14
Thursday, February 2, 2012
SPORTS
WWW.DAILYCALL.COM
• PIQUA DAILY CALL
Kramer hits milestone Will call 2,500th game Friday
OCM PHOTO
Former Ohio State and NFL running back Eddie George spoke at the Lehman Foundation Banquet.
Learning valuable lessons Tough experiences made George better person BY KEN BARHORST Ohio Community Media SIDNEY — It was probably the worst day he ever spent in a football uniform, but to hear Eddie George talk, it went a long way toward shaping the man he is today. George, the former Ohio State running back sensation who went on to win the Heisman Trophy in 1995, came to Sidney Saturday night as the featured speaker at Lehman Catholic High School’s annual Foundation Banquet. George grew up in Phildelphia, and went to high school there until his mother decided he needed to attend military school, which he did at Fork Union in Virginia. As fate would have it, his drill sergeant, to whom George grew quite close, left the following year to become a trainer at Ohio State. And that’s when his life turned in the right direction. “I grew up a Penn state fan ironically, a huge fan of JoePa,” he said. “When my platoon sergeant left for Ohio State, he told (recruiting coordinator) Bill Conley about me. “He said to send us a tape. He calls me back two weeks later and says they’re really interested, but they want to see another tape. “He calls me back and says ‘they’re really in love with you’ but they want to see another tape. So low and behold he finally calls me back and says Bill Conley wants to talk to me, so they come and check me out, make sure I’m really 6-2, 218. And from that point on, it was a match made in heaven. “I remember the last day of my visit, it was a cold day, nobody in the stadium obviously,” he
went on. “I went in there decked out in my uniform, and they flashed my name across the scoreboard. I just looked around, and thought wow, Archie Griffin, Woody Hayes, Jesse Owens (they still had the track at that time), Keith Byars, all the greats that had come through that school. I just thought, this feels right. “Something told me that this is where I need to be. And I committed on the spot.” He was an instant hit as a freshman, scoring three times in a win over Syracuse. But then it all came crashing down when the Bucks played Illinois. First, he lost a fumble at the four-year line that Illinois picked up and returned 96 yards for a score. Then just when it looked like the Buckeyes would overcome that play, leading by two points in the fourth quarter, George fumbled again at the Illinois one-yard line. Illinois recovered and drove for the winning score. Before that game, George had carried the ball 25 times and scored five touchdowns. But over the remainder of the season, he had only 12 more rushing attempts. And as a sophomore, he was used sparingly behind Raymont Harris. “That’s what made me, you know. Those points of transition, those crossroads,” he said. “Not only as a player but as a man. I had to grow up at that time and realize I couldn’t run away from my problem. “After those two fumbles, I was embarrassed. Being on top of the world for a few weeks, coming out of nowhere, being the talk of the town, to having two fumbles that cost us
the game. “They say the team loses a game, but no, I did. I took responsibility for that. No way around that. “During those two years when I wasn’t playing,” he continued, “I said that situation will either make me or break me. That’s when I dug a little bit deeper, a lot deeper, and worked hard, stayed in the weight room, watched film took ballet lessons... I did everything, inside, outside, what people didn’t see me do, focusing on every minute detail of my game and really becoming a master of my craft. “I told myself, when I get my chance, I will be ready,” he added. “I was going to see this all the way through. I said I’m going to be a man on the other side. And I had to really win over a lot of people, be resilient and persistent. “That can break your spirit, but it just fueled mine.” He went on to rush for 1,442 yards as a junior, then 1,927 yards, a school record, as a senior. And as evidence of him becoming a “master of his craft,” he also caught 44 passes as a senior, 28 more than his first three seasons at Ohio State combined. He then went on to star for the Oilers/Titans, winning Rookie of the Year in 1996, and amassing 10,000 yards rushing while remarkably never missing a start. The only other player to do that was Jim Brown. While with the Titans, George played in Super Bowl XXXIV against the St. Louis Rams. George rushed for 95 yards and scored two touchdowns in a 23-16 loss. He was asked if playing in the Super Bowl was a bigger thrill than his Heisman Trophy.
“Nothing is better than the Heisman Trophy, because that’s something that goes on forever,” he said. “I was at the College Football Hall of Fame in New York City. Just to look around and see the winners, like Archie Griffin. “It gets better and better and better as the years go along, and you appreciate that award more and more. But looking at my career as a whole, definitely the Heisman.” George also addressed the recent problems surrounding the Ohio State football program, which led to Jim Tressel losing his job. “I think that situation, Coach Tressel thought he was making the right decision at that particular time,” George said, referring to Tressel not immediately reporting the violations. “Obviously, he made a terrible mistake in doing so. He paid for it with his job, and the players involved got a fair penalty. “That turned the page in Ohio State history, and Luke Fickell did an outstanding job of stabilizing the program. “Moving forward and looking at Urban Meyer and all that he brings to the table,” he continued, “his ties to Ohio, I think he’s the perfect fit for Ohio State for the short term as well as the long term. “But I think for Ohio State University, there’s lessons to be learned as far as how to educate student athletes and how to prepare them not just on the field but off the field as men in terms of making decisions. “This university prepares not just athletes but great men, and it’s important for Ohio State to be pro-active in preparing for how life is after you’re done.”
Plenty of good tickets available OHSAA state tournament tickets going on sale COLUMBUS — Plenty of all-session and singlesession tickets will be available for the 2012 Ohio High School Athletic Association boys and girls state basketball tournaments, and public sales of tickets for both tournaments will begin soon through Ticketmaster or in person at The OhioState University's Jerome Schottenstein Center, the site of both state tournaments that take place in March.
Boys state tournament all-session ticket sales begin on Monday, Feb.13, at 10:00 a.m., and singlesession ticket sales begin Monday, March 12, at 10 a.m. The cost for all-session ticket books is $144 for the Entryand Club Levels of the arena or $120 for the Terrace Level, while single-session tickets are $15 for the Entry and Club Levels and $12 for the Terrace Level. The boys state tournament is March 22,
23 and 24. All ticket sales for the girls state basketball tournament also begin on Monday, Feb. 13, at 10 a.m. All-session ticket books cost $64 each and singlesession tickets are $10 each. The girls state tournament will be held March 15, 16 and 17. Tickets can be purchased in person at Ticketmaster locations (including most Kroger
stores), by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or by going on-line at ticketmaster.com. Ticketmaster orders will also includeapplicable service charges. To avoid service charges, tickets can be purchased in person in Columbus at the OSU Athletic Ticket Office, locatedin the southeast corner of the Schottenstein Center with office hours Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
ScoresBroadcast.com announcer Jack Kramer laughs when he says his game total might approach three or four thousand if he counted the ones he described while playing make-believe contests in his backyard as a kid. Still, the former director of marketing at Edison Community College in Piqua performs play-byplay of what his family believes to be his 2,500th athletic event this Friday night when Anna hosts Russia in Shelby County League boys basketball. January 2012 marked the start of Kramer’s fifth decade announcing college and high school sports. “An enduring throat, a lot of luck, encouragement from Miami and Shelby County fans, a supportive family, and parents who gave me the chance to express myself ” are the “gifts” which Kramer said have enabled him to fulfill this unique “avocation.” It was not unusual for Kramer, as a child, to keep his neighbors awake on summer nights when he vocalized about games he “created” in his sandbox. “Mom and Dad often exclaimed from the back porch, ‘Jack, every play can’t be that exciting,’” he recalled. The 2,500 include close to 150 Ohio State University (OSU) football contests, plus Indiana (IU) and Miami University football and basketball games. He covered the Redskins and the Middletown Middies while in graduate school in Oxford, Ohio, and when employed at a Butler County radio station, which offered him his first job. While completing his bachelor’s degree, he volunteered on the IU Sports Network. From 1980 to 1992, he performed television play-by-play with OSU great Paul Warfield for flagship station WOSU-TV, which fed the Buckeyes games around the state to a dozen PBS stations. Kramer’s wife and two children began keeping close count of his announcing stints when he started calling Buckeyes contests. “They kidded me when we tuned in the delayed telecasts together,” he chuckled. “My mustache was never trimmed quite right.” Wife Karen and son Tim were in the stands at Russia last Saturday for the thriller between the Raiders and Versailles Tigers. In the 1980’s, they and daughter Bethany started traveling with Kramer to some of the college and high school events he covered. At about that time, Kramer began describing Edison men’s basketball games on WPTW-AM in Piqua. He was employed at the local community college for 25 years to the day, retiring on Aug. 31, 2010. He previously served nine years in a marketing and public relations capacity at Clark Tech, now Clark State. From the early 1990’s through 2000, Kramer was on the air at WTGRFM in Greenville covering contests involving high school sports teams representing the Versailles Tigers and Winchester, Indiana. From 2003 to Nov. 2007, he free-lanced for WMVRFM in Sidney with Jeff Bray, his color announcer. Kramer is currently in
JACK KRAMER his sixth calendar year calling games for ScoresBroadcast.com on the Internet. “In fact, he has now covered nearly 750 football, baseball, volleyball, soccer, and boys and girls basketball contests in which Miami and Shelby county high schools have participated. Kramer said “two of his more memorable events games to call” include the Piqua football state championship victory in 2006 and the Lehman Catholic volleyball state title win in 2010. “Jeff for several years and Piqua’s Chuck McBee for the last two years have been super announcing partners,” Kramer said. “We are good friends on and off the air. “We have all shared the same passion and carried out our roles with the best interest of the schools and student athletes in mind.” That “passion”, Kramer said, is the desire to continually promote area student athletes, their educational programs, and those businesses that support the webcasts. “Our quality schools and community-minded organizations make the region a very good place to live, work and raise families,” Kramer noted. An average athlete in high school, Kramer played tennis and once upset the top seed in a city tournament covered by the local newspaper. He said his opponent had an off day, allowing him to take a close threeset victory triggered, in part, by unforced errors on the other side of the net. Kramer said it was a highlight of “my mediocre years in high school sports” to read the journalist’s statement, “Kramer won the match; Mike Miller didn’t lose it.” According to Kramerr, this is the objective when describing high school sports on the Internet. “A superb play often causes a poor one. Chuck and I want to promote the local student athletes who excel,” he said. Supportive game advertisers, in fact, request that the announcers feature the scholarships the sponsors offer; spotlight the athletes whom the schools report are student leaders; and award small, sponsor-provided, gift certificates for food to the young men and women who are successful on the court and field. “You could say that ScoresBroadcast.com is a total team effort,” Kramer pointed out, adding that listenership per webcast has soared to more than 800 users of computers and mobile devices. “The fantastic response makes this Friday’s game and those in the future so enjoyable.” Are 2500 more contests in Jack’s plans? “Maybe so, if you count those in my dreams,” he smiled.