Great article to put things in perspective - ScarletBuckeye

SuperBuckFan08 · 08-30-2011, 02:25 AM

If you haven't read it by now you NEED to read this. Ramzy from 11W has put together one of the most well written and very sobering piece I've read in a LONG time. Huge props to him and the crew at 11W for this and I hope we all take something out of it.

Link: One Day in September | Eleven Warriors

Quote:

One day in 1990 Kris Robert Hughes decided he wanted to be a Buckeye.

His intent was noble: He wanted to go to Ohio State simply because he loved Big Ten football. Yes, really. He absolutely loved it.

There would be no better way to get to Big Ten football games than to be a student at Ohio State. He also knew that he didn’t want to attend a small college.

So Kris made the trip from Long Island to finally see Ohio State in person for himself. He got all of the information he needed to confirm his decision.

His parents had no reason to say no. Everything was coming up Columbus.

And as luck would have it, his Michigan State-bound girlfriend’s father had been a captain for one of Ohio State’s very first ice hockey teams in the mid-1960s and was able to arrange a tryout for him to walk on to the team.

Kris had been playing hockey longer than he had known how to read. This decision was going to be too easy.

He was only 19 years old he had his whole life planned: He would go to Ohio State, play hockey, study Finance, enjoy a successful career on Wall Street and then retire to the mountains by his 40th birthday.

One day prior to freshman orientation, Kris moved into Morrill Tower. In the fall of 1990, Morrill and its twin – Lincoln – were the 16th tallest buildings in Columbus. At 260 feet tall, Morrill was just one red zone short of being a whole football field high.

Both buildings were relatively Lilliputian by comparison to the buildings that stood near where Kris grew up; there are well over 100 skyscrapers in New York City that are twice as tall as Morrill and Lincoln; however, none of them have Ohio Stadium as a welcome mat. Kris had come to Columbus for Big Ten football, and it was now literally right outside his bedroom window.

Acclimating to college was no big deal. What challenged Kris halfway through his freshman year wasn’t the distance to New York. It was the distance to East Lansing where his girlfriend Megan would be in the fall; the same girlfriend whose father had gotten him that tryout with the Ohio State hockey team, where he had made it to the final cut before his surgically-repaired knee prevented him from being the star player he had been growing up.

He was a strikingly handsome kid whom you would have incorrectly expected to be arrogant. As a freshman from the East Coast, Kris was down to earth, approachable, easy going and quite pleasant in a hectic, transitional year that is defined by so many freshmen battling the creeping instability of no longer being close to home.

Kris made plenty of friends at Ohio State his first year. But like so many plans in so many lives throughout all of history, his plans were about to be altered on account of a girl, and one day in February Kris decided he would become a Spartan.

Kris (top) & friends after OSU's 13-13 "win" vs. Michigan in 1992.
He transferred to East Lansing to start his sophomore year in continuing his big campus studies while getting closer to his high school sweetheart.

His career aspirations as well as his love for Big Ten football remained intact, but Ohio Stadium was no longer right outside his bedroom window.

Kris would still come down to visit Ohio State on weekends for football games and to hang out with the friends he had made back in Morrill. As his sophomore year progressed, and with every passing weekend back in Columbus, it began to occur to him that his decision wasn’t quite what he had expected.

For Spring Break that year he went down to Panama City Beach, but with his Ohio State friends from his freshman year, not his girlfriend and not with any fellow Spartans.

His friendships blossomed further over the span of that one week, which while creating lifelong memories made East Lansing feel like even more of a mismatch in the short term.

Perhaps he had overestimated the relationship with his girlfriend. Maybe it was being at Michigan State. It could have been everything; it could have been nothing in particular.

Regardless, he realized that his anxiousness was rooted in the fact that he wasn’t at Ohio State anymore, and that is where his friends were. That’s where he was most comfortable, and that was where he belonged.

So one day in April Kris decided to become a Buckeye again. He transferred back to Ohio State and re-enrolled after one year away from Columbus and resumed his college career where he had left it.

He made Ohio State’s competitive club hockey team. He went to Buckeye football games. He studied Finance. Despite the one-year detour in East Lansing, his life plans were still on schedule: He would finish up in Columbus and then head to the Big Apple.

As sharp as Kris was, his Ohio State friends were less optimistic: They knew Kris believed that his destiny was to become a shot caller on Wall Street. They thought that realistically his ceiling in New York City would be making cold calls for big players; the guys with Ivy League degrees, MBAs and connections.

Kris had none of those things. He had ambition and a plan. That would have to be good enough.

Kris in his element: Outside.
Beyond Ohio State and Manhattan, there were those mountains: Kris was an avid outdoorsman who loved to go hiking, mountain biking, fishing, whitewater rafting, the outdoors could be his only destination. There would be no Michigan State-like detours in his retirement plans.

One day in summer Kris traveled to Sun Valley in Idaho to go fly fishing. It was no ordinary vacation; Kris fell in love with Sun Valley. He fell hard. He returned home to Long Island and forced his family to go back out with him so that they could see for themselves exactly what he had experienced.

The plan was now complete: Ohio State, Wall Street, turn 40, Sun Valley.

Kris moved to Manhattan right after he graduated from Ohio State in 1995 with his finance degree. He didn’t make it back to Columbus as often as he would have liked to, but that didn’t mean he didn’t see any Buckeye football either.

It wasn’t uncommon for him to watch entire games on the phone with one of those Morrill Tower guys like Matt Levy, dissecting each play as though they were back in the stadium together, hanging up in times of high stress and then calling back during every commercial break:

(Phone rings)

Matt: (answering) Can you believe Cooper put Stanley Jackson in again?
Kris: NO I CANNOT BELIEVE COOPER PUT STANLEY JACKSON IN AGAIN!

(hang up)

Matt, a Michigan native, stayed in Ohio following graduation. When he and Kris would get together, they would golf, reminisce and talk about the Buckeyes. During game days when they were 600 miles apart, they would be on the phone. This interaction was not uncommon, following a commercial break:

(Phone rings)

Matt: (answering) Hello?
Kris: CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!

(hang up)

One eerie November afternoon in 1998 with Matt on the phone in Ohio with Kris in New York and they watched the undefeated and top-ranked Buckeyes play Michigan State in Ohio Stadium. The tension between them built up over the course of three improbable hours of miscues and hubris.

With Ohio State driving to take the lead with only a few seconds remaining in the game, Joe Germaine threw a pass toward the southeast corner of the end zone for Dee Miller. It was intercepted and the Buckeyes’ dream season – one in which they obliterated every other school that they faced that year except for that middling 6-6 Michigan State team – was over.

The moment that the Spartans ended the game, two things happened in Marysville and Manhattan simultaneously: Matt hurled his television remote control in disgust across the room, causing it to shatter into pieces.

At the exact same time, Kris threw his phone against the wall, permanently breaking it and ending the call as abruptly as Ohio State’s national title hopes.

One crushing loss. Two broken appliances. Six hundred miles apart.

The first game of a new era.
Kris eventually worked his way into risk-arbitrage as a securities trader. He was promoted to Vice President less than five years after graduating from his beloved non-Ivy League alma mater. By July of 2011 – his 40th birthday – he would be Idaho-bound.

One Saturday in Columbus, Ohio Stadium was formally rededicated following a three-year renovation project that removed the old running track, lowered the field, constructed permanent south stands and brought the building up to code while increasing capacity by 10,000.

That Saturday also served as Jim Tressel’s head coaching debut. His Buckeyes were facing Akron. Matt was in the stadium. Kris was in New York.

They had spoken every week leading up to Tressel’s inaugural game. Neither of them knew too much about the new head coach – they had both previously concluded that Glen Mason from Minnesota would have been the best choice to succeed John Cooper – so they were anxious to see what this new era of Ohio State football would hold.

Matt stood at his seat and intentionally waited for the marching band to come out onto the field playing Buckeye Battle Cry before calling Kris on his cell phone, just to rub it in.

When Kris would eventually check his voicemail, he would only hear the sound of screaming fans drowning out the distant brass and percussion moving from the north end of the field toward the south stands.

Con't....

hollis · 08-30-2011, 07:32 AM

Awesome story.

Quote:

It’s the same as it ever was in Columbus. It’s just much different everywhere else.

jn25code · 08-30-2011, 07:36 AM

I had read that story and wanted to post it myself but didn't know how.I hope many will read it as it is quite poignant,please people don't fail to read it.

PHATBUCK13 · 08-30-2011, 10:35 AM

Good stuff........

Great find SBF........

Forever a buckeye..........

McKraut · 08-30-2011, 03:04 PM

I will not use last names here as I feel the men and families I mention here deserve recognition and honor, but also the peace of anonymity that is the solace all soldiers seek later in life. I'll never forget that fall, ever. One of my best friends while in Basic Training was a kid from Dayton. Despite the fact that Travis and I didn't get to see any games that season, our situation and our love of the Buckeyes went miles to help hold us together, as we both knew many people who experienced loss that day. The 9/11 attacks happened the first Tuesday of our Basic Training course. Nothing will ever haunt me as much as being a 19 year old kid and coming to the realization that not only had some my friends just lost family and friends, but that all of us would soon very likely be in the midst of a war. 14 guys in our company, 5 in our platoon, had family members or friends that died in the attacks. To this day we all talk during the holidays, visit each other when everyone is on leave, and Travis and I still talk on game days.

After basic training Travis went to Fort Campbell, KY and the 101st, I went on to Fort Benning and the airborne school and eventually to the 82nd at Fort Bragg, NC. We stayed in touch with all of our buddies from basic, and low and behold, more than a dozen of us ended up being in country in Iraq in 2003-2004. We also all happened to be in the same main camp in Baghdad for a week in November. It was a bitter sweet reunion as we had lost a friend from our platoon, Luke, a month before in a firefight in Tikrit. We held a vigil of our own for him the third Thursday in November. Afterwards, in honor of converting him to being a Buckeye fan from Florida over the prior two years, we created our own "Mirror Lake" in an empty fountain in the hotel complex we used for our barracks. For anyone who is unsure, Baghdad at night in late November is still nice and cold, about 35 to 45 overnight. Our Mirror Lake jump was appropriately nice and frigid. That Saturday was also a bittersweet moment, as we gathered with the guys from our units to watch the game. I made the unfortunate bet with a friend of mine from Michigan that the loser had to wear the winning teams jersey the rest of the day. Nate still won't let me live it down, but it's just fine by me, since we haven't lost to Michigan since.

We all left country around the same two week period in February 2004, so many of us got to spend more time together in Kuwait before returning to the states. Since then many of us transferred to new units and different bases, many of us left active duty for school and the reserves. I myself joined the reserves but needed a few years to sort out myself, so school has stayed on the back burner until this year. Ironically, Travis aside, Nate is still my closest friend, despite being from Michigan. Since then we've never had more than two of us together at one time. The bonds we developed as either fellow soldiers or Buckeye fans have remained strong and serve as a testament to the people who have loved, those we love who have lost and those we have lost. We are all brothers to this day.

But out of all of them Travis is still the closest. Lord willing, he will finish his 6th overseas tour just in time to be home on leave for Senior Day against Penn State, and for the first time, Travis and I will be in the stands celebrating a decade of friendship, forged in two fires that while similar are still as unique as could be. From Battle Buddies in basic training, to Buckeyes in "The Shoe" the decade journey we have gone down will always be a defining piece of our lives. In a way, a part of Kris will be in our hearts as well that day. Though we never knew him, Kris was a Buckeye, and a man amongst a multitude lost that day. A multitude that Travis, Nate, Luke and the lot of us, as well as all others who have worn the uniforms of our military services, have answered a call to arms, have sweat, bled, and some of us died to defend their honor as well as the honor of a nation. I will never forget the young men I met in those years, and hearing Kris's story just renews that memory. And in a way, it also renews the warmth in that part of my heart for all my Buckeye family, my Brothers in Arms, and for all that call this country home.

SuperBuckFan08 · 08-30-2011, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McKraut

I will not use last names here as I feel the men and families I mention here deserve recognition and honor, but also the peace of anonymity that is the solace all soldiers seek later in life. I'll never forget that fall, ever. One of my best friends while in Basic Training was a kid from Dayton. Despite the fact that Travis and I didn't get to see any games that season, our situation and our love of the Buckeyes went miles to help hold us together, as we both knew many people who experienced loss that day. The 9/11 attacks happened the first Tuesday of our Basic Training course. Nothing will ever haunt me as much as being a 19 year old kid and coming to the realization that not only had some my friends just lost family and friends, but that all of us would soon very likely be in the midst of a war. 14 guys in our company, 5 in our platoon, had family members or friends that died in the attacks. To this day we all talk during the holidays, visit each other when everyone is on leave, and Travis and I still talk on game days.

After basic training Travis went to Fort Campbell, KY and the 101st, I went on to Fort Benning and the airborne school and eventually to the 82nd at Fort Bragg, NC. We stayed in touch with all of our buddies from basic, and low and behold, more than a dozen of us ended up being in country in Iraq in 2003-2004. We also all happened to be in the same main camp in Baghdad for a week in November. It was a bitter sweet reunion as we had lost a friend from our platoon, Luke, a month before in a firefight in Tikrit. We held a vigil of our own for him the third Thursday in November. Afterwards, in honor of converting him to being a Buckeye fan from Florida over the prior two years, we created our own "Mirror Lake" in an empty fountain in the hotel complex we used for our barracks. For anyone who is unsure, Baghdad at night in late November is still nice and cold, about 35 to 45 overnight. Our Mirror Lake jump was appropriately nice and frigid. That Saturday was also a bittersweet moment, as we gathered with the guys from our units to watch the game. I made the unfortunate bet with a friend of mine from Michigan that the loser had to wear the winning teams jersey the rest of the day. Nate still won't let me live it down, but it's just fine by me, since we haven't lost to Michigan since.

We all left country around the same two week period in February 2004, so many of us got to spend more time together in Kuwait before returning to the states. Since then many of us transferred to new units and different bases, many of us left active duty for school and the reserves. I myself joined the reserves but needed a few years to sort out myself, so school has stayed on the back burner until this year. Ironically, Travis aside, Nate is still my closest friend, despite being from Michigan. Since then we've never had more than two of us together at one time. The bonds we developed as either fellow soldiers or Buckeye fans have remained strong and serve as a testament to the people who have loved, those we love who have lost and those we have lost. We are all brothers to this day.

But out of all of them Travis is still the closest. Lord willing, he will finish his 6th overseas tour just in time to be home on leave for Senior Day against Penn State, and for the first time, Travis and I will be in the stands celebrating a decade of friendship, forged in two fires that while similar are still as unique as could be. From Battle Buddies in basic training, to Buckeyes in "The Shoe" the decade journey we have gone down will always be a defining piece of our lives. In a way, a part of Kris will be in our hearts as well that day. Though we never knew him, Kris was a Buckeye, and a man amongst a multitude lost that day. A multitude that Travis, Nate, Luke and the lot of us, as well as all others who have worn the uniforms of our military services, have answered a call to arms, have sweat, bled, and some of us died to defend their honor as well as the honor of a nation. I will never forget the young men I met in those years, and hearing Kris's story just renews that memory. And in a way, it also renews the warmth in that part of my heart for all my Buckeye family, my Brothers in Arms, and for all that call this country home.

That's awesome that you could keep in touch like that and remain close!

And thanks for serving and protecting our country. We owe you everything

PHATBUCK13 · 08-30-2011, 04:06 PM

Thanks for serving McKraut.......

Arapahoe · 08-30-2011, 08:03 PM

Thank you for serving McKraut, you guys are the real heros.

The article from 11W was a fantastic read... very sobering... and details the power of friendship and family. Although I never knew Kris, I feel as if there is a strong connection between Buckeye Nation and him.

McKraut · 01-26-2012, 03:47 PM

One Day in September | Eleven Warriors

Quote:

If the parallel with Glenn Mason held true, Kris would probably have wanted Urban Meyer to succeed Tressel. Either way, he would be spending this week anxiously waiting for kickoff, just like the rest of us are. Saturday cannot get here soon enough. It never gets here soon enough. It also never stays long enough.

I dug this up to share the article with a friend and upon rereading it this caught my eye. Like many others, that wish came true for Buckeye Nation, we just had to be patient. And yet again, we're all dying with impatience for Saturday, September 1st to get here.