I've yet to start earning thousands of dollars writing for this blog (shocking, isn't it?), so I've got myself a paying gig in the real world....I'm the Director of Marketing for a sports-based restaurant in Canton, Ohio. A huge wall of 10-foot TV screens is my home on Saturday afternoons, so that day is always easy to market.
Obviously, I get to go all out for Ohio State games, and the epitome of it all is the week of The Game. I write myself a budget and I decorate the clubhouse. I buy prizes for the guests. I copy my videos to DVD and show the best ones before the game. I emcee the whole day, keeping the crowd as fired up as possible (and getting them to drink more....someone's gotta pay for my budget). It's a really fun atmosphere.
Last year, I had the perfect prop. It was #1 vs. #2, and if we win it ends Michigan's championship season....so I used my connections and I had a tombstone created. It was a rounded-at-the-top gray headstone, and I had engraved on it "Here Lies Michigan - Buried By Ohio State - November 18, 2006"
I picked it up from the office of the cemetery that I ordered it from on Friday morning, and drove into work to begin displaying it.
When I arrived at the restaurant, I carried it in proudly and took it towards the office. On the way, I saw the broadcast from ESPN on the big screens.
Bo Schembechler had died about an hour earlier.
I turned around and took the tombstone back to my car. There was no way I would ever display that prop. There wasn't even a discussion about it. No way, no how.
This morning I was rooting through my garage and I discovered it. I had actually forgotten about that prop.
Saturday will mark the first anniversary of Schembechler's passing. Here's hoping he rests in peace.
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