Chris Mines
I’m so glad my early love of writing led me to study journalism and work on The Lantern, the best choices I ever made. I was so shy in high school, I don’t know what possessed me to go into a field where I had to talk to people for a living! But learning that most people were happy to share their expertise and opinions with a genuinely curious reporter made interviewing so much easier. That exposure brought me out of my shell and changed the direction of my life.
I had so many great experiences on The Lantern, I hardly know where to start. As the Spring 1980 sports editor, I got to sit in the press box for the Spring Game, the intrasquad football game and ride the elevator with Coach Earle Bruce. The icing on the cake was the defensive MVP of that game being an alum from my own high school. I was so proud!
Also that quarter, the Cincinnati Reds invited college sports editors from around the region to a game. At the private press conference and handshake photo op, the players said, “Ohio State! All right!” when they saw my name tag. Of 30 schools represented there, ours was the only one they commented on.
While covering a trip by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, I met some of the biggest sports names on campus, including the later-infamous QB Art Schlichter. I got to interview Olympic gymnasts Bart Conner and Peter Vidmar at a national meet at St. John Arena, and the coach of China’s diving team, which was competing internationally for the very first time.
Inside the newsroom, life was no less memorable. We got permission to repaint the room and had Chinese yo-yo fights across the desks. After late night shifts at the off-site print shop left us slap happy, News Editor Sue Maney — aka Sue Maniac — proved far more dangerous behind the handle of a shopping cart at Big Bear grocery store than behind the wheel of a car.
I also covered the hockey team one quarter and still keep in touch with some players on Facebook — just a few of my Lantern connections that have lasted 45-plus years.
I was wire editor one quarter, selecting AP and UPI stories off the teletypes to run in the paper. Other quarters I supervised copy editors from the “slot” of the horseshoe table that we worked from and formatted stories for typesetting when VDT word processors in the newsroom were still new.
There weren’t many bad experiences, but one still galls me: when then-basketball coach Eldon Miller sneeringly called me “little girl.” I admit that, not knowing as much about basketball as other sports, I asked a question he didn’t like. But that was no excuse for someone in his position to be so condescending.
With five-day-a-week printing and huge circulation, the university’s prestige, the renowned sports programs, and myriad other opportunities, OSU and The Lantern offered an experience like no other.
Editor’s Note: Chris Mines graduated in 1981 and has worked in public relations at a community college, as a sports editor on a weekly newspaper, and as an editor of maintenance manuals for GE jet aircraft engines. Since 2013 she has been the marketing copy editor at Highlights for Children, the iconic kids’ magazine, currently working remotely from Boulder, Colorado.
