I hate to pull out the old man card here, but I feel I must. Some folks who I assume are younger than me, I am in my early 50s, don't seem to understand the benefits of Bobcat sports being seen on television. Without TV, we have no way to get the message out due to being sandwiched between local TV sports coverage of Ohio State, Cincinnati, Dayton, West Virginia, Marshall, Akron and even Cleveland State. It not only matters to potential recruits, but prospective students as well. In the fall of 1995 and 1996 little Mount St. Mary's received something like 5-10x the amount of applications they normally received after they made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 1995.

In 2017 one can see Bobcat sports attire being worn throughout the region. I even bought a vintage Bobcat shirt while on vacation in the Charleston, South Carolina area a few summers ago. This did not happen when I was a student. You had to go the Athens to buy anything Bobcat. It was so bad that I somewhat humorously remember a couple of friends and me going down to Athens for a football game shortly after we graduated, and a couple of girls we knew (also alums) gave us money to buy some Bobcat sweaters. They were so desperate for Bobcat attire they asked us to get them something! We would never pass the fashion plate test!

Now you can buy Bobcat shirts, sweaters, coats etc in a large retail area. I remember proudly wearing a Bobcat basketball T shirt in the spring of 1985 to various places around Ohio. I was constantly stopped by Bobcat faithful, because this was not the common place event you see today.

MAC sports seen on television, however inconvenient they might make it, gives MAC schools a television audience we could only have dreamed of in the 1980s. This not only helps MAC athletics but spreads the word around concerning Ohio University and other MAC schools. Believe it nor not, we aren't household names to everyone in the region, let alone the country.

Great points, both of you. Re: the seeing of Bobcat apparel more often, I had one of my local postmen comment that I was about the third or fourth wearing Ohio apparel that he had seen come in that day. I just smiled. Times, they are a-changing in more ways than one.

I for one don't miss having to watch games on the Stretch Internet feed. The only downside I have nowadays is that I can't watch the game when it gets picked up locally for Time Warner Sports or CBS Sports channels.

As I've posted before that I consistently sport OHIO logo'd apparel in my travels purposely to engage folks, I won't regale fellow BAers with many examples of such engagements. Today I will limit myself to relating the most recent occurrence.

It was early November last year. I was in Malta in its capital of Valletta. I was strolling down the main street - closed to vehicles. I was wearing an OHIO logo'd cap. Ahead I spotted a man approaching who was wearing an OHIO logo'd polo shirt.

As he drew nearer I stopped and pointed to the logo on my cap. He smiled, stopped and we began chatting. Not only did we confirm that we both are Ohio alums, but remarkably we learned that we were students at the same time, he just a year behind me.

Though working on a book, the Malta visit was simply to satisfy my ongoing itch to visit places with long, rich histories. Malta qualifies. Its history dates back 7,000 years (temple ruins confirm that). Malta - consisting of 3 islands - Malta, Concino, Gozo - has been invaded and ruled by Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Ottoman Turks, French (briefly), England. It has been an independent nation since the 1960s.

From east to west Malta sits smack in the center of the Mediterranean. From north to south it sits at the sea's narrowest point. During WWII, the Germans were determined to conquer Malta; that would have given Germany control of shipping traffic, and Nazi control of Maltese airfields would have facilitated supplying German troops in North Africa.

With the Maltese running low on food and fuel, a cargo vessel named the OHIO withstood German attacks and, with help from a British destroyer, limped into Malta's Grand Harbor. Its arrival enabled RAF planes based in Malta to switch from defense to offense against the Luftwaffe. Via amazon you might want to buy a 1945 movie called The Malta Story.

My roundtrip airfare from Akron-Canton to Malta via Detroit and Amsterdam was $1,200. I stayed in the waterfront British Hotel for 115 euros a night. Restaurant and café prices ranged from inexpensive to moderate. Sooo, cbus cat fan, my recommendation is to start a bucket list that includes Malta.

A few more facts. Most Maltese also speak English - and often with a British accent. The country is 98% Roman Catholic - reflecting its 200-years under the leadership of the Order of St. John.

The capital city of Valletta is named after Jean de Vallet who served as grandmaster of the Order of St. John for 11 years during the 1550s-60s and who led the initiative to build the new capital of Valletta.

When you go, be sure to visit the ancient capital city of Mdina (pronounced mdeena). A Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour makes such a visit easy.

OU Van, I remember those days. I lived in the DC area for a time in the early and mid 90s. The OU alumni club would try to book a room in various bars so that we could watch the very occasional MAC telecast from some distant cable feed. On a couple of occasions a brawl nearly broke out between some Duke or North Carolina fans who wanted to watch their game, and couldn't understand why we cared about the MAC when we could be watching ACC basketball. If some of our younger fans only knew what the Bobcat faithful had to endure in those days. I am glad it is different now.

This is a good thread. Every time I get frustrated by a time change to accommodate TV, I think back to December 1993 when OHIO shocked UCONN in Hawaii. You know how I followed that game? Watching the ticker on CNN. For two hours, I had it down pat knowing exactly how many minutes would pass before OHIO score would come around again. I kept calling my best friend (fellow OHIO grad) every 5 minutes saying...are you watching this on CNN Ticker?? We couldn't believe it.

23 years later, I still have yet to see one highlight of Trent/Geno crushing the Marshall boys from UCONN. But it still goes down as one of my all-time favorite OHIO memories.

+1^^^^ Have always wondered if there is any video of this game? If that game were played today, I guarantee you we could find it live on some web feed or cable channel.

Marshall was thrown out of that game in the early going, no?

Boals and Marshall tossed with 7 minutes left in first half: http://articles.courant.com/1993-12-30/sports/0000000069_1_uconn-coach-uconn-assistant-big-east-official

Alan, I would have loved to hear Dick Schorr do the play by play, but after college even some in the Columbus area were out of range of broadcasts, not to mention the short period of time in the 90s that I lived in DC. Today, you could be on Gilligan's Island in the South Pacific and as long as the Professor rigged up the internet you could listen to the games, a couple of decades ago most people in Ohio weren't in earshot of the radio waves.

I listened to Dick's call in the car driving at night, bout wrecked cheering Boals on when he started mixing it up.