Ted Ginn Jr. likes telling stories about his childhood to elementary school children.
Sometimes the "little dudes" don't believe him. Stories about the learning disability that nearly caused him to flunk out. Stories about humiliating experiences in his early school days. Stories about being too slow and too scrawny to ever be a high school athlete.
"They just look at me and say, How can that be? You're Ted Ginn,' " the Glenville High School track and football standout says with a half-smile.
By the end of this weekend, Ginn could engrave his name in the record books as one of Ohio's all-time greatest track athletes.
He will compete in four sprint and hurdles events Friday and Saturday at the state high school track championships in Columbus.
With victories in all four races, he would climb to fifth place on the all-time win list for state titles and move past the legendary Jesse Owens into third place for most career points earned in state meets.
Win or lose, he already is regarded as the best track athlete to come out of Cleveland since Owens the first American to win four gold medals in a single Olympics in 1936.
That description comes from someone who should know Clevelander Harrison Dillard, who won four Olympic gold medals of his own in the 1940s and 1950s.
"They're probably the two greatest high school athletes this city has produced," Dillard said.
As good as Ginn is in track, he equals or surpasses that in football. Earlier this year, he accepted a full football scholarship from Ohio State.
But Ginn had plenty of hurdles to get over. He has turned humiliation into motivation.
Ginn first felt the sting of ridicule on the first day of class in second grade at Forest Hill Parkway Academy in Cleveland.
"The teacher told me I didn't belong there because I failed first grade," Ginn said. "Everybody sat there and laughed at me. It was hard."
A few years later, he again was singled out on the first day of school - this time in fifth grade. Ten minutes into the day, an administrator at St. Agatha St. Aloysius School came into his classroom, escorted him to the principal's office and then to the street without an explanation.
"They just said my father would be out there waiting," he said.
Ginn couldn't imagine why he found himself standing alone on St. Clair Avenue while his classmates settled into a new school year. So he cried.
He had been kicked out. His father, Ted Ginn Sr., said he was told his son was dismissed because his tuition was not paid. He expected to be allowed to pay it on the same plan as in previous years.
The elder Ginn thinks the school could no longer provide extra tutoring.
"They said by the fifth grade, you have to stand on your own," Ginn Sr. said.
Ginn's father has no animosity toward the school. But the memory of seeing his son on the street in tears is still painful.
"We found a way to make that situation into a positive, though," he said. "We want people to look at Ted and give that next kid a dream and something to work toward."
When Ginn returned to Cleveland public schools for fifth grade, his future did not seem bright. One teacher, tiring of Ginn's lack of interest and joking attitude, told him he was destined to become a burger flipper.
He swore he never again would be humiliated.
He turned to his religious beliefs - he is a Baptist and a member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes since he was 7. The tattoo he had stenciled on his right biceps summed up his priorities - Glenville's winged G logo with the word "God" above it and "Ginn" below. God over school and family.
His father, a Cleveland schools security officer and varsity football and track coach at Glenville, also refused to give up on his son. He convinced officials at Collinwood Computech Intermediate School to let his son take special education classes.
Ginn had never been academically eligible to play sports in junior high, other than soccer in the fall before grades came out.
His father also sent him for extra instruction with Claude Holland's youth track team, the Cleveland Rebels Track Club. Holland is the longtime boys track coach at Cleveland Heights.
"He was 11 years old," Holland recalled. "He was just one of a bunch of young people. Nothing stood out exceptional about him except one time."
Ginn waited after practice while Holland talked with older athletes and parents. Finally, he asked Holland to show him how to run the hurdles. Holland was hesitant.
"I was afraid he was going to get injured, he was such a tiny young man," Holland said. "Most children are afraid of the hurdles. But he was tenacious."
The frail-looking boy soaked up information about techniques and rhythms that ultimately would allow him to win two state championships and record two more runner-up finishes in the hurdles before his senior year.
Ginn could not wait to start high school. Besides getting a fresh academic start and a chance to play football and run track, he felt at home. He had grown up at Glenville, hanging around his father's office and practices. He knew most of the school's football and track stars.
Many of them had been invited to stay at the Ginn home when they were having their own problems. People like P-Wood, Dee, Tone, Booboo, Sul, B.O., Superman and many others.
Ginn felt comfortable around the athletes. All of 120 pounds when he entered high school, he would wrestle with the much larger Pierre Woods, now a standout defensive lineman at the University of Michigan, at every opportunity.
He blossomed - moving from special-education classes to regular classrooms and developing physically with the help of private training from Speed Strength Systems in Euclid.
By his sophomore year, Ginn was a standout cornerback on the football team. He had a breakout season in track that spring, when he finished second in the state meet in the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. He ran on the runner-up 4x100 relay team and capped the final day with a state championship as a member of the 4x400 relay team.
Last spring, he led the Tarblooders to their first team state championship in track since 1975, finishing first in both hurdles events and anchoring another victory in the 4x400 relay. He finished second in the 200 meters.
His senior year has been even more spectacular. As a quarterback and cornerback, he led Glenville to the Division I state football playoffs, nearly upsetting perennial power St. Ignatius. He accounted for almost 3,000 total yards, running, passing, returning kicks and interceptions. He passed and ran for 29 touchdowns. He returned five interceptions for touchdowns. He was named Most Valuable Player in the U.S. Army All-American high school all-star game.
In the classroom, Ginn's 3.5 grade-point average places him in the top 10 percent of his class. He had a perfect 4.0 GPA in the most recent grading period.
His future seems unlimited. Ginn has dreamed of playing for the Cleveland Browns, but he also would like to qualify for the Olympics in track.
"I'm just going to let it play out," he said. "I'll go to college and see where it takes me."
Wherever he ends up, Ginn said he will follow his father's lead and do what he can to help children find their way in the world.
"We talk all the time about what his job is," his father said. "Now it's his turn to throw that net and pull somebody else out before they drown."
