Note: I originally wrote this as submission for Mid Majority's “My School” series. When the site's proprietor went off to Vancouver for the Olympics, he invited readers to write about their schools. A handful of those pieces made it to the site. Mine didn't1. There was an Ohio piece that made it, though. Aside from a few factual errors, it's probably the better choice and fits the site better.
I was nine when I was exposed to Ohio University2 basketball for the first time. It was 1994, and the Bobcats, led by “Shaq of the MAC” Gary Trent, were 23-7 and had a win over UConn. I didn’t know that at the time; all I saw was a team in the Cleveland Plain Dealer seeded 12th slated to play 5th seeded Indiana. I remember being confused because I did not know there was an Ohio and an Ohio State. But being the good Ohioan that I was3, and because Ohio State made it easy because they did not get a tournament invite, I dutifully filled out my bracket with the Bobcats winning the national title.
I did not watch Ohio’s 84-72 loss to the Hoosiers. The Bobcats quickly fell out of my consciousness-- I didn’t even know where the campus was (Athens, a solid 3 ½ hours from Twinsburg, where I grew up)-- and I became a Wake Forest4 fan. OU didn’t enter my mind again until high school, when I started looking at schools with good journalism programs. I didn’t really miss much: Aside from 1994-95 when they beat Ohio State in Columbus (a game that would have perplexed my young mind) en route to the Preseason NIT title and a #19 ranking, the team didn’t distinguish itself.
I graduated high school in 2002 and had narrowed my choices down to Ohio and Kent State5. Now, I was the child of two Golden Flashes. I lived in Kent until I was 4 and did not move very far away. My sister would later attend Kent State. The Flashes were in the midst of an incredible run on the hardwood: They had won 70 games in the previous three seasons and slew Indiana in the 2001 NCAA Tournament (a coincidence of note). My father, in an attempt to get me to go to Kent, would take me to games at the M.A.C. Center6. The 2001-02 season was even more special, and I watched Kent State beat Pittsburgh in the Sweet 16 at Kent’s student union7.
Comparatively, I had no clue how good Ohio’s team was8, but I didn’t consider basketball strength an important factor in picking a school. When I toured the campus for the first time, I knew OU was the school for me. It has a quiet energy about it, featuring Georgian architecture, a row of beautiful cherry blossoms along the Hocking River, and lots of green space. The foothills of the Appalachians surround Athens, giving people a wonderful landscape to admire from March until November. It’s hard to stay inside during the warm months; there are too many places beckoning you outside to enjoy. When people ask me to describe OU, I usually begin with its beauty.
I met Dan shortly into my freshman year. At 6’9”, he was impossible to miss. He was also one of the most outgoing and friendly people I had ever met. I was flattered when he, a senior, invited me, a freshman, to come over to his apartment to watch the Cleveland American-style football team play its games. After those games, he brought me into his room and regaled me with stories of the basketball team. He showed me videos. He told me about the O Zone, the student cheering section. It didn’t take me long to get me excited about the upcoming season. Little did I know the journey I was starting out on.
I attended my first game as a member of the O Zone Wednesday Jan. 8, 2003. Because of Ohio’s quarter system, the season starting during our winter break. I had an evening class, so I didn’t arrive until the second half. We were playing Akron, and the O Zone had come out in force. Zip Andy Hipsher made himself O Zone Enemy #1 the previous season when he came over to the section and made certain gestures and taunts to the students, and we were ready to pay him back. A titanic four overtime struggle ensued. Ohio finally prevailed, and I was hooked. It wasn’t just the exciting game, it was the energy of the O Zone, taunting Hipsher, the coach, mocking Akron players. They were creative and in sync. And Dan led us in our signature “winning team, losing team” chant9.
That would be the Zone’s reputation, a group that would find the dirt on opposing players, mock them, and back the ‘Cats. We were the best section in the conference and one of the best in the country. I sound biased. But when teams like Virginia come to Athens and say the O Zone is as good as any student section they’ve seen, it feels good. Because of the O Zone, basketball games became an event. The Bobcats got a lot more support than most bad teams, which Ohio was.
We were bad for the first couple years I was in Athens, but I learned Ohio basketball had many reasons to hold its head high. In 1941, Frankie Baumholtz led the Bobcats to the NIT championship game. This was back when the NIT was the tournament that mattered. Baumholtz, the “Midvale Marvel,” went on to play professional baseball and basketball. OU was a national player in the ‘60s. They beat Notre Dame in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in 1960. In 1964, the Bobcats beat Kentucky to advance to the Elite Eight. The Convocation Center, a jewel of a facility, opened in 1968. The ‘Cats christened the building with a win over Indiana (there they are again). In 1969, back-to-back road wins over Purdue and Ohio State helped Ohio earn a #5 national ranking. This success extended early into the next decade. After home wins over the Buckeyes and Hoosiers, a local paper ran this awesome headline: OHIO WINS BIG TEN, PREPARES FOR MID-AMERICAN OPENER.
I also learned to love the MAC. There’s no other conference quite like it, a geographically close collection of schools in America’s sports heartbreak region10. All public schools, most of them fairly big. Some in rural areas, some in urban. And the conference does a lot of things that drive me crazy, but I don’t think it would as fun being anywhere else. I doubt Illinois gets jazzed to play Penn State, but conference play in the MAC? It’s a knock down, drag out melee. When Akron comes to town? Man, we hate those guys. Kent State? I take special joy in beating them. Archrival Miami? Biggest game of the year. Buffalo? They hate us. It seems like every game is one we must win because we can’t stand the thought of losing to those jerks from the other school. Because of that, MAC affairs are not for the weak of heart.
In 2005, what started out as another subpar season turned into a magical run. After dispatching hated Marshall in the first round of the MAC tournament, Ohio defeated Kent and Miami to set up a date with Buffalo in the finals. You may have read this account of the game, but what Kyle didn’t witness was Buffalo fans coming over to the Ohio section during our semifinal against Miami and mixing it up with us, leading to the legendary “What is Buffalo sucks?” moment. I was in attendance for all of these games11, and when Leon Williams tipped in the winning basket, it capped the most exhilarating week of my life. I was too excited to even think; I didn’t care that a security guard nearly flattened me as I ran toward the court.
If I ended up at Syracuse, I would have been there for their national title, which would have been cool. Problem is, I wouldn’t be nearly as close to the heartbeat of The Game as I am now. That’s not a trade I’m willing to make. Most importantly, the basketball team is special because the school is special. Not the other way around.
Postnote: What a difference a couple months makes. Since writing this, the Bobcats ripped off a legendary run, winning the MAC title and beating Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The uncertainty that surrounded the program has been replaced with promise and excitement. It remains to be seen if the program has truly turned a new corner or if it's just the past repeating itself, but optimism prevails for now.
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1 Slight ego bruise on that. It's not as though I write by trade or anything.
2 The “proper” way to refer to Ohio University is Ohio, not Ohio U, Ohio University, or OU. Some alumni really get upset when you say Ohio U. Why? I’ve yet to hear a good reason.
3 I believed then that being from Ohio meant you had to root for any team with “Ohio” in the name. I was a big fan of Jimmy Jackson back in the day and remember being particularly dismayed when the Buckeyes lost to Michigan in the 1992 regional finals. I don't really remember the game, just that I was upset at the result.
4 How? I was a Cavs fan when I was little. Michael Jordan, as you may have heard, routinely killed the Cavs. So I hated MJ. Consequentially, I hated North Carolina. When Randolph Childress crossed over Jeff McInnis in the 1995 ACC final, and I was introduced to a young Tim Duncan, I had a new team.
5 My original top choice was Syracuse. But, I really did not want to go one of the few areas in the country snowier than Northeast Ohio.
6 Before much-needed renovations, the place was a dump. There were pillars that blocked the view of unfortunate people in the second level. Reminded me of old Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
7 They lost to- who else?- Indiana in the regional finals.
8 I was vaguely aware Ohio and Kent were in the same conference. Remember, I was a Wake Forest fan at the time.
9 I recently saw Utah State do this on Pixelvision (the game I was doing for NPD, incidentally). I didn’t know what to think.
10 Seriously. The MAC has schools in the Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit areas. All we need is Seattle.
11 I made the last-minute decision to make the four hour drive to Cleveland after my last class of the week, getting to the arena just before the game.
12 Both times, the comeback started when I angrily declared the game a blowout.
13 Wearing face paint and a big green wig earns the appreciation of middle-aged men, but not too many women.
14 And the time referee Mike Roberts ejected me from a game, the most embarrassing moment of my life. The one time I brought a girl to a game…
15 www.macreportonline and @macreportonline on Twitter!
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