"There are moments in sports and in life that make all the hard work worth it." DDD

Here is a picture of one of those moments. A picture is worth a thousand words. My Dad's teammate making a spectacular catch for a touch down against LSU made it into the Wood Box. It shows so much of what it was like to play back then. Hard helmets with no face mask (are you kidding me)?! This Lou must have been a tight end because of his size and jersey number. In high school I was a starting defensive tackle as a junior. My Dad suggested that I try out for tight end because it looked like I wasn't going to get big enough to play DT in big time college ball. He also taught me how to long snap, said, "every team needs a good long snapper and you'll see that no one else will want to do it." He was right on all counts, my senior year I played DT, TE and long snapper (only left the field for kick-offs and concussions)! In college I was the third string TE and second string long snapper for four straight years. My junior year we won the MAC Championship and beat LSU when they were rank #4. My senior year we played Jimmy Johnson's #1 ranked, undefeated Miami Hurricanes in Miami in the Orange Bowl Stadium. Miami University didn't beat the University of Miami that day, but it was a great expeirence. My Mom and Dad made the trip and I got a lot of playing time (Rose didn't want the starters getting too beaten up). My Dad said it brought back some good memories seeing me play on a field he had also played on. My college carerer wasn't very impressive, but at least I earned a business degree! Coach Rose and I never really did hit it off. In fact, it was more of a hate / hate relationship, but at least we knew where each other stood.