Anybody ever wonder why such a strong nationally branded company like pizza hut who had two stores in town never bothered to pick up the naming rights for Peden of the Convo? Could’ve easily given them notoriety and great publicity who is games coming at you from Pizza Hut stadium. Just look what has happened in Louisville.

Those decisions are made at the corporate level and I'd bet that PH's corporate office for Athens is either in Columbus or somewhere like Pittsburgh. PH is part of Yum! brands, which is based in L'ville. The PH home office is in Plano, TX. Athens probably isn't even on their radar.

Ponderosa? I suppose the additional qualifier "brought people to Athens" could be argued, but back in the day (late 70s? 80s?) Ponderosa was more respected. I do think people came from the County to have a steak at Ponderosa. And I think you could get a beer?

I predict the field will be named after Frank at some point.

These are both possibilities down the road. The Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is now -- with the campuses in Dublin and Cleveland -- the largest medical school in the state in terms of class size. The new medical school building under construction in Athens is being built to a large extent with money from the Heritage Foundations (yes, it's plural). Also, as I think I mentioned elsewhere, the Quidel Corporation, which has a major plant in Athens, is another possibility. They've been doing quite well recently -- and so has their stock (QDEL) -- with their emergency authorization for a rapid SARS-CoV-2 antibody test.

[Quidel bought Diagnostic Hybrids, a company that started in Athens. One of their VPs is the chairman of the Ohio University Board of Trustees. Diagnostic Hybrids used to support Ohio Basketball. There are some possibilities that should be explored here.]

Some of my favorites back in the day were Chicolini's (sp), Beards, Ardos (all at the same location on Court I think), Century House, Seven Sauces and Stephens. For the blue hair bunch, the Sportsman and Oak Room on West Union were big favorites. I can only go back to 1979.

Saw in today's Dispatch that Miami like tosu will not come back after Thanksgiving for fall semester. Miami is actually started a week earlier than tosu - August 17 vs. August 25. I'm guessing this will be the model for all schools on what OCF and I oftern refer to as "fake" semesters.

And all of them gone for one reason or another.

In the restaurant business, people move on. The guy at Chicolini's has had multiple palce in town including The Little Ritz, Abrizo's and the Elm golf course. Beards guy has Purple ChopStix. Stephens owner passes away as did the owners of the Sportsman and the Oak Room. The independent restaurant business is a tough business.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WDTV)-- West Virginia University plans to have students return to campus this fall but will require all students, faculty and staff get tested for COVID-19 before returning.

WVU said in a news release that they are taking precautions such as requiring masks be worn on campus, including in classes; social distancing; increased frequency of cleaning; limits on travel and visitation to campus; and a variety of other actions. All students, faculty and staff will also be required to complete a COVID-19 education course before August 11.


The University said that students will return to WVU's three campuses to begin fall classes on Aug. 19. Students will remain on campus, with no fall break, through Nov. 24, then leave for Thanksgiving Break, not returning to campus for the rest of the fall semester. There will be one week of online instruction following Thanksgiving Break, with finals also conducted online.

Spring classes will start on Jan 19. continuing with no spring break through April 30, and finals on campus from May 3-7, according to the University.

A separate, phased schedule for staff and faculty to return to campus will be released at a later date.

It has been made very clear by the president and his task force that if you want to be tested you can get a test and you will not have to pay for it. This has been the proclamation since last March.

It will be a great test. beautiful in fact. Given recent declarations all we need to do is identify nearby CVS drug stores and students could stop by the drive through testing facility on the way to campus.

MAC Commish has testing in his plan and wants every athlete at every school tested regularly, yet is offering no money to do the testing.