The Pregame Meal - Ohio State - Lunch

Drink Recipe of the Week:

Luke from Land Grant Holy Land shares a favorite Ohio State drink recipe, Liquid Dope:

In a pitcher of ice, add 1 1/4 oz gin, vodka and rum followed by a 1 1/4 oz pour of sour mix. Then add 1 1/4 oz of cherry brandy, blackberry brandy and peach cherry followed by another 1 1/4 oz pour of sour mix. Fill the rest of the pitcher with orange juice and a splash of grenadine.

A Little Love

The year was 2006, gas shot 50 cents to a ridiculous high of $2.21 a gallon. There were 16 BCS rankings released with the opportunity for 16 teams to occupy the top two spots for the right to play in the big game. USC was #1 for two weeks and #2 for one week. Florida was #2 for one week. Somehow, Rutgers was #2 for one week. Outside of that, Michigan and Ohio State were #1 or #2 11 times. Michigan was # 1 for 3 weeks and #2 for 3 weeks while Ohio State was #2 for two weeks before taking over as #1 for 3 weeks. The last game of the year put #1 OSU against #2 UM for all the marbles, unless they got a rematch for all the marbles for real 8 weeks later.

UB was headed to Wisconsin and I wasn't working the game having already gone to Auburn earlier that year with the team. A friend of mine had a brother at OSU, I don't know why, I don't know when we decided we would, but Friday afternoon I was on the road to Columbus. I had a piece of leftover pizza at around 3:30 before leaving, and it would be the last thing I ate for about 24 hours.

Two cars of UB students arrived in Columbus on an electric Friday night that was a scene out of a dystopian future. Legions of police roamed the streets in teams of 4 or 5, like it was a police state where basic human rights were crushed with an iron fist. We arrived at our home for the weekend, and despite what seemed to be 5 or 6 kegs in house, we had to go on a beer run because those were "Saturday Kegs." The corner store was out of a zombie movie, except the food and water were still intact, it was the beer aisle that had been looted. I figured "when in Rome" and grabbed Natty Light, Columbus rookie mistake.

We head back to the house, and my memory eludes me as to what happened, but late around 2, we realize we are really hungry, we walk to the local Taco Bell, it's packed, and they locked the door, they wouldn't let us in, they wouldn't let us walk through the drive thru. We hit a 7/11 type store where I got chips.

Sleep happens, and I wake up to full party. The utopia of gameday interrupted by the harsh heckling of anyone daring to walk by in blue. Most of the students receive paper tickets for the games, so they do the smart thing and sell those tickets for thousands of dollars. They would watch on TV and party like no one was watching. I really love the dotting of the I, who could hate that, so I watch that, and elect to miss kickoff, Taco Bell is finally open again. I stuff my face, and then I fall asleep.

I remember nothing about the game of the century. In the third quarter someone wakes me up by putting a box wine tap in my mouth. I was angry, drowning in $3 wine in your sleep would have been an awful way to go. The Golden Rule is never fall asleep on a game weekend, unless you have your own room and mature friends

The game ends and Ohio State wins, we run to the stadium to celebrate and shout about our displeasure of the entire state of Michigan. We are able to run into the stadium (security was like whatever) and then we got on the field, I took some Ohio Statdium grass, I think I took it home, have no idea what I did with it afterwards.

The next day we went to Eddie George Grill to watch the Buffalo Bills. JP Losman threw two 83-yard TD passes to Lee Evans, and beat David Carr's Houston Texans with a 4th quarter TD pass to Peerless Price. We sang the shout song. The bar was full of Ohio State alumni, Cris Carter was the only one I recognized.

In a season where I went to Auburn, Boston College and Ohio State, OSU was by far my favorite. They partied hard, they had fun, they knew their football and for a minute I knew what it was like to experience punching your ticket to the National Championship game.