Living in this neck of the woods isn’t easy.
The hearty souls who reside in Ashtabula County brave an awful climate, must make do with limited professional, social, educational and economic resources and try to make chicken salad out of chicken... scraps... in terms of dollars and cents.
For one night, though, the national spotlight was turned on us and, thanks to Urban Meyer, we were all vicariously a shining star.
The Ashtabula native — a 1982 graduate of St. John High School — led the Florida Gators to the BCS national championship with a 24-14 triumph against the Oklahoma Sooners on Thursday night.
That makes two national championships in the last three years for Meyer, who is the only man to lead a team to more than one BCS national crown.
While Meyer’s football credentials are impeccable, what’s most impressive to us is not only has he never forgotten where he came from, he’s proud of it.
He led Florida to its national championship Thursday night while honoring and supporting another former Herald, John Buskirk, who lost a heartbreaking battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia around 7 on Saturday night.
Meyer, who struck up a friendship with Buskirk last spring and hosted John and his wife, Jessica, at Florida’s spring game, wore a yellow wristband with “BUZZSTRONG #55” engraved on it during the game. The wristband was clearly visible in several of the many shots of Meyer on national television during the game.
As John was in what turned out to be the final week of his life, Meyer called him at the Cleveland Clinic, sent him text messages regarding what the Gators were during in final preparations to take on the Sooners and his quarterback, Tim Tebow, then called to offer his support and encouragement.
Meyer has made room for another Ashtabula Countian, Angelo Mirando, a former record-setting quarterback at Jefferson, on his coaching staff.
Whenever he’s in town, Meyer always makes it a point to visit his high school alma mater, frequent some of the stomping grounds of his youth in the city and even pay a visit to Geneva-on-the-Lake.
And like the other men who have gone on to the big stage in the past two decades or so such as Jim Bollman, Jarrod Bunch, Brian Anderson, Matt Hatchette and most recently, Dean Hood, Meyer always finds a way to “have a few minutes for the local paper,” even when we ring him up on his cell a week before the national title game and interrupt him at dinner with his family.
To the rest of the world, Urban Meyer’s name is synonymous with success on the football field.
He’s been blessed with accomplishment, achievement and recognition as a coach and honor, love and faith as a husband, father and friend.
But to us, he’s an Ashtabula Countian... and he’s proud of it.
And ’tis us who are blessed for that.
McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.
Sports
Related Photos
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URBAN MEYER, a 1982 St. John High School graduate, makes a point during Florida's victory against Oklahoma in the BCS national title game Thursday night at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. AP
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DON McCORMACK
Discussion
A Don McCormack column: Thanks, Urban!
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