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Dinner with THE Archie Griffin!
By Taylor | April 22, 2012
Have you got to sit down with THE legend of THE Ohio State University, THE Archie Griffin?!
To start off, I need to apologize for being M.I.A for the past TWO months. I have clearly neglected my duties as a resource for you incoming students and as an “entertainer” for you current students. Shame on me. But I’m going to make up for it I promise.
As my comeback blog, I want to share with you the amazing experience I was fortunate enough to have with former Ohio State football player and legend Archie Griffin.
Most of you know who this man is, though if you do not follow football or for some reason have skipped by being an Ohio State fan without knowing who he is, Archie Griffin attended Ohio State from 1972 to 1975, playing as a starting freshman for Woody Hayes’ team, mostly as running back. As you can see in the picture above, he is the only football player to win the Heisman trophy (i.e. an award that is given out each year to college football’s most outstanding player) TWICE in all of college football. He’s the only football player to start in four Rose Bowls, and he has become somewhat of a folk legend for the Ohio State.
Well as you may already know, I am in the Stadium Scholarship Program (if not, it’s a fancy scholarship program that used to be housed in the actual Shoe and we get a discount on room and board amenities because we work 60 hours a quarter for our education). Being in SSP, we receive amazing and a great deal of athletic privileges, such as getting to hang out on the football field at the beginning of the year, and now meeting Archie Griffin to have some chicken and pasta!
To keep things short and sweet, he arrived near almost 6 p.m. (this was a few weeks ago) and dinner was served. He then talked about his life as a college football player, why he played football, a little about his home and family life, and of course the Alumni Association, which he is currently president and CEO of.
I snapped this while he was talking :)
All of us SSP’ers who showed up were glued to him and his stories. That’s one thing you don’t read about in his biography; how fantastic of a story-teller he is. He told us of where he used to hang out when he was student on campus. The places included the basketball courts on south campus right outside of JO and 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.” This probably got the most laughter out of the crowd.
I won’t go into gory details, but it was an experience I’ll definitely always cherish. That doesn’t get to happen to many people, and I never thought it would happen to me. But this is Ohio State; amazing things are happening every day.
That’s me standing to his right (your left). :)
If you’re interested in reading the article I was asked to write for the Alumni Newsletter, you can read the article here: AG Article
Until next time!
Topics: Football, Recreation, School Spirit, Taylor, Why Ohio State? | Comments Off
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