About "Dreaming of Heroes"

Photo by Rich Legg

Growing up in central Ohio, I loved sports and I loved to write. I even planned my life around those passions. In high school I played basketball while writing for the yearbook. In college I played about every intramural sport I could find (I wasn't good enough to play for the school!) and I studied journalism and wrote for the The Post, the Ohio University student newspaper. After earning a journalism degree from Ohio University, I began a newspaper career and loved every minute of it. Now, I'm a dad of three kids 4 years and under. I no longer work in the newspaper industry because the hours and commitment simply would not work the way my wife and I manage our family.

However, I still crave writing. I finished my first book, Odyssey: From Blue Collar, Ohio to Super Bowl Champion, last fall and, all things considered, I consider it a success. But I still want to write; the time for long projects, however, is not there.

That's where this blog comes in. I want to continue writing about what I love. I want to stay sharp and continue to open up a dialogue about sports and life in general. I used to have a podium in the newspaper business; this blog will have to make due for now.

Thank you for your interest and please come back often. Tell your friends, too!
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Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio
By James Wright

In the Shreve High football stadium,
I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville,
And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood,
And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel,
Dreaming of heroes.

All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home.
Their women cluck like starved pullets,
Dying for love.

Therefore,
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful
At the beginning of October,
And gallop terribly against each other's bodies.