BUCKEYE FANS
Herbstreit draws admirers to ‘101’
Friday, August 18, 2006
Molly Willow
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Audio slide show
KYLE ROBERTSON DISPATCH Kirk Herbstreit leads a for-women-only session called "Football 101."
KYLE ROBERTSON DISPATCH At an Ohio State University event, Cindy Wendling of Worthington has a Kirk Herbstreit jersey signed by Herbstreit himself.
The Ohio State football fans brought hats, footballs and jerseys for Archie Griffin and Kirk Herbstreit to sign.
They also brought purses.
The alumni event — conducted last night in the Ohio Union, on the OSU campus — marked the second in a "Girls Night Out" series.
Four hundred women turned out in their scarlet-and-gray finery (and jerseys) for "Football 101: Inside the Huddle."
"I just love to see women get excited about their team," said Herbstreit, the ESPN football analyst and former OSU quarterback.
Many of the attendees identified themselves as "10s" on the scale of fandom — bigger fans than their husbands, several claimed.
Still, their love clearly isn’t limited to scarlet and gray.
"I came to look at Kirk Herbstreit — very easy on the eyes," said Suzie Dupler-Telle, 41, of Powell, who acknowledged that she didn’t need remedial lessons in football.
Donna Raque, 46, of Galena accompanied some friends — "rabid" fans — "to be this close to Kirk Herbstreit."
"I’ll ask questions of him and pretend I don’t know about football," she joked.
Tickets for the sold-out event —sponsored by the OSU Alumni Association and hosted by Griffin, its president — cost $20.
Such an evening makes sense because women represent slightly more than 53 percent of OSU graduates, said Kathy Bickel, vice president of outreach for the association.
The first "Girls Night Out" took place in April with head football coach Jim Tressel.
His X’s-and-O’s presentation, a sellout, challenged the notion that women trail men in their support of OSU sports.
(Face it: Any woman at the Tressel talk was there for the football. The sweater vest is nice, but the coach is no Herbstreit.)
The gathering last night, though, wasn’t all about the dreamy College GameDay analyst: The participants also wanted his insights regarding the coming season.
"I would love to hear Kirk Herbstreit’s take on how we’re doing with our new kids that are in the defense," said 1955 graduate Suzie Swales of Upper Arlington.
He cautioned that the Sept. 2 season opener against Northern Illinois wouldn’t be an easy game, expressed his hope that the young secondary doesn’t stick too close to the script and get burned on a surprise play versus Texas and predicted that "Iowa is this year’s Penn State."
When the time came for questions, one woman asked about the strength of special teams. (Answer: always good.) Another asked which newcomer on defense stood out in his mind. (Answer: defensive end Robert Rose, a true freshman.)
And a third sounded like a confident Michigan-hating Buckeyes fan: "Will Lloyd Carr get fired after we beat them?" (Answer: No, he’ll quit.)
Other queries, which you might not hear at the Varsity Club, centered on A.J. Hawk, former Buckeye and new Green Bay Packer, and his bride, Laura Quinn.
As if the Herbstreit-induced twittering weren’t indication enough of the femaleonly crowd, the evening concluded with something that typically doesn’t follow football-themed events: a fashion show, sponsored by every woman’s favorite place to shop — the Buckeye Corner.
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