Ohio State's 2008 Bowl Game

I watched 2008 National Championship game at Chandra's and Lyle's. I used to work with them at CMI and they lived in the neighborhood only 1/2 mile away.

Chandra has an ex-sister-in-law, Tina, who I had known for about 2 years by then. She also has a current sister-in-law, Christie, that I had met once previously when Westy almost got his ass kicked in Fitzgeralds after our corporate challenge pool tournament. Alcohol might have been involved that day.

So I was sitting next to Tina on the couch watching the game. The couch is an "L" shaped couch and one side can easily look across the room and see the other side.

The women were more there for the atmosphere than actually watching the game. Tina commented, "Christie, you look so cute over there on the couch."

Christie commented, "Tina you look so cute sitting over there on the couch."

I said to Tina, "I have a movie at home that starts out just like this."

Bow-chicka-bow-wow-chicka-bow-bow

She ignored me. Completely. Didn't laugh. Didn't even glance at me even though she was right next to me.

I don't know if Chandra's dad heard me. He did not react at all.

Dayton versus Louisville 12/23/2000

It was at college that I met Jeff Spoelker. Jeff and I actually went to high school together as well, but he was a year ahead of me and I never knew him until college. Chris knew him from running cross country with him at St. Xavier and we partied in the Ghetto and at the Derby with Jeff many times.

When I was home for the holidays nine years ago, Dayton was in town to play Louisville at Freedom Hall. Chris, Richard (my sister's husband at the time,) my dad and I bought tickets and we were in the nose bleeds behind the basket with about 300 Flyer fans.

I think we'd had a little to drink before the game and just talking amongst ourselves when I turned and asked Chris, "Do you think we'll run into Spoelker?"

Chris shrugged. We had lost touch with him after graduation.

Only five minutes had passed and the crowd was quiet enough to hear the familiar laughter emerge the tunnel from below us as Jeff walked into the arena, double-fisted with beers from the concession stand.

"JEFF!" He couldn't hear us. He was walking up the aisle and as he started to walk into a row just below us, he heard us and looked up with surprise on his face. "Oh my God!!! Guys!!!"

So he comes up and we are talking for 15 minutes about the basketball team what he's doing and what the game should be like that afternoon.

One story that Jeff told us was he wanted to get the Flyer fans in the section on their feet during the game and have the rest of the arena hear all 300 of us over the other 19,000 Cardinal fans. Jeff dreams big.

He was leading all the Dayton fans in singing the fight song and all the cheers during the game prompting my dad to comment dryly, "I'm guessing he's one of your introverted friends."

Apparently there was a particular fan their in the Cardinal Mythos who would fire up the Cardinal fans and do a cheer spelling out "Cards" with his arms and body. Jeff wanted to duplicate that, but spell out "Flyers." He said it was up to us to start while he spelled it out to get the rest of the Flyers Faithful in our section to follow us.

I don't recall when in the game it actually happened, I think it was the second half, but it was after the "C-A-R-D-S" cheer.

Jeff got up at a timeout to signal us and he takes his beer down and finishes it before walking to the concourse below us. We told everyone around us and had them deliver the word across, down and up the section to watch Jeff during the timeout.

Going to the left side of the concourse (as we faced him,) he throws his arms up to his side and forms himself into and "F," and we all yell "F" as loud as we could. Jeff scoots across the concourse opening with a little shuffle. It really helped that the Flyers were kicking the Cards asses that day as the rest of Freedom Hall was quiet as a church.

Then he throws his arms into an "L" and we all yell "L" as loud as we could with Jeff now scooting back to his original spot.

Then he throws his arms up into a "Y" and scoots back over as we all yell out "Y!"

Then security walks over.

There's a delay in spelling FLYERS! Security motions towards the opening and Jeff nods, says something to the security guy as he puts his hand on the security guy's shoulder. Then he raises his index finger as if to say, "One moment," and turns and makes a "E" and goes scooting across the concourse opening, slightly faster, as we yell "E!"

The security guy follows him over.

He says something to Jeff again and motions to the concourse where no one is walking in or out. Jeff nods in agreement, turns and makes an "R" shape with his body and we are all laughing our asses off and maybe half of us yelled "R" as he scoots away from security again.

Security follows him over AGAIN.

Jeff makes a face to the security guy like he's contemplating a calculus exam, makes motions with his hands like he's explaining something to the guy, nods in affirmation to him and then turns and throws his arm into an "S" and goes scooting away from the security guy as we all scream "S" amongst our laughing and everyone follows it with a "FLYERS! FLYERS! FLYERS!" cheer.

Then Jeff went down the concourse and came back with a couple more beers as play resumed. The security guy really needed to remove the stick from his ass, IMO, but watching him follow Jeff and trying to get him to stop was one of the funniest things ever saw at a game.

We got to see Jeff and his wife Alex this past March as we went to UD Arena to watch Louisville and Ohio State play, but we hung out at Milano's to watch the Flyers beat West Virginia where once again, Jeff led the entire bar in cheers before we headed over to watch the doubleheader.

By far, Jeff is the most fun person to watch a game with.