Twenty Four Hours in Athens, Now Back To The Lake

The Team and Their Wives

At Court Side With Two Hall of Famers and All Turkey

The Good Wives

Vi Next to Plaque Honoring Her Husband, Lloyd Buck

It's 6:00 in the morning, yesterday's time, 7:00 this morning, as I sit in my hotel room in Athens, waiting for Evie to wake, so I can get some coffee.  I am not sure what time we will leave this morning, after a simple breakfast, most likely by 9:30.  It's about six hours from her to home but we hope to stop at Trader Joe's on the way, so give us seven hours.

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day, leaving Painesville at 7:00, driving down to Athens through Akron, Canton, to Marietta, before turning west on Rt. 7 and Rt. 50 which eventually took us to Athens.  Back in 1957, when my sister went off to Ohio University, it took almost nine hours, driving from Cleveland, mostly on RT. 21.  Later when I went, in 1961, it was probably five hours as Interstate 71 had opened between Cleveland and Columbus, though we had to take RT. 33 through Logan to Athens.  I can still remember hitch hiking late at night on RT. 33, hoping for a ride to school.

Joe and Mary Lou 

Vi and Paul 

Milt and Jean Plunkett

Joan and Charlie Gill

We got to the Ohio University Inn by 11:00 and Charlie and Joan Gill and Milt and Jean Plunkett were already there.  We went into the dining room for lunch, then the rest of our friends arrived,  Joe and Mary Lou Barry, Jerry and Anita Jackson and Paul Storey, from Oxford, Zanesville, and Xenia, Ohio respectively.  All of these guys were members of the 1964 MAC championship team, voted the best to in Ohio University history a few years ago(not by us).  Just bragging.

At 1:30, we went over to the Convocation Center, to celebrate the new basketball team's locker room.  Two of the lockers were to be named for players from our team.  Lloyd Buck, who passed away a year ago November, was honored by his six teammates and Joe Barry, by his son Jay, also an OU  grad.  We were a little disappointed because the lockers did not have names or pictures of the honored players, so we all subtly but strongly lobbied the entire basketball staff and AD to change it.  We will have to see how effective we were.  They promised action or we would get our money back!  There was also a reception for all those who contributed to the locker room fund in one of the team rooms.  So all of us milled around there, sipping coke and water, till game time, amused mostly by one of OU's fat cats, who regaled us with stories of all the companies he has owned (The Texas Rangers with George Bush), and all the people he has met along the way.  Guys like this love to loved and listened to and he certainly had a crowd.  And from the plaques on the walls with his name, he can be very generous.

One of the highlights was meeting Dr. Vernon Alden, who was the President of Ohio University when we were student athletes.  He brought national attention to the university in the 1960's, arriving from Harvard, kind of a JFK kind of guy, and briefly, Ohio University was going to be the 'Harvard on the Hocking.'  He came to our games back then, knew all the players by name, so it was amazing to see him still, at ninety, in town from Boston to attend the team's final game and the celebration of new locker rooms.

1964 Teammates with President Vernon Alden

The game was a bore till there were nine minutes to go, when OU caught fire, erased a twelve point lead and eventually won the game by four, also the league championship for the first time in a number of years. And I have to mention the half time show, the highlight of the afternoon.  It was a jump roping group of ten to tweleve year old girls called the HotRocks from Troy, Ohio.  There must have been fifty of them on the court, jumping rope to great music, doing all kinds of  amazing routines,  We, the fans, loved it and gave them a standing ovation.

HotRocks from Troy, Ohio

We went back to the Ohio University Inn for dinner, to catch up on our lives, tell stories about how great our team was, and relive some of our youth, the good old days as it were.  Every one but Evie, Vi and I had a two to three hour drive home, so we finished dinner by 9:00.  After everyone left, the three of us went into the bar for a night cap, before going upstairs at 10:30, after a long but good day with our college friends.

Dinner at OU Inn

It's interesting how, when you get older, perhaps have retired and have time, you often reconnect with friends from your past, either high school, college or work, as if you were too busy during the earning and child rearing days to keep in touch.  Or perhaps, it was just harder then, no cells, no Internet, no computers or IPADS or Twitter, to easily communicate between long distances.  I know when we lived in Turkey for seven years, we never once talked with our family on the phone.  It was either too difficult or too expensive to keep in touch except by letters.  Anyways, it's fun to get back in touch with old friends, with your history, and the future, I suppose, all your buddies children and grandchildren.  We are all proud grandparents...something we never dreamed we would be fifty years ago.  Speaking for myself, all I thought about back then was basketball and Evie!