Pitting YSU against OSU graduates' alma mater produces divided loyalties.
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN — Dr. Stanley Guzell Jr. admits he faces a bit of a dilemma.
The management professor at Youngstown State University is a 1969 graduate of The Ohio State University and a loyal Buckeye sports fan.
Guzell was a four-year letterman in wrestling at OSU, and some of his friends played on the national OSU championship football team during that period, he said.
That presents a problem when YSU meets OSU in the season football opener at The Horseshoe in Columbus at noon Saturday.
Guzell, though, may have found a way to root for both sides.
"I'm going to wear my YSU sweatshirt and my OSU letter jacket," he said, adding that he might throw on a YSU hat as well.
Co-workers have yet to harass him about the game, he said.
"I want OSU to look great, but I want YSU to look great too," he said. "I feel really conflicted but so excited about the game."
He isn't the only one.
There are number of YSU faculty holding OSU credentials.
Ties to both
Dr. William and Maureen Vendemia, associate professor of management and professor of health professions, respectively, met while attending OSU. She grew up in Liberty and he in Austintown, but they didn't meet before college.
Both hold OSU bachelor's degrees earned in 1980.
The day they married was Sept. 4, 1982 — the day that YSU's Stambaugh Stadium opened.
"I will support YSU in this game, and then I'll go back to rooting for the Buckeyes," Maureen said. "There's no question. I'll be in my YSU attire."
"I always tell people I have dual loyalties," her husband said, adding that he will be "right in the middle" on this game.
The game took on a whole new meaning for the Vendemias when they learned that daughter, Megan, who graduated from Ursuline High School this spring and is enrolled at YSU, will travel with the YSU "Marching Pride" band to Columbus.
She plays the bass drum.
"It couldn't get much better for your first game. She's real excited," Vendemia said, adding that he will be sitting with a YSU contingent.
"People know I'm an OSU guy around here," he said, noting that he keeps a small OSU banner and a large YSU banner as well as a YSU team championship print in his office.
The razzing hasn't started yet, he said.
Keeping it low-key
Even Dr. David C Sweet, YSU's president, has an OSU connection: He earned his doctorate there in 1970.
He's not making any bets on the game, he said, preferring to play it low-key.
"I'm planning to attend with my wife and others and take great pride in our marching band as it goes on the field with new uniforms ... and watch [YSU quarterback] Tom Zetts lead the team," Sweet said, his only prediction being that the YSU team will put out "a great appearance."
He said he'll also thank Jim Tressel (former YSU head football coach, now the head coach at OSU) for remembering his roots and investing in YSU and in providing an opportunity for YSU's players, musicians and fans to have a memorable event they will carry with them forever.
Some YSU people have extensive ties with OSU.
"I sold programs at the OSU fall games from about the fourth grade until I finished graduate school," said Dr. Thomas Maraffa, special assistant to the president.
He grew up in Columbus and is an avid OSU fan. He also holds bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from OSU.
Noting that OSU will also be playing Kent State and the University of Akron later in the season, Maraffa said he's placed a bet with some friends that members of the YSU team "will acquit themselves better than Akron and Kent."
He's also made a bet that YSU will score first in Saturday's contest, he said.
Maraffa won't be at the game. As a member of the OSU Alumni Association, he has access to tickets for one game this year, and it isn't this one, he said.
You won't find any OSU paraphernalia in his office, Maraffa said.
"I only have penguins in my office," he said, referring to the YSU mascot.
Dr. Betty Jo Licata, dean of the Williamson College of Business Administration, has no OSU ties herself, but her husband, Jack Monda, is an OSU graduate.
No divided loyalties
She doesn't think there will be any divided loyalties in her house, however.
"You could wear red. It goes both ways," she said, referring to YSU's red and white and OSU's scarlet and gray colors.
Perhaps the most visibly avid OSU fan on the YSU campus is Mada Janosik, a nursing instructor who graduated from OSU in 1967.
"You haven't seen my office," she said, adding that her vehicle bears a bumper sticker proclaiming, "I bleed scarlet and gray."
She will even occasionally play the OSU fight song in class, she said.
Janosik won't be at the game. YSU nursing students will be at the Canfield Fair taking blood pressures for fair visitors and Janosik will be with them.
It's just as well.
She said she'd have to sit with YSU at the game and, "That would break my heart. I've never rooted for someone else."
Janosik said she hasn't missed an OSU game in the last four years, either watching it on television or attending in person.
She isn't planning to miss Saturday's game, either: There will be a wide-screen television near the Canfield Fair grandstand carrying the game, and Janosik said she intends to be there.