Oxford Again, and the Alliance Travels Together
Cleveland State49
Miami (OH)41
- Game
- 2031 Week 9
- Site
- Away
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 9-0
Vikings 49, Miami (OH) 41, in Oxford. NINE AND OH.
Back to Oxford for the second year in a row, folks, and the schedule makers can send us there every year as far as I’m concerned, because Donna Bridges is now five and oh in Oxford, six and oh against the RedHawks anywhere that isn’t our house. I’ve asked the athletic department to put her on the travel roster. They haven’t written back.
And this year, she didn’t drive with me. She drove with Nadia.
You’ll remember they met in the visitors’ section last year and traded numbers. Well. They’ve been texting. All year. About what, I don’t know; Donna calls it “cape business.” This year Nadia picked Donna up in Old Brooklyn at seven in the morning in a car with a RedHawks license plate frame, and they drove to Oxford together, and they sat together, Nadia in red, Donna in the green cape, and they shared a thermos of coffee. I was in the press box. I watched them through binoculars. They were laughing the whole fourth quarter, even when it got close. Especially when it got close.
Eight points of daylight. A real game. A good team, the RedHawks. I hope Nadia knows that’s the only thing I’ll ever say nice about them in print.
Five pierogi.
An eight-point win in Oxford. Nine and oh. The Vikings have beaten Miami (OH) eight times in ten meetings since 2024, though the RedHawks’ one stretch of glory, in 2029, was memorable for everyone involved, including my wallet.
The bet: Nadia poured. Seven times in eight years. She said the line. Then she said, “Donna says hi, and she says you should do what you’re going to do soon, because the coat pocket is making you walk funny.” The bar went quiet. Nadia looked at me with enormous innocence. I said, “What coat pocket?” She said, “Ken, everybody knows.”
I’ve since learned that everybody does know. Mickey told Donna. Donna told Nadia. Nadia told the Tuesday trivia league. The Tuesday trivia league, I’m told, has a pool. Teresa is the only person in northeast Ohio who doesn’t know. I think. Teresa is very perceptive. I’ve started walking more normally. It’s harder than it sounds.
“Lil,” because a trivia team asked: a nickname from the coat-check girl at my junior prom. She said “Here you go, Lil” because I had the smallest coat. I’m noticing a theme with coats.
Back and forth
I didn’t tell everybody. I told Donna.
Donna is everybody. Donna has Nadia now.
There’s a pool?
At trivia. I’m told the favorite is “after a big win.” I’m not confirming anything.
Nine and oh in Oxford, an alliance sharing a thermos in the stands, a bet paid for the seventh time, and a coat pocket so famous it has a betting pool.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.