“It’s funny, but when we made that first trip it was rough for Brenda,” Ken said. “She gets car sick, so when we started going over all the hills coming in here, I said, ‘Boy, I sure hope Ben doesn’t come down here. I’d hate to go through this every game.’”
Reminded of those times, Brenda smiled and shrugged: “I’m from Kansas where it’s flat. Every time we came here, the hills got to me.”
Ken smiled: “But we’re sure thankful he didn’t let that sway him.”
Ben Roethlisberger came to Miami and became the greatest football player the school ever produced. An All-American quarterback, he threw for 10,829 yards and 84 touchdowns and, as a junior, led the RedHawks to a 13-1 record and top-10 ranking in the final Associated Press national poll.
Since then he’s put together a Hall of Fame-type career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, leading them to two Super Bowl crowns.
Saturday afternoon, Miami football — actually all sports, as well as intramural and club teams — were taken to new heights with the grand opening of the $13 million David and Anita Dauch Indoor Sports Center on campus. The 91,000-square-foot facility, nicknamed The Disc, rises up like a white Taj Mahal just north of Yager Stadium.
David Dauch is a former Miami football player and he and his wife were the principle donors on this project, which, on this day, showed its worth.
Although it was cold and raining outside, the large crowd of Miami supporters who had come for the ribbon cutting — and the spring football scrimmage that followed — were oblivious to the elements as they joined the celebratory atmosphere on the massive artificial turf-covered field inside.
“This is a game-changer for the football program, not only in the short term, but for years to come,” said coach Chuck Martin, who was brought in a year ago to resurrect the once-proud program that has had one winning record in the past nine years.
There are more improvements to come, most notably the $20 million Gunlock Family Athletic Performance Center that will include a complete rehab center for athletes.
“When our next building is done, I’ll put us on a par with anyone in the nation,” said Miami athletics director David Sayler.
The Disc already had everybody gushing Saturday, including Roethlisberger, who, with wife Ashley, donated $1 million to the project, and that’s why the indoor surface is called Ben Roethlisberger Field.
Roethlisberger sat up on a makeshift stage along with the project’s other principles, including the school’s other NFL star, John Harbaugh, the coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
Out in the front row of the audience sat Ben’s parents and Ashley with her and Ben’s two blond-headed children, 2 1/2-year-old Benjamin and 13-month-old Baylee.
“When I walked in here for the first time today all I could say was ‘Wow,’ ” Roethlisberger said. “I’d had coaches and scouts who had been here come up to me and say ‘That indoor facility, wait to you see it. It’ll blow away a lot of places both in the NFL and college away.’
“This is my school. It was a special place for me. I loved everything about it and this is a way to say thank you.
“And it is pretty cool to see that long last name stretching across the field up there. It’s something I hope in 10, 15 or 20 years that my kids will come back and see their name on the field and it will mean something to them, too.”
On a day filled with a real sense of Miami brotherhood ,there was also a joke, of sorts.
Two current Miami athletes, soccer player Haley Walter and football defensive back Heath Harding from Dayton Christian, were on stage and spoke briefly as well.
Harding admitted he was nervous, not only because of the big crowd, but because he was sharing the microphone with two fabled football men who have won three Super Bowls between them.
Roethlisberger is a Miami Hall of Famer and Harbaugh has a bronze statue in the Cradle of Coaches plaza on the other side of Yager Stadium.
The two are also part of what arguably is the fiercest rivalry in the NFL.
Baltimore and Pittsburgh are AFC North heavyweights and in recent years their games have had everything from knockout blows on players to talk of a bounty on Pittsburgh’s Hines Ward and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin being fined $100,000 for interfering with a Ravens kick return.
Roethlisberger even got his nose broken by the Ravens.
“The bonds here are so strong today,” Harding ventured, “it might even bring Ravens and Steelers together … Maybe … I don’t know … At least just for today,”
As the crowd laughed, he looked tentatively at Roethlisberger and Harbaugh and finally smiled: “I’m glad you laughed at my joke. I was nervous about that.”
He was also right on the money.
“He’s a guy I’m really happy to see in the spring, but sad to see in the fall,” Harbaugh said of Roethlisberger. “Before every game we play, I stand at midfield and look for the big tall guy wearing No. 7.
“Then I see him throwing BBs all over the field and I go, ‘Oh my, we got to go against him…again!’ But then he comes over and we shake hands and every single time we talk about Miami: How they did Saturday. Who they play next week. We started talking about guys we played with and even though we played in different eras, there’s that bond. We both love Miami.”
That love has become quite tangible, said Sayler.
Not only have both men given financially to the program, but he said they have lent their names, influence and even their personal time to help bring Miami football back:
“They’ve allowed me to bring donors to meet them. They’ll let me come over on a game weekend, stay at the team hotel, visit with them and go to the game the next day. You just can’t put a price tag on that.
“They’ll allow Chuck to come over and talk football and just their presence — their name — helps with the kids we’re recruiting.”
Martin agreed: “We love the fact that Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, John Pont and all the other famous people coached here, but Ben and John are the tie to high school kids now.
“Some kids don’t know who Bo and Woody are anymore, but they know John Harbaugh is the head coach of the Ravens and Ben Roethlisberger is the Hall of Fame quarterback of the Steelers. They are our bridge to kids today.”
And Saturday the popularity of the pair was obvious. They were like two Pied Pipers as they drew a crowd wherever they walked.
As she watched her son from several yards away — while her two grandkids, both dressed in Miami red and wearing RedHawk buttons, played at her feet — Brenda Roethlisberger quietly put her thoughts to words:
“This is a blessing for sure. Miami was everything to Ben. It was then and it still is now.”
Saturday, as promise rose and hope soared at Miami, she could only smile.
On this day, she didn’t mind the ride.
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