25 Random Things About Me

Many of which are related to track, many more are not.

1) As a young teen, I was home alone when a pair of deranged murderers on a three-state killing spree came through the neighborhood. No kidding.
2) I got the lead role of Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum when I was a high school freshman. The next year I quit acting for running.
3) My earliest memory was on a bus going to a track meet.
4) Every house I've lived in was built in the 1920s.
5) I studied music from age 5 to 18.
6) I've been west of the Mississippi River only three times, two of them for track meets.
7) I celebrated New Year's in Key West a while back by going to a drag show called Broadway Three-Way (A Musical Menage-a-trois) and then partying in front of the Bourbon Street Pub. And yest, I'm straight.
8) The coldest weather I've ever run in was -20, the hottest was 104.
9) I once drank a gallon of beer at a keg party on a dare.
10) After the first home cross country meet of my college career, I went back to the dorms and played tag football that degenerated into tackle. I was sore for ten days.
11) My first car was a Mercury Marquis. God, was it awful.
12) I graduated from college with the second-highest total milage in a season since Sid Sink had been keeping track at BGSU.
13) When my college roommate appeared on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, I was one of his lifelines. (He didn't get into the hot seat).
14) The very mention of my name can apparently set Toledo coach Kevin Hadsell into a fit of rage. No idea why.
15) I led my high school Quiz Bowl league in scoring my senior year.
16) One of my students was Olympic heavyweight boxer Devin Vargas.
17) I once walked eight miles home from a basketball game because I didn't want to impose on anyone by asking for a ride.
18) I was a National Merit Scholar in high school, then lived in a college dorm where nearly everyone was as well. Humbling.
19) I teach in the same school where my father did, which leads to a lot of needling by my brothers.
20) I saw the last Cleveland Knights of Columbus indoor track meet in 1995, which included an also-ran in the 3000 meters named Khalid Kannouchi.
21) I once beat Olympian Paul McMullen...he was out of shape and overweight and running five times his preferred distance.
22) I hosted a keg party when my parents were out of town one summer and they never found out about it...here's hoping they don't read my blog.
23) In the 7th grade I invented a college football computer-ranking system that was met with fascination at the Ohio Statistical Conference (where I also met Bill James).
24) I owned, and then lost, a Nolan Ryan rookie card.
25) My wife is waaaaaay smarteer than I am.