When Doug Hochberg, a junior in political science, began producing a video as a tribute to the men and women who serve in the armed forces, he had no idea the sort of support and recognition his work would receive in the weeks leading up to the Buckeye’s game against Navy to kick off the football season.
The idea came from a coworker of Hochberg, whose father had always taught him to root for the armed services teams. The two decided to create a tribute to the Navy football team as they entered the field at Ohio Stadium on Sept. 5.
“They deserve some sort of tribute to the service that they provide for our country, to keep us safe. At least for that minute when they run out of the tunnel,” Hochberg said.
What came of their efforts is a video entitled “Ohio State’s Take the Field Tribute for Navy – 9.5.09” that has taken off on Facebook and other social media sites.
Once finished, the video was debuted on Youtube.com on Aug. 19. Within a couple of days the video had reached a couple thousand views, and now two weeks later the video has been played over 215,000 times.
But fans weren’t the only people paying attention to the video. Hochberg was quickly contacted by the Department of Athletics who asked for his permission to play parts of the video on the screen on Saturday.
“Ohio State has kind of gotten a black eye in the past couple of years, and we really know that Ohio State fans are good people, good patriotic people that can stand together for this one cause,” Hochberg said.
Hochberg urges Ohio State fans to stand and cheer the Navy team just as they would the Buckeyes. He said that he is surprised at the amount of recognition the video has gained but that he is proud to be a part of a movement towards supporting the armed services.
As the video profoundly states, there are more important things than football, and one of those is the daily sacrifice that men and women in the armed services voluntarily make on behalf of our country.
The last time a service academy played in Ohio Stadium was in 1931.
