OSU Alumni Club of San Diego

Newsletter

August 1997 vol. 4 num. 2

 One of the key factors contributing to the success of any alumni club is member involvement in the planning and execution of club events. This has been particularly true for our club. If you have a little time to either lead or participate in the planning of a club event, or if you're interested in becoming a club officer, please check the appropriate boxes on the enclosed membership form. You'll find the experience very worthwhile and your efforts will be greatly appreciated by your fellow Buckeyes.

If you're a secondary high school teacher and would be interested in helping our alumni club in our student recruitment efforts, please contact Dave Fenner. It has been our experience that clubs with significant involvement from the secondary high school teacher ranks produce much greater results in their recruiting efforts. This is especially true for out-of-state clubs like ours.

Did ya ever wonder whatever happened to that good old-fashioned sense of community where everyone helped their neighbor? Well, now’s your chance to help the OSU Alumni Club of San Diego find its community spirit. We need a project into which we can put all that good midwest/OSU helpfulness and kindness.

In 1994 we enjoyed wrapping gifts at the "Share Bear’ but that has been discontinued and we need a replacement. A few ideas have crossed our path but nothing that really fits our criteria perfectly. An ideal project would be of minimal cost to participants, would demand a small investment of time, and should be a group activity in nature. ANY ideas are welcomed. Please contact Jera directly at (619) 689-9577.

The Ohio State Alumni Club of San Diego has, once again, been recognized with an "Outstanding Club Award" for the 5th year in a row. In 1996, we gained the additional distinction of being a "gold star" award winner for the top club in the world.

A new opportunity has come your way. You can now, as a member of the local alumni club, advertise to fellow members through our quarterly newsletter. Think about it...you can reach out to Buckeyes who would prefer to patronize your Buckeye service. One fee will get your camera-ready ad printed in all copies going out to members for winter, spring/summer and any special editions. The prices are as follows: Business card size - $35; 1/4 page - $65: and 1/2 page at $125. If you advertise this year you will get priority for the Fall edition next year which goes out to all alumni in the county! Questions/ads should be directed to secretary, Susan Holko at 275-4097. Deadlines will be on the hotline 2 weeks prior to publishing.
  

Upcoming Events

Date(s) - Event - Contact

• August 28, 1997 - January 1, 1998 Football TV parties Tim Wilson (454-9106) -Call the Hotline for times at Moondoggie’s in PB.
• December 14, 1997 - San Diego Harbor Kristine Entwistle (450-9602) - "Parade of Lights"
• March, 1998 Vollyball OSU Vs SDSU Mark Basford (558-2682)
• Jul. 12, 1998 Theater Party (The King & I) Betty Langer (558-2489)
• Summer, 1998 Padres Baseball game -Vs-Reds Ed Olander (565-6056)
• Angels Baseball Game -Vs-Indians)

On September 13, 1997 in Columbus, Jera Ratliff, Vice President of the Ohio State Alumni Club of San Diego, was recognized by the National Alumni Association for her loyalty and service to Ohio State and our local club.

Since 1992, Jera has worked tirelessly to transform our club into a vital organization. Not being content with just the role of Vice President of Membership, she took on the additional responsibility for club events in 1995. Jera has been instrumental in leading all committee chairpersons. Our membership quickly grew to nearly 250 in 1993 and has steadily increased every year since that time. Jera also designed and produced the club’s first club directory in 1994. It was Jera’s idea to recruit new chairpersons annually so that the majority of club event responsibilities could be "rotated" thereby not burdening a few individuals. This idea has resulted in the club’s ability to offer more events and a much wider variety over the past 3 years. Jera is also active in all club student recruitment and scholarship activities.

Her crowning achievement was giving up her personal life between Thanksgiving and New Years Day last year to lead our local club’s Rose Bowl trip to Pasadena, including a great New Year’s Eve party. Her efforts resulted in a flawless trip and are greatly appreciated by the entire club.

CONGRATULATIONS

JERA WE LOVE YOU!!!

Outstanding Club San Diego 1992-1997

Loyalty and Service Jera Ratlif 1997

Best Buckeye Gary Rectnwald 1994

Our club's top objective in this upcoming year is to significantly increase our contributions to our local scholarship fund. Our ambitious objective is $5,000. Our ultimate goal is to have an Endowed Scholarship for a deserving San Diego County student each year.

We need your help. There are many ways to help us reach our goal. On the Membership Form, you'll find 2 areas where you can make a pledge. One area designates a "multi- year" opportunity to contribute (for example, $500 over 5 years). The club will send you annual reminders for installments. In addition, you can pledge any amount of cents or dollars per point scored by the Ohio State Buckeyes this season. In January, we'll send out invoices based on your pledge. (Perhaps you might want to quadruple the amount of your pledge for points scored against Michigan!)

We'll also be running "half the pot" raffles at some of our upcoming football games this fall. And, as always, we'll be conducting a BIG RAFFLE at the Ohio State - Michigan football game on November 22, 1997 at Moondoggie's in PB.

Proceeds from all events go directly to our scholarship fund. To date, we've collected $3,000. To those who have contributed in the past, we respectfully thank you!!

  Our club's goals for 1997-98 are to:

Truly great alumni clubs focus on student recruitment and scholarship fundraising. Our club is stepping up our focus in both of these areas in 1997-98 because we need to make significant improvements. Thanks to Dave Fenner, a secondary high school teacher, for coming forward to lead our Student Recruitment Committee. Dave needs a lot of help. Please contact Dave if you're interested in volunteering some of your time to this very worthwhile effort.

We're looking for an energetic volunteer to head our Scholarship Committee this year. Please call me if you're interested. I'll be spending much of my time focusing in both of these areas this year. I look forward to meeting all of you at Moondoggie's during one of the games.

GO BUCKS!!!!!!! Gary Rectenwald

We are looking for an assertive individual to lead our efforts to increase our Scholarship Fund for the next year. This is NOT an "arm twisting" kind of assignment, but rather one where you encourage participation, provide opportunities to our membership to contribute, and to conduct fun events where proceeds go directly to the Scholarship Fund.

If you're interested, please mark the box on the Membership Form and call Gary Rectenwald at 454-4758.

Thank you!!!

Sept. 25th was the 13th annual Back to the Big Ten Party. Even a little bad weather couldn't dampen the spirit of the Big Ten as there was a good showing by all schools. Again, Ohio State had a large showing. However the schools with the most in attendance were Minnesota and Purdue. We will have to do something about that next year! Along with great food and a beautiful sunset, everyone was entertained with Big Ten trivia by Bill Werndl and Steve Hartman from 690am. Our own Betty Langer won a Big Ten tote bag for correctly answering the question "Who was the last OSU running back to lead the nation in rushing?" Answer: Keith Byres. Way to go Betty!

We have three brand new freshmen at OSU this fall from San Diego: Dan Brier from Junipero Serra High in Tierrasanta, Sheldon Jacobs from Mt. Carmel High and Thomas Gordon, from Eastlake High in Chula Vista. Thomas is interested in International Business Administration and Sheldon is a pre-communications student. Daniel is undecided as of this writing - however, we have learned that Dan has been trying out for the Wrestling team and hopes his talent and perseverance will pay off. All three of these recent high school graduates were guests of the San Diego Alumni Club at the August 13th Padres/Reds baseball game at the Q. We enjoyed meeting them and their guests before they had to leave for classes in Columbus in September.

As of decision time last April, we had eleven candidates for new OSU student enrollees. Most of these had made multiple school applications, of course. Fortunately, only one of these decided to go to that other school up north, instead of OSU. Three out of eleven is our base-line now. With some expanded effort, our goal is to at least double that number for next year.

If you are a teacher, counselor, or otherwise involved in education, please notify one of us to help us to reach out further to students with materials and applications. Perhaps you might be able to assist in an early morning coffee to present materials to school college counselors or assist at a multi-college recruitment meeting. There are many ways you can help. And don't forget to advise students and parents to check out our internet page for links to OSU.

  Dave Fenner

dfenn@sdcoe.k12.ca.us

Many THANKS to Moondoggie's in PB for their generous contribution of $1,200 to our local scholarship fund in February, 1997!!!! Moondoggies’ annual contribution is based on 20% of receipts from OSU Football TV parties held each Saturday throughout the fall. Your attendance at our weekly parties significantly helps our club reach its annual objective of $5,000 to our local scholarship fund. We look forward to seeing you every Saturday!!

Thrifty and attentive Buckeyes pay attention...we have 2 ways you can purchase quality items and benefit the club’s local scholarship fund at the same time. We are very excited about these opportunities and hope that you will find them as wonderful as we do.
 

The Buckeye Sports Bulletin, provides the hottest sports information year-round with 30 issues including weekly publications during football season. The price remains at $46/yr. for 2nd-class delivery or $74/yr. for first-class but now $15 will be returned to the club per subscription. Just call 1-800-760-2862 (24hrs) to order and tell them you are a member of the OSU Alumni Club of SD. Those of you who already subscribe just remember to state the affiliation when you renew! Those who wish to check it out before you commit can now get a TRIAL subscription for 4 issues for FREE and the club gets a buck (available to new subscribers only please).
 
College Traditions (located next to the Varsity Club) has generously offered to donate 15% of all sales to the club. We will be asking them to mail each of our members their annual catalog to you soon. (Please let us know if you would prefer to be exempt from this mailing by leaving a detailed message on the hotline by Oct. 15th).

Members and NON-members can make orders but you must use our group account # AL9524 which will also be located on your catalog. If you already have a catalog and you wish to order we ask that you use the group number in place of the number that is on your present catalog so the club will benefit. To place an order call 1-800-628-4678. They do have a great selection of Rose Bowl and regular OSU clothing, gifts and accessories...so ENJOY!!

Thanks to all who have participated in these in the past...our scholarship fund IS growing!

Thanks to Don Zatyko, our club is gaining notoriety as having an OUTSTANDING Alumni Club Web Site. Check it out at:

Thanks Don for your great leadership in creating this wonderful resource for our club.

1997 Football Schedule
 

Date Opponent Time (PST)/TV

August 28 WYOMING (tentative) 5:00 PM / ESPN
Sept 13 BOWLING GREEN 10:30 am / NO TV
Sept. 20 ARIZONA 12:30 PM/ ABC PPV
Sept. 27 @ Missouri 9:00 am/ABC PPV
Oct 4 IOWA 12:30 PM/ABC PPV
Oct. 11 @ Penn State 12:30 PM/ABC PPV
Oct. 18 INDIANA 9:30 ESPN2
Oct. 25 NORTHWESTERN 12:30 PM ABC PPV
Nov. 1 @ Michigan State Call Buckeye Hotline
Nov. 8 @ Minnesota Call Buckeye Hotline
Nov. 15 ILLINOIS Call Buckeye Hotline
Nov. 22 @ Michigan 9:00 am / ABC
 
Future Football Schedule Highlights:
Date Year Opponent
Sept. 16 2000 @ Arizona
Sept. 22 2002 @ UCLA

Last year at the OSU vs. Michigan game we raised close to $400 for our scholarship fund and hope to do better this year by starting earlier and asking for your help. First we need items to raffle off...any nice item will do...perhaps a sponsorship with your company for services such as airfare, a dental cleaning, or free concert tickets. Maybe you are a gifted craft person and can whip up a scarlet and gray one-of-a kind Buckeye necklace or make a special "Horseshoe Cake" for someone’s OSU party. They don’t have to be expensive, just thoughtful and creative. Call Susan Holko (275-4097) directly to donate an item before Oct. 25th so we can begin to sell tickets at the November football games at Moondoggie's in PB.

Moon Light on Mission Bay

  On July 20th, the OSU Alumni club of San Diego got together for our first annual moonlight kayak ride around Mission Bay. We paddled through Mission Bay enjoying the many sights and a beautiful sunset. With the sun gone we enjoyed the beautiful evening and full moon. The evening culminated with a bay side visit to Seaworld for a quick view of the penguins and to watch the fireworks up close from water level. It was a unique and spectacular end to the evening. Of course Ed, not yet content with the evening activities, decided to add a moonlight swim! Everyone had a such a great time that they can't wait to do it again next year.

Click to for more info.

 
Tim Spencer has been named to the Ohio State Sports Hall of Fame. As a running back for the Buckeyes he rushed for 3,553 yards and 37 touchdowns in his three year career at OSU. He was named to the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame for his outstanding performance in the Buckeyes bowl victory. He was the starting fullback for the San Diego Chargers for 4 seasons.

Tim is the present running back coach for the Big Ten and Rose Bowl Champion Buckeyes. He has coached many Buckeye stars including the 1995 Heisman trophy winner Eddie George. Tim and the rest of the inductees were honored at half-time of the Arizona -OSU football game.

A congratulations card for Tim was passed around at a recent club meeting at Moondoggies and sent to Tim. The San Diego OSU Alumni Association has been honored several times with Tim’s visits to our annual meeting. We congratulate him on this well deserved honor.

San Diego’s Own

If you’ve been keeping up with our Buckeye football team, you’ve noticed San Diego’s own Michael Wiley, No. 5. Michael graduated from Mt. Monte Vista High School in 1996 and became a "Buckeye" that Fall. His performance on the field has been outstanding. At Moondoggies on Oct. 4, we cheered as Michael scored two touchdowns. What made it extra exciting was watching Michael’s parents watching him! Felicia and Eddie Wiley say that watching Michael play on the big screen at Moondoggies while they are surrounded by screaming Buckeyes, is the next best thing to being in Columbus for the game. We wholeheartedly agree!!!

On August 13th the San Diego Buckeyes gathered at the "Q" to watch the Padres battle the Cincinnati Reds. Prior to the game, many of the members met in the parking lot for a tailgate party. Many thanks to Jean Shupala for her salad and to Betty Langer for her famous buckeyes! The game also gave members a chance to meet our 3 freshmen: Sheldon Jacobs, Dan Breier, and Thomas Gordon. We wish them good luck at Ohio State! We also discovered a Big Ten connection at the "Q". It seems that the Padre Friar is from Penn State. In all it was a great evening. The event raised $90.00 for the scholarship fund. Hope to see you all there next year.
 
 Click for more info.