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Buckeye-fan dad raising Buckeye-fan son
Nicole L.V. Mullis
For the Enquirer
<!-- ARTICLE BODYTEXT --> <!--ARTICLE TEXT--> My husband was raised an Ohio State Buckeye with the same rigor I was raised Roman Catholic.
For most of our marriage I’ve ignored this — happy the college football season is so short and secretly rolling my eyes. This worked well until my 7-year-old son became his little protégé.
Let me explain my concern.
When the Buckeyes lost the 2003 rivalry game to Michigan, my husband was less than rational. I suggested he take a walk and he made it as far as the garage. Taking our ax, he began hacking at a dead tree on our property.
This seemed therapeutic until it fell across our neighbor’s deck — our Michigan fan neighbor’s deck.
Let’s just say, nothing tops a Michigan victory for a Wolverine more than having a Buckeye apologize and clear your deck in
OSU finery.
My son doesn’t remember this episode, but he is well on his way in being trained to wear scarlet and gray.
My father-in-law pays him $1 every time he sings the
OSU fight song.
My husband lets him stay up late during football season to tutor him in Buckeye history and nurture his loathing of Michigan.
I tried to temper this brainwashing by telling my son about the tree.
He nodded solemnly as if grasping the moral but then told my mother, “The Buckeyes are going to beat Michigan and if they lose, my dad and I are going to chop down a tree!”
Hopeless!
