If I was gonna put an album together to summarize the state of the State of Ohio right, now, I would have two songs to lead off…
(By the way. ask your kid what an album is. I just asked my son. He said, “It’s sorta like a CD with alot of songs on it?” WAY TO GO ETHAN!!!)
Song #1 who be a duet with my beautiful bride (or if she was under the weather, maybe someone like, umm, Carrie Underwood)….
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Man it’s cold!
Song #2 would be dedicated to the Ohio State Buckeyes…
Buckeye Fever is definitely an statewide epidemic. It’s symptoms are easy to spot: Scarlet attire and the impulse to blurt out “O-H”.
Widespread passion for Buckeye football is nothing new to Ohio. Since Senator Tressel came to town, it’s become much a birthright for every Ohioan. Of course, the Buckeyes have always ruled the state, but I remember seeing a whole lot of this logo growing up in Louisville, Ohio in the 1970’s…
And when I started teaching in that same town in 1995, I am sad to say that actually saw more of this logo roaming the school hallways than the Scarlet and Gray…
That might be extremely hard to believe. But let me dust off your memories and give you two pieces of evidence that swung the hearts of middle schoolers towards the Maize and Blue…
The Fab Five dominated on and off the court. And who can forget Michigan’s favorite football coach…
Good old Coop! My, how the tables have turned since then! Hopefully Coach Harbaugh can bring some spice back to this historic rivalry.
As I recently blogged, this is the guy responsible for bringing this highly contagious fever to the Buckeye state…
Larry Culpepper’s invention of the college football playoff definitely caused this fanatical outbreak. Prior to this season, the typical Buckeye national championship fires would slowly grow throughout the fall as the wins piled up. One loss would cause some serious flickering of those flames, and a late season defeat would quickly quench every remnant of that fire.
And if the Buckeyes were fortunate enough to make it though the regular season unscathed, they would usually be sitting for at least 6 weeks before a Rose Bowl or BCS Championship game(remember that the Big 10 championship only a few years old, and that OSU-Michigan game usually took place prior to Thanksgiving). That December lay-off, along with Christmas and the NFL taking over the minds of sports fans, would take much of the wind out of the sails of the Buckeye bandwagon.
But this new-fangled play-off has turned Ohio, as well as the entire sports world, on its ear. The NFL divisional play-offs start tomorrow, which I would argue is the top weekend of the sports year. It has the perfect combination of play-off elimination pressure, quantity (4 games that eat up the entire weekend) and quality (we are down to the top 8 teams). But if you turn on ESPN, there is more Bucks/Ducks talk than Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and their professional bretheran.
This new play-off passion makes me think back to similar sports tsunamis that overwhelmed our area through the decades. My earliest memory would be of the Miracle of Richfield in the spring of 1976. I was 5 at the time, so my recollections are pretty much limited to having a sweet hoodie that bore the name of the greatest sport song ever: COME ON CAVS!!!
As a music critic, I have to say: this song rocks! It mixes a perfect trio of soul, jazz, and funk. Bruno Mars could turn it into a #1 hit right now!
Wanna see play-off fever at its most passionate? Watch this video clip of final moments of the Eastern Conference semi-finals series-clinching victory over the Washington Bullets. These crazy fans not only rush the floor; they tear down the baskets!!! The 1970s were a whole different world craziness! Most true sports fanatics could actually afford courtside seats back then!
My first full memory of play-off fever would be December of 1980. That is when the beloved Kardiac Kids took Browns’ fans on a season-long roller coaster ride that got them to the play-offs for the 1st time in eight seasons. Was there a song for this run of football fever? I would bet you 12 Days of Christmas that there was! Unfortunately, this hero of mine…
threw an ill-fated pass when coach Rutigliano called “Red Right 88” on a frigid -4 degree day, and Northeast Ohio went back into another deep sports freeze.
A small dose of the play-off passion returned when World B. Free and the 1985 Cavaliers made an underdog run into the play-offs and gave the defending champion Celtics a big scare in the 1st round. But that just scratched the surface of the onslaught of craziness that followed the next year when this guy became the King of Cleveland…
Did this guy have a song? And did I eat a dog biscuit at school for lunch back in January of 1987? Both of those questions get a resounding ‘Yes’! “Bernie, Bernie, oh, yeah, how you can throw!!” The Browns won their 1st play-off game in the 1986 and 87 seasons, which would pour some serious gas onto the play-off fever fire. For those play-off periods of “Dawg Domination”, the radio airwaves were filled with numerous jingles worshiping these Gridiron Gods. Kasey Kasem could have done at least a top 20 countdown of the various songs. My neighbor was part of a girls group that sang the tune that mimicked “Walk Like an Egyptian”. Too bad John Elway had to be the devil and ruin the dreams of Northeast Ohio. Those times were seriously C-R-A-Z-Y in terms of play-off passion. Just imagine if the Browns would ever make it to a Super Bowl! The whole region might spontaneously combust!
Around that time, Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, and company began their own period of play-off pushes. I am trying to remember how that went…
THE SHOT!!! My buddy, Mark Maz, was at the top row of the Richfield Coliseum for this game, and he could here the Bulls players cheering after this buzzer beater & series ender silenced the crowd.
In 1992, that Cavs group made their furthest push, winning two series to get to the Eastern Conference finals. My junior year of college was wrapped up in early May, so I remember going to the Coliseum a couple of times to wait in a long line for buy tickets for upcoming games. Remember when you waited in lines at stadiums or even the Ticketmaster booth at the mall for tickets. None of this quick click internet stuff! I got to see Larry Bird’s last game when the Cavs bounced the Celtics in a game 7. I got their about an hour early, and the place was already buzzing.
The Cavs then lost an ugly game 1 to the Bulls, and earned the ‘soft as marshmallows’ label with their uninspired effort. I went to see game 4 where Danny Ferry threw punches at Jordan and the Cavs evened the series with a win. I can remember that during a late time-out after the Cavs took control, they showed a video where this guy eventually appeared…
The roof of the Coliseum nearly blew off as the 20 thousand fanatics went berzerk.
But the biggest 1990s play-off fever originated at a beautiful new sports venue…
To put the passion of Indians’ fans of that era into perspective, consider this: for about a 5-year period, they would sell out all 82 regular season home games.
BEFORE CHRISTMAS!
Over 3 million tickets gone, all in a period of about two weeks. Albert Belle. Kenny Lofton. Carlos Baerga. Omar Visquel. These guys and their teammates were rock stars! And the great thing about play-off baseball was the constant pressure. Since runs can be few and far between, every pitch is pressure-filled. An early home run can pretty much end a game. Another neat thing about play-off series of baseball and hoops, as opposed to the single games of football, is the roller coaster ride of joy and sorrow with each win and loss in the series. And unfortunately, every year, the Tribe roller coaster eventually went off a cliff. Especially 1997 when Joe Table–a.k.a Jose Mesa–gave up a 2-1 lead in the 9th inning of game 7 vs. the Marlins. Mike Hargrove, why didn’t you just leave Jared Wright in?
The Indians many a couple more play-off runs in the 2000s. Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner, and friends got within one win of making the World Series that year. I got to see the bug game victory over the Yanks as well as their last play-off victory over the Red Sox.
But in the new millennium , the local post-season dance crown belonged to the King…
LeBron took us on some fun rides, including his break-out performance over the powerhouse Pistons to get the Cavs to the NBA finals in 2007. Now that he is back in town, let’s hope that he can get us that long-awaited championship.
With the Buckeye fever nearing its frenzied peak, let’s hope that this is the year that the play-offs end in pandemonium instead of a poop sandwich. The only thing we are missing with all of this hoopla and hype is a good old-fashioned play-off song. So I have an idea to share. I just need someone with musical talent to take it for a spin ASAP. Let’s take this recent #1 hit from this young lady…
What could “Shake It Off” possibly rhyme with??? Ok, I got it. Here it goes…
And the Buckeyes are gonna play, play, play, play, play…
They’re gonna shut up Mark May, May, May, May…
Make you think of Woody Hayes Hayes Hayes Hayes …
Win Play-offs! Win Play-offs!
I think it’s time to quit this blog thing and head to Nashville to be songwriter!
Go Bucks!
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