By the way, if you have to have a job, it is great to have one that allows you the time to surf-just wish it paid more. Anyhow, Ted Ginn Sr., for those of you who do not know, has gotten his share of notoriety over the last year or so as the father of Miami Dolphin #1 draft choice Teddy Ginn, and as a father figure for Ohio State QB and Heisman winner Troy Smith.

Apparently Ginn Sr. is viewed in college football circles as a power broker. This hasn’t always been the case. Ginn Sr. moved to Cleveland at age eleven. At Glenville High school Ginn Sr. played football under James Hubbard, graduating in 1974. A year later, after the loss of his mother, Ginn Sr. was asked by Coach Hubbard to come to practice to help coach. That started ten years as an unpaid assistant at Glenville, followed by ten years of minimal pay. In 1996 Ginn Sr. took over as head coach with pay of approximately $3000.00 annually. Head track coach is also one of his responsibilities while continuing in his employment as a security guard at Glenville.

About nine years past Ginn Sr. loaded his car with a few of his players and traveled the Midwest so they could be seen by the colleges. From this humble beginning the Ted Ginn Sr. Foundation now runs the “Road to Opportunity Division 1 Combine Tour”. The scheduled stops for the tour in 2007 were:

1. Ball State
2. Marshall
3. Cincinnatti( also for ACT testing)
4. Miami (OH)
5. Bowling Green
6. Iowa
7. Illinois
8. Purdue
9. Indiana
10. Wisconsin
11. Ohio State
12. Eastern Michigan
13. Akron
14. Toledo
15. Kent State

Have these tours been a success? We believe there are currently in excess of 100 youngsters playing Division 1 football who participated in these tours. By rankings, Glenville ranks sixth in the nation for Division 1 scholarships for student-athletes. The tours themselves cost the kids little to no money. Donte Whitner of OSU and NFL fame was an early participant.

Folks, this thing goes deeper than bus tours, state track titles, and scholarship athletes. I for one look at some of the people, especially on the AAU basketball circuit, as less than honorable, looking to ride someones coat tails to fortune. The community in Cleveland in which Glenville High School is located is not nice. Tough place for kids, I have no clue. But, this is where Ted Ginn Sr. works, raised his kids, and coaches some ball.

Tom Archdeacon of the Dayton Daily News, 10/27/06, quotes Curtis Terry, OSU Buckeye, “Coach Ginn basically saved me. I never would 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 stuff up-practice, tutoring, study table-during the peak time for getting into trouble, and it keeps you safe.” Probably Coach Ginn’s most famous athlete was Troy Smith. Archdeacon goes on to report that early in Smith’s career Smith groused to the press about his playing time. Ginn Sr. got in his car, drove to Columbus and told the QB to keep his mouth shut. About Smith, Ginn Sr. is quoted as saying 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. Ginn goes on”Some of it comes when you haven’t had a father in your life. Me, I’m 50 years old and 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”.

Among many other things Smith says “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.” Associated Press writer Tom Withers , 1/4/07, quotes Smith, “He is an angel here on earth and without him a lot of kids wouldn’t be in some of the positive situations that they’ve been in. He continues to bless us and be a part of our lives.” Personally, I was touched to hear Troy Smith acknowledge Coach Ginn at the Heisman ceremony.

Needless to say Coach Ginn has his critics. To my knowledge the bulk of the criticism surrounds the idea that players in Northeast Ohio want to play for Ginn Sr. and take advantage of the Cleveland Public Schools open enrollment policy. Therefore, he and Glenville are attracting talent to the detriment of other football programs. Probably this is true, but maybe those who are whimpering ought to take a look at what Ginn Sr. is doing and they are not. Kurt Ferentz, University of Iowa, is quoted by Tom Withers, “He’s (Ginn) one of the most unbelievable humans I’ve ever met, and I’ll be honest. At the outset, I wasn’t sure what Ted was or who he was. He does the right thing. He’s totally about others. The work he does goes far beyond football”.

It appears coach Ginn is not resting on his success. He would like to expand the summer bus tours to different geographical areas with athletes from around the country. He talks of starting a charter school in Cleveland for at-risk high school boys. Everything takes money. Maybe some crack investigative reporter will someday break a story that tells us Ginn Sr. is a money grubbing tool. Once again an icon demolished before our eyes. Another reason we have all become skeptical of everyone and everything. Until that happens, we say great job Coach. You should be very proud of your human accomplishments. Helping young people who need help, hell of a deal!

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