Toledo Comes to Town, and Rosalind Brings a Sign
Cleveland State42
Toledo23
- Game
- 2033 Week 5
- Site
- Home
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 5-0
Vikings 42, Toledo 23, at home. Five and oh.
Nineteen points of daylight against Toledo, our sixth win in six tries against the Rockets. Not our prettiest game. Toledo made it physical, and our freshmen took a few hits and got back up. You learn more from a nineteen-point game than a ninety-point one, folks. Coach Dolan says that, probably. If he doesn’t, he should.
Rosalind came. Sam’s grandmother, ninety-two now, came up from Toledo with Kate and Sam, and she brought a sign. A real sign, on poster board, in purple marker. It said, on one side, “GO ROCKETS.” And on the other side: “BE NICE, MICHAEL.” She held up the Rockets side when Toledo had the ball and the “Be Nice” side when we did. She held up the “Be Nice” side a lot.
After the game she found me in the parking lot, patted my cheek, and said, “Nineteen. That’s nicer. Thank you.” I said, “Rosalind, I don’t control the score.” She said, “You control your column.” So, Rosalind: Toledo played hard. Toledo has a lovely city and a lovely zoo. Toledo’s fans are the best grandmothers in Ohio.
Four pierogi. And a box of Donna’s kolaczki for the drive home, which has become tradition.
A nineteen-point home win over Toledo. Five and oh. And it’s the second straight week the defense gave up more than twenty, after three straight weeks under twenty. Nobody’s panicking. I’m noting it, because noting it is my job and because nobody else ever does.
Titus Reece, the freshman receiver, has been the story of the first five weeks. We don’t cite season totals until the end, but I’ll say this: I’ve watched every game this program has played since 2024, and I’ve never seen a first-year player make a stadium stand up like he does. When he catches the ball, there’s a sound in the stadium I don’t have a word for. It’s like forty thousand people inhaling at once.
Rosalind’s sign was the best thing I’ve seen at a football game in years. I asked her afterward if I could photograph it. She said, “Only the ‘Be Nice’ side, Kenneth. That’s the side for you, too.” I photographed both sides. She caught me. She held up “Be Nice” until I put the phone away.
Back and forth
Rosalind’s sign, Kenny.
She held up “Be Nice” at me personally. I’ve never been so specifically scolded by a stranger.
She’s not a stranger. She’s family.
Then I’ve never been so specifically scolded by family. Which is saying something.
A hard-hitting nineteen-point lesson against Toledo, a freshman who makes forty thousand people inhale, and a ninety-two-year-old with a two-sided sign who knows exactly whom to scold.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.