Some of my memorable Bobcat connections: In Paris, in the park adjacent the Eiffel Tower, I heard a voice ask: "Are you an Ohio man?" I was wearing an OHIO cap. The man asking had been on the faculty of Ohio's business school.
Passing through Tokyo's Narita Airport, wearing an OHIO jacket, a young woman smiled and said, "Go Bobcats!"
On the main street of Valletta, Malta's capital, I saw a man walking toward me. He was wearing an OHIO polo shirt. I was wearing an OHIO cap. When he got to within 25 or so feet, I stopped and pointed to my cap. He saw it, smiled and kept approaching. We shook hands and within moments learned that we had been OHIO students at the same time.
Before my first visit to Malta in 2016 - I returned in 2019 - my British friend Peter said that I should wear an OHIO cap. "Why?" I asked. "Because," said Peter, "a ship named OHIO was crucial to saving Malta from seizure by Germany in 1943. If someone old enough sees you wearing an Ohio cap, he might buy you a drink."
Well, I didn't get offered a drink. But if you'd like to learn more about how OHIO saved Malta, read Operation Pedestal by Max Hastings. Or you could go to amazon and order a movie titled The Malta Story. It was made while the war still was being fiercely fought and it was filmed in Malta. Stars a very young Sir Alec Guinness.
Last Edited: 8/7/2021 12:27:18 PM by Mike Johnson