Legend Archie
Griffin made a guest appearance at the Stadium Scholarship Program community this
past Wednesday at 5:30 for an afternoon dinner and chat.
The Stadium
Scholarship Program - SSP for short - is a learning community governed and kept
up by the scholarship students themselves. They serve on committees (cooking,
cleaning, volunteering, and hall programming) to earn hours and actually work
their way towards their education. Originally housed in the west side of the
actual stadium, the community is now housed in the William H. Hall Residential
Complex on 10th Avenue.
As part of
creating and funding their own activities, the programming committee of SSP
pulled off a phenomenal event of memorable proportions. Leaders Lindsay Long
and Joe Rozzo managed to get a hold of Ohio State legend Archie Griffin’s
assistant and schedule a time that he could come to the house of SSP and have
dinner with them. “Lindsay knew his assistant and has been trying all year to
make this happen,” says Rozzo. “Finally she got a date around finals week and
we did all the planning over spring break.”
The cooking
committee of SSP hand-prepared a dinner composed of grilled chicken, baked
penne pasta and green beans. For dessert, only Archie Griffin’s absolute
favorite: chocolate Cola cake. Delish.
The
scholarship students dressed in their best attire and around 5:50, the man
himself showed up. After a few meet and greets, the students and Griffin sat
down for a delicious meal. What came next made some students’ whole year.
Griffin then
stood up, after an introduction by Long, and told the attentive students how he
came to play football for Ohio State.
As a child,
Griffin described how he used to watch OSU on television and listen on WVKO
radio. He then declared that his main goal in life was not to play pro or even
college football, but to get a college education. Coming from a family of eight
children, his parents could not afford to send them all to college, hence his
progression with his passion for sports and football. “Football was just my
vehicle to that college degree,” Griffin says. “I was just in the right place,
right situation, and right time when Woody Hayes recruited me.” That was back
in 1972.
From there, a
Q & A session formed between Griffin and the scholarship students.
Questions such as “What were your favorite and least favorite moments in
football?” and “Where’s your favorite place on campus?” were asked. “I spent a
lot of time at the old Union. Not what you folks have now, that place is nice.
But the old union was great. It had bowling and held dances … Hey, in what
would have been the Archie
Griffin Grand Ballroom now.”
Laughter exploded from the students for a good few minutes.
One of the
greatest moments the students experienced with the two-time Heisman winner was
when he spoke about yet another legend and his mentor, Woody Hayes.
“I loved
playing for him,” Griffin started. “He was nice, fun, and he was fair. That’s
the thing that’s always important, you know, you want them to be fair. He was
no nonsense.” Griffin admitted that he thinks about Hayes every day because
that was the kind of impact he had on Griffin. “Woody always talked about
paying it forward, and that stuck with us, especially me.”
Griffin also
answered questions about the importance and benefits of joining the Alumni
Association, where he incorporated Hayes’ “pay it forward” idea. “It’s always
great to keep in touch with your college experiences and friends, but it’s
great to stay connected with your university as a whole. I hope you students
stay connected and take advantage of the privileges of being an alumnus of such
a great school.”
One of the
best privileges, Griffin mentions, is being able to purchase tickets. I know
I’m sold.
Once the
questions were answered, a good hour and a half later, the Stadium Scholarship
Program gifted Archie with a signed-by-students picture frame as well as a
decorated dustpan to represent what the students do to earn their education.
A group photo
was taken of the students and Archie, and then he officially left the building.
“It was
wonderful and I was giddy the entire time,” says scholarship student Sam
Herron. “I’ve heard him talk of his football stories before, and I wanted to
scream out what he was going to say next. He’s just a great story teller. And
I’m glad he stayed so long.”
Other than
having the privilege to live in the stadium years and years ago, this has to be
one of the greatest events to occur within the Stadium Scholarship Program. And
with the leadership and organization emerging from more and more students,
events of this magnitude are undoubtedly foreseeable in the future.
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