend.

Eric