It was sitting on a display table in his house and as trophies go it wasn't much...just a flat wood base on which sat a chunk of steel. They had presented it to him when he retired and he showed it to me when we were done with the interview. As I picked it up though, it had some weight... weight of mass, weight of years, weight of significance.

The two-inch thick slab of wood was sanded smooth and highly polished, a glossy coat of clear finish covering the marks of years and years of aging. A piece of barn timber? Not hardly. Fastened atop it was simply a 4 inch section of railroad iron, which had been painted jet black. A meaningless spur? No Way. On the front, an engraved brass plate told there was much more to the story.

The railroad iron was a section of rail from the original railroad used to build Ohio Stadium, the wooden base a piece of the original wood seats that were in the stadium when it opened. So simple, yet so beautiful, it was a work of art, every bit worthy of the accomplished gentleman it had been presented to.

I have been in many Buckeye rooms and seen all kinds of artifacts in the course of this journey. I have never had a case of memorabilia envy, until I saw this one. As I held it in my hands, all I could think was "Wow!"