• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Ted Ginn Sr. (official thread)

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
Father figure Ginn Sr. builds improbable Ohio pipeline
257.jpg
Sep. 6, 2006
By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
dot.gif
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]


COLUMBUS, Ohio -- One of the biggest power brokers in college football is noshing on bacon and sausage in a Marriott concierge lounge.
img9642621.jpg
Donte Whitner had Ted Ginn Sr. with him at the NFL combine and became Buffalo's No. 1 draft pick. (Getty Images)Glamorous, he's not. The head coach of Glenville High School has just driven two hours from inner city Cleveland in the early morning to see his son, Ted Ginn Jr.
He's hungry and tired, but he wants to tell his story while he's here.
"I'm not sure, he looks good," the coach says, mimicking Division I-A coaches he used to beg to recruit his players from his school. "I'm not sure how fast he is, if he can go from sideline to sideline. I'm not sure if he can put his foot in the ground."
"I laugh about it now," Ted Ginn Sr. says, lapsing back into the first person, "because from that day on I said, 'I'm not going to let that happen to my kids again.'"
During the build-up to the hypefest that is Texas-Ohio State, Ginn Sr. is the benevolent puppeteer pulling strings in the background. A staggering 21 players from the 2005 Glenville squad earned scholarships, 15 to I-A programs.
The current Ohio State roster is stocked with seven of his players -- quarterback Troy Smith, receiver Ray Small, defensive end Robert Rose, linebacker Curtis Terry, safety Jamario O'Neal, offensive lineman Bryant Browning and, of course, son Ted Ginn Jr.
No. 1 Ohio State might not be in this position had not Ginn Sr. screamed and Jim Tressel listened. Among the early Glenville products were former Michigan linebacker Pierre Woods and defensive back Donte Whitner.
Woods signed as a free agent with the Patriots in May. Whitner was the No. 1 draft choice (No. 8 overall) of the Buffalo Bills.
"It's about putting a kid in position for life," Ginn Sr. said of his football philanthropy, which is much more than churning out college talent.
"Now I've bit off something bigger than that. I want total control of the kid. I want to be everything ... I've got a factory mentality. I need production.
"Power broker" connotes negative imagery. But what is a power broker? Someone who controls a commodity.
Ginn Sr.'s commodities are high school talent and compassion. Eight years ago, he loaded up his car, took out a second mortgage on his house and started hauling his kids to various college camps around the Midwest. Just so they could be seen.
[/FONT]Now the Ted Ginn Sr. Foundation is in place, running the "Road to Opportunity Division I Combine Tour." A luxury tour bus, courtesy of an anonymous donor, took 50 players on five-state, 12-day, 11-school trip to college camps this summer.
The Rolling Stones don't have such a hectic travel schedule. However, Mick doesn't have anything on the tireless Ted Sr. He is recognized now in places like that concierge lounge, where the hostess fawns over him and asks for a business card.
Ginn Sr. has a marketing agent (Austin-based, ironically enough). The goal next year is four buses and a $350,000 budget. Nike might be interested in slapping its swoosh on the sides of the motor coaches.
The Ginn Academy, a charter school for at-risk high school boys in Cleveland, is being planned. Ginn Sr. doesn't want football to be played for a few years, until the school is on firm academic footing.
If he sits on the board, he cannot draw a salary. That's not the issue. The issue is raising the millions needed to make the school a reality.
Book and movie deals have been in the works. Ginn Sr.'s singular focus on his players is the only reason they haven't happened yet.
"What happened is over the years I've made coaches pay attention," he said, "made coaches more accountable. I've got kids calling me."
White kids. Suburban Cleveland kids. They want to come to Glenville now, too, because they know they're going to be taught, coached, seen and recruited.
If all of this sounds a bit shady, it isn't. The man probably has stronger morals than half the big-time coaches he deals with, along with a better winning percentage. Glenville kicked off the season with a 41-7 rout of Warren (Ohio) Harding, Maurice Clarett's old school.
Which is a great segue into the coach's unrelenting discipline. Ohio State's Tressel recalls a big-time Glenville player being told by Ginn Sr. not to go off campus to McDonald's for lunch. The kid went anyway.
"They're warming up for a playoff game," Tressel recalled. "Ted went over and took the player's helmet and handed him a water bucket. He was a great player. They needed him. Ted said 'You're going to be the water boy today.'"
That's really it. There is no ulterior motive for (read: money) for the father of one Heisman candidate (Ginn Jr.) and coach/mentor of another (Smith).
The 50-year-old dad of Ted Jr. and his sister is still a security guard at the school that he has developed into a national prep powerhouse. His annual pay as coach is $3,000.
"I came from a single-parent home," Smith said. "My mother was a mother and a father. She knew I needed a man in my life. Ginn Sr. was that man."
Smith was coaxed by a local coach (Irvin White) to play in the city's municipal youth league as a child. White and Ginn Sr. are partially responsible for raising Smith. Troy eventually transferred to Glenville, where he already was about as close to being a brother to Ted Jr. as possible.
Now they're on magazine covers. They're Heisman candidates. Arguably the flashiest pair of teammates in the game. Hardy boys in a different sense, considering their modest beginnings.
Smith popped off about playing time early in his career. A year ago at this time he was suspended for the season opener after having taken $500 from a booster.
"Here comes daddy. You be quiet," Ginn Sr. told Smith when the firestorm started.
Dad has told Ted Jr. that if he screws up his promising future, it's like coming back to Cleveland with two pistols. And firing away.
The man gets your attention. That's why Tressel practically melted when Ginn Sr. popped into the football offices during spring practice.
You've probably figured out by now that Ohio State has been the biggest beneficiary of this tale. It's called a recruiting pipeline and it has been humming all the way to Columbus -- and beyond.
When Whitner went to the NFL combine in February, he chose Ginn Sr. to be at his side during the rigorous week.
"I still have to be the dad," Ginn Sr. said. "I'm still in charge of their whereabouts and decisions. ... If we don't take care of our kids, we're going to be creating monsters. People ask, 'Where would these kids be without you?' A bum. It's not mentoring anymore. It's parenting."
Ohio State better find a scholarship for current Glenville linebacker Jermale Hines, the best player Ginn Sr. has had in three or four years. If not, Michigan or some other Big Ten program certainly will.
The man doesn't flaunt his power. He might not even call it power at all. He just wants his kids to be seen, get an education through their athletic skills.
Those eight years ago, recruiters would dismiss Glenville out of hand. If they had the bravery to venture into that part of town at all, it looked like a waste of time. The team was comprised of a couple of dozen kids.
Now there are 115 on the roster.
"I can remember people laughing at me," Ginn Sr. said. "I can remember coaches in the area saying, 'I don't believe that guy has four guys who run 4.4.'
"I said, 'No, they run 4.3.'"
http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/9642541/1
 
Upvote 0
Yahoo.com

Ted Ginn Sr., To Kickoff National College Football Tour with Texas

Austin, TX (PRWEB) September 10, 2006 -- The Ted Ginn Sr., Foundation?s annual Football Combine Bus Tour hosted by 2006 Coach of the Year, Ted Ginn Sr., announced today the foundations plans to expand the tour schedule from one highly respected mid-west regional tour into a nationwide tour beginning with adding a southern region.
The foundation hopes this will be big news to Texas high school coaches, student-athletes and major universities as Ginn?s amazing track record has garnered national attention for selling the talents of otherwise overlooked, inner city kids into full-ride scholarships at major universities.
Ginn?s Cinderella bus has become a gateway for underprivileged student-athletes on the road to lifelong success. Recent NFL draftees, Donte Whitner (8th in the draft) and Pierre Woods were among the first tour participants. Heisman hopefuls Troy Smith and Ted Ginn Jr., were also members of this tour. Ginn has assisted over 100 athletes in attaining college scholarships including more than 65 scholarship recipients in Division I. Ginn?s own football program at Glenville ranks #6 in the country in Division I scholarships among student athletes. Last year (?05), an astounding 21 of his 30 high school seniors received college scholarships.
Over two-thirds of combine prospects got multiple offers and signed to scholarships. The tour, which plans to begin in Texas has it?s eye on 11 college prospective sights for a 12-day tour to colleges including the University of Texas, A & M, Tech, LSU, Baylor, OU, Rice, and the University of Arkansas. The tour will feature some of the nations most elite student-athletes from inner-city schools around the state of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana and Arkansas. An early two-day stop to include academic testing is also being planned. Coach Ted Ginn Sr. has a simple philosophy he instills into all of his athletes and a proven formula for the successful transformation in the student-athletes he promotes. The foundation is actively seeking sponsorship partners to increase the percentage of kids that are qualified to go on tour.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
DDN

Archdeacon: Ginn Sr., Tressel make quite a pair

Different backgrounds, different levels of the coaching world, but both win with class, values.

By Tom Archdeacon
Staff Writer

Friday, October 27, 2006
CLEVELAND ? One doesn't have a hair out of place. He patrols the sidelines in a preppy sweater vest and wears stylish, buttoned-up suits to his weekly press conference.
The other wears a gold-hoop or diamond-stud earring, a ball cap, heavy work boots and a big silver badge on his blue uniform shirt.


One, the son of a college coach, has been on the college sidelines himself since he was 22, and today, as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, makes more than $2 million a year.
The other, from a hardscrabble rural background in Louisiana, worked as a machinist out of high school and spent 20 years as a Glenville High assistant coach ? 10 without pay. Now he's a Cleveland Municipal School District security guard, is the Tarblooders' head coach and makes $35,000 a year.
One is the much-trumpeted public face of Ohio State football, the other ? part down-home evangelist, part city-street Pied Piper ? is all about Glenville.
One is a 53-year-old white man, the other, a 50-year-old black man.
One is Jim Tressel, the other Ted Ginn Sr.
On first appraisal, they'd seem to have little in common, but in truth they are more connected, more alike than you could imagine.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the unbeaten, No. 1-ranked team in college football thanks in large part to seven Glenville High Tarblooders, who were coached, mentored and, in some cases, raised by Ginn.
The group includes Bucks quarterback Troy Smith, receiver Ted Ginn Jr. (son of Ted Sr.), starting safety Jamario O'Neal, linebacker Curtis Terry, freshmen Ray Smalls (receiver) and Robert Rose (defensive end) and redshirt lineman Bryant Browning.
"Both coaches are similar," Browning said. "They want you to do well on and off the field. They want you to have some class, some respect for the people who came before you, and be a great young man."
Ginn Sr. chuckled at the Tressel comparisons: "I tell (Tressel) he's the good guy and I'm the bad guy. I call him soft, tell him he's not getting his money's worth from his kids. He calls me bad, too tough. He says he's saving the kids from me.
"Together, we've made a pretty good system for these kids."
 
Upvote 0
DDN

Archdeacon: Cleveland high school coach Ginn turns out great athletes, but he's just as well-known for building up troubled kids

By Tom Archdeacon
Staff Writer

Friday, October 27, 2006
CLEVELAND ? If you're a student at Glenville High ? the inner-city Cleveland school in a struggling neighborhood where too many teen dreams end up compromised, unfulfilled or shot dead ? there are two places you can walk into and come out looking a lot better.
One is the Tarblooders Sports Barbershop, an old seafood restaurant turned snip-and-shave oasis at East 115th and St. Clair. Here, anyone who's a Glenville student gets a haircut for $8, about half the normal rate.


Some two blocks away, there's an even better deal for Glenville students who find their way into the school's back-in-a-corner basement football office. There, among the missing ceiling tiles, exposed pipes and cement block walls, they'll find some of the richest promise of any prep program in the state.
It's the domain of Ted Ginn Sr., school security officer, successful head football coach of the Glenville Tarblooders and something of a barber himself.
He's a guy skilled at shearing away things such as unfortunate circumstance, bad influence, lack of trust and low expectation until he gets the kind of players who not only have made Glenville a perennial powerhouse, but who have fueled the Ohio State Buckeyes to an unbeaten, No. 1-ranked season.
Although Glenville High and the Ohio State campus are 147 miles and two worlds apart, they are connected by the single, richest pipeline of prep-to-college talent in the nation.
Seven Tarblooders now are Buckeyes, including quarterback Troy Smith, the Heisman Trophy front-runner; Ted Ginn Jr., the coach's son and arguably the most exciting player in college football; defensive regulars Curtis Terry (linebacker) and Jamario O'Neal (safety); and top freshmen Ray Small (receiver) and Robert Rose (defensive end).
And then there's All-Ohio lineman Bryant Browning, a 328-pound redshirting freshman who was valedictorian of his Glenville class and is being honored for his academics by the National Football Foundation in New York City in early December.
Last year, the Bucks also featured Glenville graduate Donte Whitner, an All-America strong safety picked eighth overall in the 2006 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills.
Words to live by
To understand what's going on at Glenville High, go back through the neighborhood ? past Mandingo's Beer and Wine, the Tiger Den Lounge, the Pentecostal Church and the restaurant specializing in oxtail and curry chicken ? to Tarblooders Barbershop.
But before stepping onto its Ohio State welcome mat, check out the four in-your-face messages painted on the outer wall.
"Take crack out of the family," reads one. Another warns about teen pregnancy, a third ? complete with an RIP tombstone ? says, "Stop Black-on-Black Crime. Don't be next."
For the Tarblooders, "next" was 16-year-old Anthony Gordon, who would have been the starting tailback this season, but was shot dead after a fight at a rap concert in the Flats last January.
The messages were painted by a community activist, but shop owner Darrell Solomon supports them and points to the fourth panel, the one that asks, "Where are our leaders?"
"Our leaders?" he said. "Some are down at Ohio State right now. Everybody here follows those guys. Even my 2-year-old son knows about Troy Smith."
Fellow barber Dante Daniels agreed: "Guys like Troy and Ted are like superheroes in this neighborhood. They're showing young people you can come from here and do big things."
Solomon said the credit goes to Ted Ginn Sr., who, on this morning, was in his office with the parents of an eighth-grade football player from Euclid.
They knew of the Tarblooders' success ? how 21 football players from last year's team received scholarships, how each was NCAA academically eligible and how this season's 8-1 team features several top college prospects, including Kyle Jefferson, a 6-foot-5 receiver with a 3.71 GPA in honors classes. But the parents wanted to feel out the coach before transferring their son, who the dad called "our most precious commodity."
In turn, Ginn Sr. quizzed them:
"For any player who comes here, I have to be attached to everything from here to his home. What happens out on the street filters in here. Nobody's watering down this system. That's the only way it can work. We don't have some of the things other schools do, but we do have each other. That's our strength."
As he sat there wearing his silver security badge, work boots and a black NFL cap ? a big bag of Kit Kat bites always within reach ? Ginn Sr. talked almost preacher-like about everything from growing up in Louisiana cotton fields to how he relishes sopping up the last dab of meat drippings left in a skillet.
He often referred to the success of "Troy, Ted and Donte," whose Bills helmet sat on a nearby table. He showed the couple how each top varsity player has a highlight tape and an academic sheet showing his test scores, and he brought out an artist's renderings of the Ginn Academy ? the charter school complete with dormitories ? he one day hopes to open.
Finally, the husband looked at the wife and said: "I've heard all I need to know. No one's ever talked about any of this to us before. Everyone wants to talk football. No one ever mentions core values."
Positives, negatives
When the couple left, Ginn Sr. still wasn't sure if the boy would end up at Glenville ? people often contact him out of the blue like this ? but he knew there would be critics if he did.
Some Cleveland-area coaches have publicly questioned why so many kids transfer to Glenville and how some ? including Smith, Small and O'Neal ? ended up living with Ginn Sr. and his wife, Jeanette. They say the coach encourages transfers, something easily facilitated since Cleveland public schools have open enrollment.
"People don't understand what's going on here, so right away it's recruiting, it's cheating," Ginn Sr. said. "They don't see the different kind of successes here. How we're taking kids with problems and instilling values, a way of life.
"People say our program is rolling. Well, while it's rolling, it's struggling. (Gordon) was just one example. You got to deal with all kinds of things ? kids don't have a daddy, momma was a crack head, the folks are outta work. You name it. So you figure a way through."
And that "way" produces a chorus of support, much of it from former players.
"Coach Ginn basically saved me," Terry said. "I would never have been able to afford college without a scholarship. I grew up with numerous relatives and lived a lot of places. My parents weren't real stable. They had issues they needed to deal with. But Coach Ginn sets up stuff ? practice, tutoring, study table ? during the peak time for getting into trouble, and it keeps you safe."
As for Smith, his father was out of the picture and his mom struggled with her own problems, so he lived with the Ginns, roomed with Ted Jr., his childhood pal, and now calls Ted Sr. "Dad."
When Smith had trouble adjusting at OSU and groused to the press about his playing time two years ago, Ginn Sr. got into his car, drove to Columbus and told the QB to keep his mouth shut. When Smith was suspended from the team at the end of the 2004 season for accepting a booster's money, he watched his teammates play in the Alamo Bowl from a television in Ginn Sr.'s basement.
Ginn Sr. admitted Smith has "broken my heart" at times: "Troy didn't ever know how to trust anybody, and he probably still needs to work on that.
"Some of it comes when you haven't had a father in your life. Me, I'm 50 years old and I wish my dad was still alive so I could run things past him, just have that reassurance. But if you never grew up with it, you don't understand it. Still Troy never could question my love, and finally he surrendered some reluctance."
This week Smith didn't hesitate to give Ginn Sr. credit:
"Sacrifice and humility, those are the two things, to me, that exemplify him as a man. He sacrifices everything around him for someone else's kid biologically. As soon as he gets us to learn and take in his teaching, we start to understand about being humble."
Paying his dues
It's through first-hand experience that Ginn Sr. knows what a coach can do for a kid.
Growing up with his grandparents, he learned right from wrong, but football lessons were tougher to grasp: "We were too poor for a football, so we used a milk carton filled with rocks."
When he was 11, he moved to Cleveland ? where his mom and aunt already lived ? and eventually ended up at Glenville High. He played football under James Hubbard, graduated in 1974 and began work as a machinist. A year later, his 38-year-old mother died of a brain aneurism.
"After my mother died, Coach Hubbard was afraid I'd get into trouble, and he found a way to take care of me," he said. "He told me, 'Come on down to practice, boy. I want you to teach one of our boys how to snap.' It started like that. Then he had me picking up stuff and cleaning, and next thing I was on the sideline."
Ginn Sr. spent 10 years as an unpaid Glenville assistant ? "I got life pay," he says ? then another 10 getting a minimal check. In 1996, he took over as the Tarblooders head coach.
Three years later, Glenville became the first Cleveland public school to make the state playoffs since they began in 1972. In 2001, Tarblooder Pierre Woods went to the University of Michigan ? he's now with the New England Patriots ? and the school hit the big-time recruiting radar.
Ginn Sr. stresses conditioning ? his Tarblooders track teams have won four straight state titles ? and since '99, he's promoted his kids (and now other teams' players) with his Ginn Bus Tour. Visiting several Midwest colleges each summer, the athletes show off their football skills and academic accomplishments.
"Coach Ginn gives us an opportunity to see bigger and better things than what we'd otherwise see in the streets of own neighborhood," Browning said. "He's helping us be something we might never had a chance to be."
And in the process, he's providing the answer to that question on the barbershop wall.
 
Upvote 0
Incredibly powerful article. Not for one second should the accomplishments of these men from Glenville be taken lightly.

To understand what's going on at Glenville High, go back through the neighborhood ? past Mandingo's Beer and Wine, the Tiger Den Lounge, the Pentecostal Church and the restaurant specializing in oxtail and curry chicken ? to Tarblooders Barbershop.
But before stepping onto its Ohio State welcome mat, check out the four in-your-face messages painted on the outer wall.
"Take crack out of the family," reads one. Another warns about teen pregnancy, a third ? complete with an RIP tombstone ? says, "Stop Black-on-Black Crime. Don't be next."
For the Tarblooders, "next" was 16-year-old Anthony Gordon, who would have been the starting tailback this season, but was shot dead after a fight at a rap concert in the Flats last January.
The messages were painted by a community activist, but shop owner Darrell Solomon supports them and points to the fourth panel, the one that asks, "Where are our leaders?"
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
Im extremely curious to see what the Glenville school/athletic system & departments look like in 5-10 years when alot of these players are making millions in the NFL.

I have no right to judge or critisize how these young men spend their NFL money, but i'd surely hope they all donate a good chunk to the Glenville school system.

If Ginn Sr. is doing so much with so little right now, just imagine what that school system can do both academically and athletically with substantially better facilities. I really hope that neighborhood can better itself and that these young men coming up in that school learn from what guys like Troy, Teddy, Donte, and others have done & are doing.
 
Upvote 0
Magua;645346; said:
Im extremely curious to see what the Glenville school/athletic system & departments look like in 5-10 years when alot of these players are making millions in the NFL.

I have no right to judge or critisize how these young men spend their NFL money, but i'd surely hope they all donate a good chunk to the Glenville school system.

If Ginn Sr. is doing so much with so little right now, just imagine what that school system can do both academically and athletically with substantially better facilities. I really hope that neighborhood can better itself and that these young men coming up in that school learn from what guys like Troy, Teddy, Donte, and others have done & are doing.
Click to expand...

Doubtless something like that will happen. Though we should not be at all surprised if money also flows to where Ginn Sr. is pitching his tent at that time - which may not be Glenville.
 
Upvote 0
sandgk;645369; said:
Doubtless something like that will happen. Though we should not be at all surprised if money also flows to where Ginn Sr. is pitching his tent at that time - which may not be Glenville.
Click to expand...

Thats another possibility, that maybe his players that are now/will be in the NFL might help him get that Ginn Academy going if that truely is one of his goals.

Mainly, its going to depend on Troy & Teddy considering they are basically his sons and would be most willing to pay back their "dad".
 
Upvote 0
CPD

spacer.gif

[FONT=arial,sans-serif]Ginn honored at awards banquet
By Dennis Manoloff

Plain Dealer Reporter

Ted Ginn Sr. received a special tribute Monday night at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards for the opportunities he has provided young athletes in the area.

The Glenville High School football coach was thrilled to be honored ? but not so as to pad his r?sum? or put another item in his trophy case.

?This is huge because it?s about Cleveland kids,? said Ginn, whose projects include the Ted Ginn Sr. Foundation. ?I don?t work for awards or recognition, but if the kids are recognized, that?s great. Through the tribute, I want people to know that if you give the kids the right guidance, if you give them the love, patience and understanding, then they can rise to whatever they want to be.

?Youngsters all over the city, all over the country, need a lot of love.?

Continued...
[/FONT]
 
Upvote 0
Canton

Cleveland celebrates two Ginns
Tuesday, January 30, 2007



To Ted Ginn Sr., seeing troubled city kids get their lives turned around is bigger than any award he could receive.
The high school coach, who has built Glenville into a perennial football power while saving youngsters from the streets, was honored Monday night during the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards.
After being handed a glass trophy by former Browns Coach Sam Rutigliano, Ginn invited nearly two dozen Glenville students to join him on stage, the high point of the star-studded event.

Continued...
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top