Journey down rabbit hole risky, but at times, worth it

It’s been said that when you “go down a rabbit hole,” the outcome is uncertain at best. The journey could be pleasurable, with an enlightening result. Or it could be an empty bust — something akin to the night Geraldo Rivera opened one of Al Capone’s mysterious vaults on live television.

Gladly, last week’s hare-brained “Livin’ the Team” excursion was the former, and not the latter.

At least that was the feedback offered by Wooster resident Gerald “Jerry” Payn, who said he had a personal connection to the tongue-in-cheek column that listed 10 suggestions for passing time on Saturday afternoons without Ohio State/Big Ten football.

Payn specifically commented on recommendation No. 8, which had to do with borrowing a tuba from a local band director and pretending to dot the “i” in the Script Ohio formation that has become a time-honored tradition inside the massive Ohio Stadium on the banks of the Olentangy in Columbus.

The wacky idea took Payn back 60 years when he was, in fact, the tuba player fortunate enough to dot the “i” before a kickoff — not just any kickoff, mind you, but the showdown against the rival Michigan Wolverines.

For Payn, it obviously was a memory to last a lifetime, which demonstrates just how significant standing at the 38-yard line is to folks in these parts.

Certainly not to be lost in the excitement is the fact Payn also dotted the “i” twice as an alum member of TBDBITL. For the unfortunate and uninformed individuals who might have grown up outside the state borders, that long acronym stands for “The Best Damned Band in the Land.” (They’ve always voiced a high opinion of themselves.)

In his recent email to editor Mike Plant here in Wooster, Payn did confess that tuba really is quite a bit easier to spell than sousaphone (the proper name of the instrument), which was misspelled “soosafone” on purpose in last Saturday’s Wooster Weekly/Bargain Hunter epistle simply to illustrate that spelling might not be the forte of Ohio State marching band members.

“Don’t think that tuba originated at OSU,” Payn scoffed playfully.

Now, to go even deeper “down a rabbit hole,” what specifically do you remember about the Buckeyes’ battle with Michigan nearly 60 years ago?

Well, history (and a Cleveland Plain Dealer account) denotes coach Woody Hayes improved to 6-4 against the Wolverines with the Buckeyes’ 7-0 victory on Nov. 19. Fullback Bob Ferguson, the 220-pound battering ram from Troy, bulled 17 yards for the only touchdown in front of 83,107 fans at The Shoe.

The score came at 2:05 of the fourth quarter and ended a five-play, 42-yard drive. For the record, it was Ferguson’s 13th touchdown in nine games that season. Ben Jones, the sophomore place-kicking specialist, toed the point-after conversion, and the Bucks ended the season with seven victories, two defeats and a third-place finish in the conference.

The following Jan. 2, 1961, No. 6 Washington upended No. 1 Minnesota (AP Poll), 17-7, in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The Huskies’ and Golden Gophers’ marching bands performed the halftime show.

TBDBITL was sorely missed.

And here’s one final “rabbit hole” finding:

Did you know when TBDBITL plays “Hang on Sloopy” — as it has done ever since the tradition began on Oct. 6, 1965, it is actually paying homage to a pair of Ohio music legends?

When the rock band known as The McCoys made the bubble gum anthem a 45 rpm No. 1 hit in 1965, the group’s lead guitar player and vocalist was Rick Derringer, who was born Ricky Dean Zehringer on Aug. 5, 1947, in Fort Recovery, Ohio. (That’s about as close as you can get to the Indiana state line, and you can almost smell Hoosiers from there.) The McCoys generally claimed Dayton as their hometown.

But who exactly was Sloopy? The story goes that the song depicts the life of the late Dorothy Sloop (Heflick) of Steubenville. “Sloopy” was her nickname when she became a busy barroom pianist and singer on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. She even studied one year at Ohio University in Athens.

Again, for our uninformed readers, OU boasts the mini-Horseshoe-like Peden (one word) Stadium and the Marching 110, aka TMEBITL. That stands for “The Most Exciting Band in the Land” — regardless of what TBDBITL members past and present might think.