73-70: The Thing
Cleveland State70
Miami (OH)73
- Game
- 2035 National Championship
- Site
- Neutral site
- Result
- Loss
- Record
- 14-2
Miami (OH) 73, Vikings 70. The RedHawks are national champions again.
Folks, I’m not going to describe the last part of the game. I’m going to call it The Thing. Everybody who watched knows what I mean. Everybody who didn’t watch, ask somebody from Cleveland, and watch their face. In my own notebook, the one I keep in the press box, I put a little mark next to their seventy-three. Kenny says I’m not allowed to print the mark. Fine. I didn’t print it. It’s in my notebook. It’ll stay there.
Three points. A hundred and forty-three points between the two teams. The best team in the country beat us for the fourth straight time. Joe Snyderwine’s RedHawks are back-to-back national champions, undefeated, and I’ll say it, because I’m a gentleman: they were great.
Fourteen and two. Third in the Big 12, 8-1. Kaleb DuBose threw for 6,064 yards and leaves with 230 career touchdown passes, the most in school history. Titus Reece caught for 2,921 yards, won his second Biletnikoff, made All-American, and leaves with 8,730 career receiving yards and 126 touchdown catches, both school records. Zach Cantrell had 19 sacks and won the Nagurski. Bruce Smalls and Louis Stokes made All-American.
And now I have to decide the number. Not today. Today I just want to sit on the porch with Five.
Zero pierogi.
A three-point loss to undefeated Miami (OH) in the national championship game. Fourteen and two.
Mickey has asked me to describe The Thing. I won’t. I’ve watched it eleven times. I can’t tell you, as a matter of fact, what happened. I can only tell you what it felt like, which is that something that should have been one way went another way, and that a press box full of reporters from Cleveland went very quiet and stayed quiet for a long time. That’s not analysis. That’s the only honest thing I have.
Nadia called me. She was crying. She said, “Ken, I didn’t want it like that.” I said, “I know.” She said, “Come back Tuesday.” I said, “I’ll come back Tuesday.” I will.
Mickey and I walked out of the stadium together. It was cold. He said, “Kenny, I think I’m done.” I said, “You’ve said that before.” He said, “I know. This time I’m going to sleep on it.” I said, “Sleep on it for a month.” He said, “A month.” We stood in the parking lot. Then he said, “Seventy points, Kenny. We scored seventy.” I said, “I know.” He said, “That’s a lot of points to lose with.” I said, “That’s the most points anyone’s ever lost with.” He laughed. It was a small laugh. It was enough.
Back and forth
A month.
A month. Then you decide. Then I help you carry whatever you decide.
The RedHawks repeat by three in a game Cleveland will only ever call The Thing, a believer’s private mark in his own notebook, and a month to sleep on the number.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.