 TOLEDOROCKETS.NETYour source for information on Rocket Football! |
TOLEDOROCKETS.NETYour source for information on Rocket Football! |
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By Mike Sopher I came to Toledo in 1998 with ambitions to make big money as a pharmacist after six years of schooling. I left six years later with a bachelors and masters in history knowing that I still could not get a decent job in this field without a PhD. Upon my arrival in 1998, my knowledge of Toledo sports could have been filled up on one line on an index card. I knew nothing except that the football team played in some championship game the previous winter. I was still a diehard Buckeyes fan who bled scarlet and gray on Saturday afternoons. Six years later, I root against the Buckeyes except when they play Michigan. During my freshman year I went to several games, but one that sticks out in my mind was when my brother and parents came up for a weekend. My brother was fascinated with Toledo’s huge offensive line as it averaged near the 300 pound mark. The game was against Western Michigan and I don’t remember the final score. I think Toledo won, but I’m still not sure. I do remember that the team made it to the MAC championship game at Marshall a few months later. I traveled down with some hundred or so other students on a charter bus set up by the Alumni Association. I think it cost $20 to go down there, but I somehow got a free ticket from a nice lady on the bus. It took six hours to get there. We painted our chests to spell T-O-L-E-D-O-!-!, and got pummeled with pennies by the always warm and receptive Marshall fans during the game. We lost the game but I forgot the score. All I know is that the bus ride back was long and lonely. I took the same trip down on a charter bus in 2002. Only this time more students made the trip as the cost was relatively cheap. The result was still the same: a loss with more garbage taken from the Marshall fans. But we had a blast ripping the Herd fans even if our football team still could not figure out how to win in this stadium. (They would finally win there the nest year 24-17) Between those four years I saw my Rockets win some big games. Probably the biggest one on a national scale was the game at Penn State in 2000 where a 24-6 whooping sent 94,000 Nittany Lion fans back home in disgust. Some still argue that that game sent Joe Paterno’s program in decline for the next several seasons. I will never forget watching that game on ESPN listening to the announcers reiterate how much Toledo dominated Penn State. That’s right; a MAC team dominating a Big Ten powerhouse. It happened on a sunny afternoon in September. I will never forget our defensive coordinator, Tom Amstutz, pumping his arms in jubilation after a big sack in the second half. I will never forget Chester Taylor running into some huge open holes created by the big guys up front. I will never forget the pass from Tavares Bolden to Lyle Green for a touchdown that put the nail in the coffin. My family had always been Pittsburgh and Penn State fans. I finally now had something to rub in their faces. The following year of 2001 was a dream year for Rocket fans and for the newly hired head coach “Toledo Tom” Amstutz. It started off with a win in the Glass Bowl against Minnesota. Actually, it wasn’t just a win but a blowout. The next week President George W. Bush and President Vicente Fox of Mexico visited Toledo to speak at Savage Hall. Bush acknowledged the team’s victory before his speech and I think it is safe to assume that it was probably the only thing remembered from that day. Toledo went on to win ten games that season. Three of its home games were in front of some of the largest crowds in Glass Bowl history including 36,852 against Navy, a conference record to date. Toledo also won the MAC championship in its home stadium beating Marshall 41-36 in what I consider as the greatest college football game I have ever witnessed in person. The season concluded with a bowl victory over Cincinnati as the Rockets ended a magical season at 10-2. My final year in Toledo was during the 2003 season. Fittingly, I witnessed Toledo’s last great home win against a quality out of conference opponent in the Pittsburgh Panthers. Oddly, I had spent that morning and afternoon at Ohio State watching the Bowling Green Falcons give the Buckeyes all they could handle. I was mystified by Ohio Stadium as over 100,000 people were in attendance. I rooted for BG even if I knew that was sacrilegious and grounds for termination as a Rocket fan. I remember sitting behind a Toledo student who I worked with at the Rec Center. Like me, he was traveling back to Toledo immediately after the game to catch the Rockets against Pitt. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it back to Toledo till midway through the second quarter thanks to my OSU friend who had trouble getting me back to my car. Still, I witnessed a great win for my Rockets. We beat the # 9 ranked team in the country when quarterback Bruce Gradkowski hit receiver Lance Moore for a touchdown with less than a minute to go. That would be our first of two wins that year at home against ranked opponents. The No. 21 Northern Illinois Huskies would come to town two months later and would leave as the losers in a 49-30 beating where a 60 yard touchdown pass from Bruce to tight end Andrew Clarke on a 3rd and 33 is still talked about by Toledo fans. That was a special season even if Toledo lost their bowl dreams a week later. When Toledo won the MAC championship a year later in 2004, I danced in my landlady’s house while watching the celebration on Direct TV. I had spent the year talking Toledo football to a bunch of teenage kids as a schoolteacher in West Virginia. These kids loved hearing about my Rockets, or perhaps they loved getting the bonus points. Either way, every single one of them knew where Toledo was on a map, and that it was a school for them in four or five or six years down the road. This year I caught two games in person; one in Philadelphia and the other in Mobile. Both were wins with the latter being a bowl victory. I had a blast at both games and I consider my trip down to Mobile as one of the best times in my life. It has also been a memorable year in that I have been given the privilege to write about my Rockets on toledorockets.net. Never in a million years did I expect this to occur. Some would consider this something fun to do. I consider it a dream. I still remember that first year in Toledo where my minimal interest in Rocket football grew into an obsession seven years later. I also look back even earlier when I was deciding between Ohio State and Toledo as my collegiate choice. Had I went to Ohio State, I would have joined the millions of Buckeye fans who continue to sell out Ohio Stadium year in and year out. I would have loved that national championship in 2002 as it would have felt even more special. But never in a million years would I trade that for my life at Toledo. Here is where I grew to love a team that few outside of Toledo really care about. And that is still fine with me. Win or lose, I will always remain a Rocket fan at heart. Have a question or comment for Mike? Email |