Saturdays in Columbus are for one thing: Buckeye Football.
It’s difficult to explain to someone who isn’t from the area, but the way the City of Columbus comes to a grinding halt to cheer on the men of the Scarlet & Gray is something you don’t see across many metropolitan areas.
Traveling across campus is a whole different journey, as it can take upwards of 15 minutes just to go a half mile in search of a parking spot. Once you reach campus, though, you can feel the electricity in the air and the excitement as another gameday is upon you.
That was my journey on Saturday.
If you listened to the Arch City Athletics Podcast this past week, you knew that this weekend was going to be a full-circle moment of sorts for me and my family.
Boy, did it deliver.
I’ve been privileged to be called into service for Jim Tressel for a variety of projects over the last year and a half, traversing across the State of Ohio. Most notably, I’ve had the opportunity to work on the Team Tressel Fitness Challenge.
Saturday, I was asked to cover perhaps the most important project I’ve ever worked on for Coach: his induction into the Ohio State Ring of Honor.
My memories of Jim Tressel reach back to when I was a kid growing up in Boardman, Ohio, attending Saint Charles Elementary School. Coach Tressel was in charge of the Youngstown State University football program and was widely regarded as one of the top figures in the Mahoning Valley.
Despite his status, he was a man of faith and always made time to come to church, often choosing the 4 p.m. service on Saturdays when his schedule allowed.
When he left Youngstown to pursue coaching at Ohio State, the pride of the Valley followed him, and we always felt like we had a connection.
What I didn’t understand was that my father had more of a connection to the Tressel family than I realized.
My father, Michael, was an accomplished high school and collegiate runner in the Cleveland area. He eventually ran so well that he found himself on the track & field team at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.
The athletic director at BW, you may ask?
Lee Tressel, Jim’s father.
It wasn’t until my father passed away in 2025 that I discovered this connection, but it’s one that makes things make a bit more sense.
Fast forward to the early 2000s. Jim Tressel had been at Ohio State for a few years when he went on a run of attending back-to-back Ohio State games in 2005 against San Diego State and Iowa.
Like Youngstown State, my father ignited my passion for Ohio State Football, and it was off to the races.
We would talk about Buckeye football any chance we’d get. Even during his final months of life, he would still talk to me about the Bucks. It was our slice of normalcy as he grappled with the tough road ahead of him.
When the Buckeyes won the National Championship in 2025, I bought him swag and everything I could to make sure we could celebrate the occasion together.
We did get to celebrate it.
That would be our last one in this lifetime.
He passed at The Ohio State University Medical Center on February 27, 2025, at approximately 10:59 a.m.
Being able to celebrate a man who meant so much to both of us, just blocks away from where my father took his final breath, is something that isn’t lost on me.
I felt his presence with me every step of the way Saturday as he helped guide me and make sure that I was able to give back to an influential figure who had given us so much.
As Coach Tressel said during his speech Saturday, “I thank God every day—he made me a Buckeye.”
I thank God every day He made me a Buckeye.
And I thank Him for making me a photographer, putting me in good situations with great people and allowing me to tell stories like this one.
Ed Helms portrays Andy Bernard on NBC’s hit sitcom The Office. Helms has a famous line stating, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”
I was very much aware that I was in the midst of the “good old days.”
And Saturday, I was creating a memory I won’t soon forget.