Stop and Smell the People

I better write this fast…

I have to get this out and posted ASAP! Because I only have so much time to celebrate.

I stared at the TV in disbelief.

My Alma mater just upset one of the top teams in the country. Ohio University… not Ohio State University. I attended both. But graduated from OU… not OSU. I’m fans of both. And by that I mean I cheer for the Ohio State Buckeyes and have intellectual conversations with my professors at Ohio University.

The Buckeyes are a generally competitive school in most athletic events. The Ohio University Bobcats are competitive in debate, band… and debate. In that order. We also had a wicked good Halloween Party. And that’s about it. You didn’t attend Ohio University to imbibe in the big-time sporting events. You went to football games to watch the Marching 110 at halftime. True story.

The most amazing thing that happened in my time at OU was not a big football or basketball win. It was a power outage. The whole campus and town went black one warm spring night. Everyone came outside. EVERYONE! As thousands of students slowly converged on the college green guess who showed up? The Marching 110! Students danced and laughed and had a blast! And the Marching 110 played on.

It was an incredible night. No looting. No assaults in the dark. Just the marching band surrounded by thousands of students in the dark playing and dancing. I’ll never forget it. That is what Ohio University is about. We never made it to NCAA Basketball’s Big Dance. We held our own dance.

So to see the Bobcats hand a beat-down to Georgetown, well, I didn’t know what to think. I still don’t. I didn’t even know we had a basketball team.

I just knew I had to write this now! Saturday will be here in a snap.

Cinderella lives! (tonight)… MR