Loyalty. It's a word that very few Ohio football fans know or care to learn. But there's a man in the area who does, and he's attempting to teach everyone else its meaning.
Chris Eaton, an artist and photographer who lives in Athens, is in the process of developing a Web site called Huskers for Ohio (www.huskersforohio.com), which will act as a network for Nebraska fans who have recently morphed into Bobcats after Ohio's hiring of their beloved Frank Solich. The site -which his wife, daughter and son-in-law helped him create -will be up and running to catch Bobcat fever as early as today.
Ohio, Nebraska and anywhere-else dwellers alike are encouraged to join the members-only site, given that they are Cornhuskers who love Cornhuskers, even ex-ones. T-shirts, hats, links and chat room meetings will be available to people who want to bring the rich Nebraska football tradition to sedentary southeastern Ohio.
Eaton wants to encourage Nebrathenite camaraderie through pre-game tailgating and season ticket lotteries. He's used to going to Nebraska games where banners wave that say Ohioans for Nebraska
Indianans for Nebraska Californians for Nebraska even Oklahomans for Nebraska
he said with special delight. He's tired of Ohio football players looking up in the stadium and seeing empty seats.
It would be nice if one day an aging Ohioan could look back and say, My family has had season tickets to Ohio games since 2005. Eaton's family has passed around tickets to Nebraska's Memorial Stadium since 1931. Or if the stability of Ohio's fan base were such that supporters could someday recount tales of their grandfathers' and great-grandfathers' days in the uniform, as Eaton's wife can say of her family.
It would be nice if one day Ohio fans could maintain the loyalty that Eaton said exists in Cornhusker fans, many of whom felt like Frank got the dirty end of the deal when he was fired as Nebraska's head coach.
And it would be really nice if you could walk down a street in Athens on a Saturday and not see anyone because everyone is at the game. With a man like Eaton stirring the drink, that might just be possible.
He's originally from Kentucky, but his wife's Nebraska fanaticism converted him to a Cornhusker almost immediately. The two used to watch the Nebraska game every Saturday, but with Solich at Ohio's helm, next season's Husker games will be demoted to videotape, he said. He is so excited about Solich's ability to turn around the Ohio squad that he'll put the Husker team second to cheer on the Bobcats.
I guess what one can gather from this story is, once a Husker, always a Husker, and there are plenty of them. And, as Eaton said, If Frank can't do it
they ought to get rid of football. Now that's loyalty.
Whether a broad network of loyal fans will exist one day for Ohio football, and whether Eaton will make a difference in establishing it, I don't know. But it would be nice.
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Patrick Bourland
