March 23, 1963: Loyola vs. Cincinnati

March 23, 1963, 60 years ago: The Final of the NCAA men's basketball tournament is held at Freedom Hall in Louisville. It is the culmination of a tournament with heavy overtones of the Civil Rights Movement.

Mississippi State University had won the Southeastern Conference Championship, earning them a berth into the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs were all-white, as Mississippi colleges were still racially segregated. There was an "unwritten law" that no team from the State could play an integrated team. MSU coach James "Babe" McCarthy defied this, and traveled to East Lansing, Michigan, to Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University. There, they played Loyola University Chicago (there is no "of" in their name), and lost, 61-51.

This Loyola should not be confused with Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, whose teams are called the Greyhounds; Loyola University New Orleans, the Wolf Pack; or Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the Lions. They are all named for Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola, a Spanish theologian who, in 1541, founded the Society of Jesus, a.k.a. the Jesuits, with Peter Faber and Francis Xavier. He is better known by his Latin name, St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The Loyola Ramblers did not stop there. Coached by George Ireland, they won their 1st 21 games, before losing away to Bowling Green. They won 3 more games before losing their regular-season finale to Wichita State at the Chicago Stadium. In the Tournament's Round of 32, they beat Tennessee Tech on the Northwestern campus in Evanston, Illinois. In the Round of 16, they beat Mississippi State at East Lansing. In the Quarterfinal, they beat Illinois at East Lansing. And in the Semifinal, they beat Duke at Freedom Hall.

In the Final, their opponents were the University of Cincinnati, the 2-time defending National Champions. In 1959 and 1960, with Oscar Robertson, the reached what's now known as the Final Four. In 1961, with new head coach Ed Jucker, they reached the Final, and dethroned defending Champions Ohio State, who had Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek coming back. In 1962, they beat Ohio State in the Final again.

In 1963, they were 25-1 going into the Final, to Loyola's 28-2. Like Loyola, they had lost to Wichita State, by 1 point in Wichita. That Wichita State team had Nate Bowman and Dave Stallworth, both of whom would be drafted by the New York Knicks, and were still with them when they won the 1970 NBA Championship. But in 1962-63, Wichita State only went 19-8, finishing 2nd in the Missouri Valley Conference to Cincinnati, did not get invited to the NCAA Tournament, and crashed out of the NIT in the 1st Round.

In the Semifinal, Cincinnati beat Oregon State, which featured Terry Baker, who, 4 months earlier, had won the Heisman Trophy as OSU's quarterback; and, 3 months earlier, had been named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year, citing his status as a scholar-athlete. And this was before March 1963, when he became the 1st Heisman Trophy winner to also play in the Final Four. He remains the only one.

In that 1963 Final, Loyola started 4 black players, the 1st team ever to do so: Center Les Hunter, forwards Jerry Harkness and Vic Rouse, and guard Ron Miller. Only guard Jack Egan was white.

"The unspoken rule then was two blacks at home, if you had to play them, and one on the road," Ireland said in a 1987 interview. "I played four, and rarely substituted." In other words, he didn't care about an unspoken rule, only written rules.

On the question of substitutions: If both teams had had their choice, all 10 starters would have played the entire game. All 5 of Loyola's did. In Cincinnati's case, center George Wilson got into foul trouble, and sat out for 4 minutes. Guard Larry Shingleton was put in, and forward Dale Heidotting took over the center role. The rest played the whole game: Heidotting and fellow forward Ron Bonham, and guards Tom Thacker and Tony Yates.

Wilson, Thacker and Yates were also black. This marked the 1st time that over half the players in the NCAA Final were black -- in this case, 7 out of 10. So, whichever team won, it would be a step forward in civil rights in basketball: Fans were used to black stars, but not black teams. To borrow the words of playwright Arthur Miller (Jewish, rather than black), "Attention must be paid."

Harkness was the Ramblers' best player. He was shut out from the field by the Bearcats' Tony Yates and Tom Thacker for better than 35 minutes. But he reeled off 9 of his 14 points in the last 5 minutes of regulation, due to both of them getting into foul trouble and having to back off a little.

With 12 seconds left in regulation, Shingleton went to the foul line with the Bearcats up, 53-52. He made the 1st free throw, but missed the 2nd. Hunter grabbed the rebound, and passed to Harkness, who scored to send the game to overtime, 54-54.

There was no 3-point shot available at the time. There was no shot clock in college basketball then, either. This turned out to be critical. With 1:21 left, the game was tied at 58-58, when Loyola won a tip. They passed the ball around, waiting for their chance to take the last shot. Harkness drove, but couldn't get a shot, and flipped the ball to Hunter. He missed, but Rouse flicked the ball into the net as the gun sounded. Final score: Loyola 60, Cincinnati 58.

This was the 1st time that an NCAA Tournament Final had been decided on a last-second shot, a "buzzer-beater." It was also the 1st time that a buzzer-beater had sent an NCAA Tournament Final to overtime.

At the end of the year, the Chicago Bears won the NFL Championship. That made Chicago the 1st city to win both the NFL Championship and the NCAA Basketball Tournament in the same calendar year. It's only happened once since, in 2018, with the Super Bowl by then played in February: Philadelphia did it with the Eagles and Villanova.

Vic Rouse died in 1999, Jim Reardon and head coach George Ireland in 2001, Les Hunter in 2020, Jerry Harkness in 2021. As of March 23, 2022, 5 members of the 1963 Loyola team are still alive: Jack Egan, Chuck Wood, Dan Connaughton, Rich Rochelle and Ron Miller.

For all of the rich history of basketball in the City of Chicago, and in the State of Illinois, this remains the only time that a team from that City or that State has won the NCAA Championship. DePaul University, on Chicago's North Side, made the Final Four under head coach Ray Meyer in 1943, and again in 1979 with Meyer still there. Bradley University, of Peoria, made the NCAA Final in 1950 and 1954, losing the former to City College of New York and the latter to La Salle University of Philadelphia. The University of Illinois made it all the way to the Final in 2005, but lost to North Carolina.

And Loyola made it back to the Final Four in 2018, becoming a national story not just because of their many upsets, but for their team chaplain, Sister Jean Schmidt. With some irony, she had a Master's degree from a Loyola University, but it was from Marymount, the one in Los Angeles. In 1963, she was teaching at a women's Catholic school in Chicago, Mundelein College. In 1991, Mundelein was merged with Loyola University Chicago. In 1994, she became the basketball program's chaplain. In 2018, she was 98 years old, and became a national media figure. In 2022, Loyola qualified for the NCAA Tournament again, and she was in attendance at age 102.

UPDATE: Dan Connaughton died in 2024. Sister Jean died in 2025.

The Damar Hamlin Story Exposes the NFL

For nearly 4 full days now, I have resisted writing about what happened to Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills. I wanted to see if there would be improvement in his condition (which there has been); or, to put it politely, not; and, either way, to see what the NFL establishment would do about it.

He was taken to the University of Cincinnati Hospital, following his collapse on the field during this past Monday night's game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium (formerly Paul Brown Stadium) in Cincinnati.

He attempted to tackle Bengals receiver Tee Higgins, but was hit hard. He was able to get up under his own power, but, within a couple of seconds, fell to the turf. I can't tell from the clip how much the hit had to do with what happened, because I can't tell what happened. It could have been something that would have happened anyway.

Yesterday, after having been intubated, he awakened, and showed no signs of neurological damage. He is breathing on his own. It looks like he is out of the woods. Whether he will ever play again is doubtful.

The game, which was in the 1st quarter, has been officially suspended, a 1st in NFL history. Despite the Playoff implications, the NFL has accepted that the player's life and condition are more important. The League will adjust its Playoff schedule depending on where the Bills and Bengals end up being seeded after this weekend's games. The Bills have clinched the AFC Eastern Division, and the Bengals are likely to win the AFC Northern Division; either could be the top seed in the AFC Playoffs, and thus receive the only bye in the 1st round.

On August 25, 2019, I wrote this:

It's not just the injuries. It's not just ripping the fans off with taxpayer-funded stadiums that these billionaires can afford to build themselves, and never miss the money. Ticket prices are exorbitant. So are parking prices. So are concession prices. God forbid your kid wants a jersey or another thingamabob with the team's logo on it.

Someone once pointed out that, with the TV revenue involved, all 16 NFL teams playing home games in a given weekend could keep the fans out, have official attendances of zero, and still make a profit for the week. Because the fans would still watch on television.

Let the record show that I wrote that before COVID proved it true. I continued:

And then there's the perception that the games are rigged. More than any other North American sports league, the NFL has its officials called into question...

NFL fans can't trust the team owners, or the officials, or the League office. And the players are getting killed. Not immediately: While there have been 5 deaths as a result of on-field play in the NFL's 100-year history (counting the AFL), there hasn't been one since Chuck Hughes of the Detroit Lions in 1971. But retired players are dying, and some not dying yet but suffering terribly, from the effects of their playing.

It's actually been 4 players killed. The others have been Stan Mauldin of the 1948 Chicago Cardinals, Howard Glenn of the 1960 New York Titans (Jets), and Stone Johnson of the 1963 Kansas City Chiefs. Mack Lee Hill of the 1965 Chiefs is sometimes counted, but he died in surgery 2 days after an injury. But even if it is only 4, that doesn't reduce the point. I continued:

But we now know things about football that we didn't know before. And then there are the things that we did know, but didn't want to admit. Football changes people. Not just those contractually involved. Fans change.

I attended 18 Phillies home games at Veterans Stadium. Aside from the stadium's bowl sometimes trapping the heat, the team often being bad, and that artificial turf being hideous, my experiences there were good ones. Only once did I ever have a problem with the home fans, and it was a minor, tolerable thing.

I attended 1 Eagles home game there. It was, if you'll pardon the pun, a whole different ballgame. Eagle fans have a reputation for being among the roughest in the League. It is deserved.

Compare Oakland fans for an A's game, where they're passionate, but mostly sane; and for a Raiders game, where they're animals.

Even in the college game, fans get like that. Vandalizing your arch-rival school's statues. Using the kind of language you would never use in polite company. One University of Alabama fan was so mad over losing the "Iron Bowl" to arch-rival Auburn University that he poisoned a pair of trees in downtown Auburn that had become a focal point for the AU community.

So far, we have yet to see an NFL fan do anything like this. But we have seen gun massacres in America. Many of them. How long will it be before a fan takes his frustrations out on fans of his rival team? How long before such a fan drives into the parking lot, whips out an AR-15, and guns down tailgate partiers?

It hasn't happened. But don't tell me it can't.

Maybe the 100th Season is time to come to a painful conclusion: That the National Football League is doing more harm than good, and that the money being made off of it is no longer worth it.

Shut the NFL down. Celebrate this 100th Season, and then shut the League down. Let kids play football in high school and college. And them make them look for work. Let high school and college be what they were always meant to be: Preparations for adult life.

This will not be a popular idea. Too many people have invested too much -- financially and/or emotionally -- to give up pro football.

But it needs to happen. For the players' sake. If your last game is a college bowl game when you're 22, you stand a much better chance of being able to think and move well in your 50s than you do if your last game is an NFL Playoff game when you're 32, or 37, or 40.

The NFL doesn't need to have a 200th Anniversary. Or a 150th. Or a 125th. Or even a 110th.

Let the NFL's 100th Anniversary be its last.

In this, the NFL's 103rd season, my feelings have not changed. If anything, they have deepened.

So here's the best-case scenario: The Bills rebound from this awful occurrence, and give Western New York, which has been hit truly hard the last year, with 2 deadly Winter storms and a racist gun massacre at a supermarket, a lift they could really use: A Super Bowl win.

And then the NFL gets shut down.

It will never happen, of course. There's too much money involved. Not just because the owners are too greedy, but because they have done too good a job of addicting the fans.

It's time for an intervention. And rehab.

How to Go to a University of Cincinnati Football Game

This coming Saturday, the University of Cincinnati open their new college football season against their arch-rivals, Miami University of Ohio.

Before You Go. Cincinnati can get really hot in the Summer, and September 4, being the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, counts as "Summer." The Cincinnati Enquirer website is predicting low 80s for Saturday afternoon, and low 60s by night. They are not predicting rain.

Cincinnati is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to set your clocks back.

Tickets. Cincinnati isn't in a major college football conference, but they're playing their arch-rivals, so getting tickets might be a problem. Sideline seats are $70, end zone seats are $60, and upper deck seats are $45.

Getting There. It's 641 miles from Times Square in New York to Fountain Square in Cincinnati. This will be Labor Day Weekend: Availability will be less than normal, so fares may be higher than normal.

Flying may seem like a good option, and don't let the fact that Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport is in Florence, Kentucky fool you: It's just 13 miles southwest of downtown, a little closer (and in the same direction) than Newark Airport is to Midtown Manhattan. And if you order now, you can get a round-trip nonstop ticket on United Airlines for under $500.

Greyhound's run between the 2 cities is not good, a 16-hour ride that costs $488 round-trip (but it can be dropped to $267 with advanced-purchase) and forces you to change buses in either Cleveland or Columbus. The terminal is at 1005 Gilbert Avenue, less than a mile northeast of Fountain Square. Take the Number 11 bus to get downtown.

Amtrak's run to Cincy is problematic as well, as it only offers service out of Penn Station to Cincinnati, on the Cardinal, every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and it'll be nearly 19 hours, from 6:45 AM until 1:31 AM outbound and from 3:27 AM to almost 9:58 AM back. At least it'll be cheap by Amtrak standards, $318.

Union Terminal, now also a museum and shopping mall, is at 1301 Western Avenue, about a mile and a half northwest of downtown. And you'd have to walk 5 blocks to Linn & Clark Streets just to get to the closest downtown bus (Number 27).

In the 1970s, Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting owned

Hanna-Barbera Productions, producers of the cartoon Super Friends.

Union Terminal became the model for the Justice League's headquarters.

As Ted Knight did the voice: "Later, at the Hall of Justice... "

If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping.

You'll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Take it to Exit 14, to Interstate 78. Follow I-78 west all the way through New Jersey, to Phillipsburg, and across the Delaware River into Easton, Pennsylvania. Continue west on I-78 until reaching Harrisburg. There, you will merge onto I-81. Take Exit 52 to U.S. Route 11, which will soon take you onto I-76. This is the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the nation's 1st superhighway, opening in 1940.

The Turnpike will eventually be a joint run between I-76 and Interstate 70. Once that happens, you'll stay on I-70, all the way past Pittsburgh, across the little northern panhandle of West Virginia, and into Ohio all the way to the State Capitol of Columbus. Then leave I-70 at Exit 99 and get on Interstate 71 south to Cincinnati.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours and 30 minutes in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, and about 3 hours in Ohio. That's about 10 hours. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter Ohio and around Columbus, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Cincinnati, it should be no more than 14 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not flying.

Once In the City. Founded in 1788, Cincinnati was named by Arthur St. Clair, then Governor of the Northwest Territory. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization that was a tribute to George Washington, then called "the New Cincinnatus." Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was, like Washington, a farmer who had previously led his country, in his case ancient Rome, into battle, and was called back to lead the nation as a whole in 458 BC. He defeated the Aequi in battle, and then, just 16 days after he took charge, resigned and retired to his farm.

Germans, including "Pennsylvania Dutch" (including some Amish, and many remain in Ohio) were among the first settlers, which explains why the city had a strong brewing tradition, and why the 1882 version of the Cincinnati Red Stockings founded the original American Association, known as "The Beer and Whiskey League" because, unlike the National League, they refused to prohibit the selling of alcohol in their stadiums.

Even in the early 20th Century, sportswriters would refer to that team's spiritual (if not lineal) descendant, the Reds, as "the gingery Germans of Zinzinatti." Like Notre Dame's nickname of "The Fighting Irish," the nickname no longer has much ethnic relevance; unlike "The Fighting Irish," however, it's not still used.

Cincinnati is one of the smallest markets in the major leagues, with the city being home to just 309,000 people -- and even that 2020 Census figure is a gain over the 2010 figure of 299,000. If you count Tampa and St. Petersburg as one city, that would make Cincinnati the smallest in Major League Baseball. The metropolitan area is home to only 2.2 million people, making it the 2nd-smallest, ahead of only Milwaukee. However, if you count nearby Dayton, then it jumps to a little under 3 million. That makes it 25th in MLB, and 22st in the NFL.

Cincinnati also got hit hard by "white flight": It was 84 percent white in 1950, 72 percent in 1970, 61 percent in 1990. Today, it's 48 percent white, 43 percent black, 4 percent Hispanic and 2 percent Asian.

Cincinnati has a bit of a crime problem. The city had race riots in 1829, 1836 and 1841, and was one of many stricken with them in "The Long Hot Summer" of 1967, from June 12 to 15, in the Avondale neighborhood north of downtown. Another took place from April 9 to 13, 2001, something rarely seen in America since the 1960s until the 2010s' and 2020s' rash of police brutality protests.

Despite this, and despite having lost their NBA team in 1972 and never regained it, Cincinnati has never been in serious danger of losing either the Reds or the Bengals. While the Reds were targeted by cities looking to get into MLB in the 1950s and '60s, the city was proactive in stopping them, and the construction of Riverfront Stadium made sure the teams were set to stay for the rest of the 20th Century. The construction of replacements for Riverfront, one for each sport, has made sure the teams are set to stay for at least the 1st half of the 21st.

In spite of the city's willingness to drink, it's one of the most conservative cities in America, home to the Taft political family that has now seen 5 straight generations achieve high office. Alphonso Taft was Attorney General under Ulysses S. Grant. His son, Charles Phelps Taft, was a Congressman who owned the Philadelphia Phillies and later the Chicago Cubs. Another son, William Howard Taft, was Secretary of War under Theodore Roosevelt, was elected to replace TR as President in 1908, and became the only President also to serve on the Supreme Court, as Chief Justice no less. His cousin, Kingsley Taft, was Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.

His son, Robert Taft, was a power in the Senate, so conservative he was known as "Mr. Republican" in opposition to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, serving as Majority Leader at the time of his death in 1953. Another son of William Howard, Charles Phelps Taft II, was Mayor of Cincinnati in the 1950s, and became known as "Mr. Cincinnati." Robert's son, Robert Taft Jr., served in both houses of Congress. Another son, William Howard Taft III, was U.S. Ambassador to Ireland in the 1950s. William III's son, William IV, was a Deputy Secretary of Defense, and his wife Julia was an Assistant Secretary of Defense. And Robert Jr.'s son, Bob Taft (Robert Alfonso Taft III), was Governor of Ohio in the 2000s.

Cincinnati's conservatism is reflected in the Reds' long-standing policy banning facial hair, considerably stronger than that of George Steinbrenner in liberal New York, who at least allowed mustaches.

And if you watched the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82), you noticed that station owner Mama Carlson (Carol Bruce) only made the switch from "beautiful music" to rock and roll in 1978 because the station was losing money, and even her son, Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson (Gordon Jump), while willing to manage a rock station, was hopelessly square -- though not as square as newsman Les Nessman (Richard Sanders). Things hadn't changed much in the century or so since Mark Twain remarked that if the world came to an end, it would take Cincinnati 20 years to notice.

Vine Street is the street address divider between East and West, with the North-South streets' addresses increasing as you go north from the Ohio River. The "beltway" is Interstate 275, and it goes into Kentucky and Indiana, as well as Ohio. The sales tax in the State of Ohio is 5.75 percent, rising to 6.5 percent in Hamilton County, including the City of Cincinnati. Cincinnati Gas & Electric (CG&E) runs the electricity.

The Tyler Davidson Fountain, a.k.a. "The Genius of Water," is located in Fountain Square, 5th & Vine Streets. Henry Probasco, a Cincinnati businessman, had the statue and fountain made to honor his late brother-in-law and business partner.

It was dedicated in 1867, with a base reading, "TO THE PEOPLE OF CINCINNATI," and is turned off in the Winter, being turned back on for the Reds' Opening Day. It can be seen in WKRP's opening sequence, although a renovation led to its being moved elsewhere in the square in 2006.

ZIP Codes for Cincinnati start with the digits 452, and the Area Code is 513. Cincinnati does not have a subway: Construction of a system began in the 1910s, but was abandoned in the 1920s, and occasional attempts to try again, using the existing tunnels, have never gotten anywhere. The only remaining major newspaper is The Cincinnati Enquirer. There was a 2nd paper, The Cincinnati Post, until it went out of business in 2007.

The city has since decided to go above-ground, and, since September 2016, the Cincinnati Bell Connector (naming rights sold to the phone company) heads north from downtown into the Over-the-Rhine region, and south across the Ohio River to Covington, Kentucky.

Cincinnati Metro buses have a one-zone fare of $1.75, and $2.65 outside the City but within the County.

Once On Campus. Cincinnati College and the Medical College of Ohio were founded in 1819. In 1870, a bequest allowed the College to become the University of Cincinnati. The Medical College was absorbed into it in 1909. The school is municipally-funded, but State-affiliated. Notable non-sports alumni include:

* Entertainment: Silent film actress Theda Bara, opera singer Kathleen Battle, jazz trumpeter Al Hirt, rhyming comedian Julius "Nipsey" Russell, soap opera actor David Canary, ballerina Suzanne Farrell, actor Dorian Harewood, Broadway actress Faith Prince, YouTube personality Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach, and Robert Burck, Times Square's "Naked Cowboy."

* Science: Ronald Howes, inventor of the Easy-Bake Oven; and Vinod Dham, inventor of the Pentium computer chip.

* Politics: President William Howard Taft (law school), and his great-grandson, Governor Bob Taft; Charles Dawes, the nation's 1st Budget Director, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Vice President under Calvin Coolidge; 1960s "Yippies" figure Jerry Rubin; and Charles Keating, savings and loan scammer and 1980s scandal namesake

* And Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Also connected to aviation: After becoming the 1st person to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, an Ohio native who graduated from Purdue University, taught aerospace engineering at UC.

The school's 2 most famous athletes are Sandy Koufax, who studied architecture and played basketball, but never played baseball for the school and dropped out, before becoming a Hall of Fame pitcher; and Oscar Robertson, who helped their basketball team reach the Final Four in 1959 and 1960, then went into the NBA and put himself on the short list for the honor of greatest all-around player. Ironically, it was only after he graduated that they won the National Championship, in 1961, in 1962, and nearly again in 1963.

In addition to Koufax and the Big O, notable UC athletic figures include:

* Basketball: Coach Ed Jucker, Jack Twyman, Paul Hogue, Tom Thacker, Connie Dierking, Ron Bonham, Jim Ard, Danny Fortson, Nick Van Exel and Kenyon Martin.

* Baseball: Miller Huggins, the 1st title-winning manager of the Yankees, and Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the federal judge who became the 1st Commissioner of Baseball, both got law degrees from UC. Kevin Youkilis played there.

* Tennis: Tony Trabert, who won the U.S. Open in 1953, the French Open in 1954, and the French, Wimbledon and the U.S. in 1955, just missing the Grand Slam when he lost in the Semifinal of the Australian Open.

* Track & Field: Mary Wineberg, who won a Gold Medal in the women's 4x400-meter relay in the 2008 Olympics in London.

Going In. The site of Nippert Stadium has been home to the University of Cincinnati's football team, the Bearcats, since 1901, and the current stadium has stood there since 1915. That makes it the 2nd-oldest continuously used college football site (the University of Pennsylvania has been playing at the current Franklin Field since 1923 and on the site since 1895), and the 3rd-oldest stadium (behind Georgia Tech's Grant Field, 1913, and Mississippi State's Davis-Wade Stadium, 1914). Previously, it was known as Carson Field, for their 1st coach, Arch Carson, and the playing surface still bears that name.

It has been extensively remodeled, so that it has few of the difficulties of being an old stadium, but also none of the look and atmosphere of one. The address is 99 W. Corry Blvd., at Backstage Drive, on the UC campus, about 2 miles north of downtown. Number 17 or 19 bus. If you drove in, parking is $15.

Nippert Stadium. To the north, Campus Recreation Hall.

To the east, Fifth Third Arena, Gettler Stadium (soccer),
and the UC Baseball Stadium.
To the south, the Corbett Center for the Performing Arts.

To the west, the student center and the bookstore.

On November 29, 1923 (Thanksgiving was then on the last Thursday in November, not necessarily the 4th Thursday), the Bearcats were playing their annual Thanksgiving Day game against Miami University, then as now their arch-rivals. It rained hard all the way through, and the field was called "a sea of mud" in a newspaper.

The 1923 Cincinnati-Miami game

The Bearcats won the game, 23-0, but lost a player. James Gamble Nippert, a center and a prelaw student, was cut on the leg by someone's spiked shoes. There was no game film, so no one was ever able to tell who did it, or even which team. The wound became infected, and, in those days before antibiotics, he was doomed, and died of his Thanksgiving Day wound on Christmas Day.

He died in spite of his family's wealth: His great-grandfather, James Gamble, co-founded the Cincinnati-based consumer goods company Procter & Gamble; his grandfather, James Nippert Gamble, was the inventor of Ivory Soap. The grandfather donated a new locker room and medical facility, so that no other player would have to face his grandson's fate. In the player's memory, the stadium was renamed James Gamble Nippert Memorial Stadium.

Dedication plaque

The Cincinnati Bengals played their 1st 2 seasons, 1968 and 1969, here. When FC Cincinnati were founded in the United Soccer League, the 2nd tier of American soccer, they set up shop at Nippert. They played there through the 2020 season, and have opened a new stadium in the city's West End. Nippert Stadium has hosted 1 U.S. national team game, a 3-0 loss to Venezuela on June 9, 2019.

The playing surface has been artificial since 1970, and runs (more or less) north-to-south. Seating capacity is listed as 40,000 for football.

In 2013, Stephen Godfrey, covering UC's "Keg of Nails" rivalry game with the University of Louisville, called Nippert Stadium a "quaint bowl of angry noise sitting under the gaze of remarkable architecture" and, comparing it to Louisiana State's Tiger Stadium, a "baby Death Valley."

Concerts have been held there, starting in 1973 with The Edgar Winter Group and later Grand Funk Railroad. In 1975, it hosted the Ohio River Rock Festival, including Aerosmith, REO Speedwagon and Styx. Other concert performers have included Michael and Janet Jackson (not together) and Britney Spears. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a speech there on October 16, 1936. Soon-to-be-President Barack Obama held a pre-election rally there on November 2, 2008.

Food. Being in Big Ten Country (but not in the Big Ten Conference), where tailgate parties are practically a sacrament, you would expect a Cincinnati stadium to have lots of good options. The arrival (if only temporary) of FCC led the University to boost the concession stands.

They serve Cincy favorites such as Skyline Chili (that weird hybrid of chili and spaghetti, plus chili dogs), LaRosa's Pizza, Queen City Sausage, United Dairy Farmers and Frisch's Big Boy. Since this will be a professional sporting event, not a collegiate one, beer is sold.

Team History Displays. The University of Cincinnati has been playing football since 1885. For most of their history, they have been independents, but have been in the American Athletic Conference since 2013. The Cincinnati Bearcats have won 14 Conference Championships: The Buckeye Athletic Association in 1933 and 1934; the Mid-American Conference in 1947, 1949, 1951 and 1952; the Missouri Valley Conference in 1963 and 1964; Conference USA in 2002; the Big East Conference in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012; and the American Athletic Conference (essentially, the successor league to the Big East) in 2014.

They've been in 20 bowl games, splitting them. Their 10 wins: The 1946 Sun Bowl, the 1949 Glass Bowl, the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl, the 2004 Fort Worth Bowl, the 2006 International Bowl, the 2007 PapaJohns.com Bowl, the 2011 Liberty Bowl, the 2012 Belk Bowl, the 2018 Military Bowl, and the 2019 Birmingham Bowl. Their only bowl games that have been, at least traditionally, played on New Year's Day have been the 2008 Orange Bowl and the 2009 Sugar Bowl, both of which they lost.

There is no representation of these honors at Nippert Stadium. But they do have a Ring of Honor, with 14 honorees, including uniform numbers, although these are not considered retired. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good photograph of it.

The honorees are: 1940s player Tom O'Malley (27, quarterback); 1950s players Gene Rossi (28, quarterback), Bill Shalosky (29, guard), Dick Goist (62, running back) and Jack Lee (16, quarterback); 1960s player Greg Cook (12, quarterback); 1970s players Tom Marvaso (5, safety) and Mike Woods (30, linebacker); 1980s players Reggie Taylor (30, running back) and Danny McCoin (8, quarterback); 2000s players Jonathan Ruffin (16, kicker), Gino Guidugli (8, quarterback) and Kevin Huber (47, punter); and 2010s player Shaq Washington (19, receiver).

None of these men is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Three of their past head coaches are, but all for things they did elsewhere: Frank Cavanaugh (at UC in 1898), George Little (1914-15) and Sid Gillman (1949-54).

Brent Celek, tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl winners, also played at UC. The brothers Travis and Jason Kelce played for UC, and each has won a Super Bowl. So did 1930s Chicago Bears running back Ray Nolting, 1960s Giants running back Joe Morrison, Super Bowl V game-winning field goal kicker Jim O'Brien of the Baltimore Colts, and 1980s Denver Broncos kicker Rich Karlis. Urban Meyer was a defensive back at UC. in the 1980s. And while he starred as a receiver for the University of Florida and the Cincinnati Bengals before becoming a broadcaster, Cris Collinsworth got a law degree from UC.

The Bearcats have several rivalries. The big one is the one for this game, with Miami University, of Oxford, Ohio, 33 miles to the northwest. The Miami tribe of Native Americans long predates the name being applied to the city in Florida. Because of the confusion, Miami University is usually listed in news reports as "Miami (Ohio)," while the University of Miami is usually listed as "Miami (Florida)."

While the teams were in the same league for a while, this is now the oldest current non-conference college football rivalry, going back to 1888. They play for a Victory Bell, and the rivalry couldn't be much closer: Miami leads, 59-58-7. Each side of the Bell is painted with the colors and years of victory for the respective schools. 

Miami University is known as "The Cradle of Coaches." In football alone, the men who were head or assistant coaches there include Earl "Red" Blaik of Army; Paul Brown of Ohio State, the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals; Woody Hayes of Ohio State; Paul Dietzel of Louisiana State; Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank of the Baltimore Colts and New York Jets; Ara Parseghian of Notre Dame; Carmen Cozza of Yale; Bo Schembechler of Michigan; Bill Arnsparger, who built Don Shula's "No-Name Defense" with the Miami Dolphins (Shula himself had no connection to this Miami); John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens; and Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams.

Cincinnati also has a rivalry with the University of Louisville, 100 miles to the southwest. They first played in 1929, and then every year from 1966 to 2013, when conference realignments stopped it. For the moment, Cincinnati leads this rivalry 30-22-1. The trophy is called the Keg of Nails, because someone once said that you had to be "tough as nails" to win this game.

The Bearcats' nastiest rivalry is with Xavier University, a Catholic school in Cincinnati. But they haven't played each other in football since Xavier shut its program down after the 1973 season, with Cincinnati leading, 18-12. But the basketball rivalry, when I say it's the "nastiest," I mean it. There have been fights on the court, in the stands, and outside, even arrests. They also have a basketball rivalry with Ohio State, having beaten them in the NCAA Tournament Final in 1961 and 1962.

Stuff. There is no big team store at Nippert Stadium. But the University Bookstore is in the Student Center, across from the Stadium's West Stand. I don't know if they sell any team-themed books or videos. Amazon.com doesn't seem to have any specific to UC.

During the Game. Because of their Midwest/Heartland image, Reds, Bengals and Bearcats fans like a "family atmosphere," in which you would be fine, as long as you don't antagonize anyone.

What is a "bearcat"? Is it a bear? Is it a cat? It is neither: It's a creature indigenous to South and Southeast Asia, known there as a binturong, and it resembles a raccoon more than any other North American mammal.

Nevertheless, the official costumed mascot looks more like a cat, and there's a reason for that. During a game against the University of Kentucky in 1914, Norman Lyon, a UC cheerleader and editor of the student paper, countered UK's name, the Wildcats, by citing UC fullback and team captain Leonard Baehr. Because of the pronunciation of this name, like "Bear," he was known as "Teddy." But Lyon got the fans to chant "Baehr-cat."

Eventually, a suited mascot was developed. Up until the 1950s, it was more bear than cat. Since then, it's been more cat. And it's name is simply "The Bearcat."

The Bearcat Band plays the National Anthem, and the fight song, "Cheer Cincinnati." Their main formation is an approximation of the team's helmet logo, a letter C that serves as the Bearcat's paw, with 4 claws. While rival Ohio State calls their band "TBDBITL," for "The Best Damn Band In The Land," UC says, "TUCBIDG," meaning, "The UC Band Is Damn Good." 

After the Game. The campus and downtown should be safe, but take the bus back downtown. Don't walk. As I said, Cincinnati does have a bit of a crime problem. 

If you want a postgame beer, you may be out of luck, as it'll be a bit of a walk to get off campus. There's a Starbucks (if you're liberal) and a Chick-fil-A (if you're conservative) just to the north of the stadium. Three blocks south is Calhoun Street, which has a Panera, a Buffalo Wild Wings, a Chipotle, a Jimmy John's, and boozier options.

I can find no references to well-known postgame bars, or to places where New Yorkers gather in or around Cincinnati. The sites that usually list bars for football fans in exile don't seem to have references to where Yankees, Mets, Giants or Jets fans go when they live near Cincy. In contrast, Phebe's, at 359 Bowery at East 4th Street, is New York's home for fans of the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals.

If you visit Cincinnati during the European soccer season, which has begun again, the main "football pub" in town is Rhinehaus, 119 E. 12th Street and Clay Street, in the neighborhood called Over-The-Rhine, or OTR, just north of downtown. Bus 19, or Streetcar to Washington Street. There's also a notable "football pub" across the Ohio River, in Covington, Kentucky: Molly Malone's, at 11 E. 4th Street. Bus 33.

Sidelights. Cincinnati may have only 2 major league teams now, plus an MLS team. One of those, the Reds, has usually been respectable, but hasn't won so much as an NLCS game for 31 years. The other, the Bengals, has been a joke for most of the last 20 years, even when they've had good regular seasons. But it's a pretty good sports town, and here's some of the highlights:

* Great American Ball Park. The Reds have played here since 2003. The park's official address is 100 Joe Nuxhall Way, named for the 1950s-60 Reds reliever and longtime broadcaster who died in 2007. Officially, the streets around it are 2nd Street (3rd base) to the north, Broadway Street (left field, and, no, that's not "Broadway," it's "Broadway Street") to the east, Mehring Way/U.S. Route 27 (right field) to the south and Main Street/Joe Nuxhall Way (1st base) to the west. Extending from the 1st base side is Pete Rose Way.

Great American Ballpark, with Heritage Bank Center next-door

* Site of Riverfront Stadium. The home of the Reds from 1970 to 2002 (known as Cinergy Field from 1996 onward) and the NFL's Bengals from 1970 to 1999 was across Main Street from its baseball replacement, bounded also by 2nd Street, Mehring Way and Vine Street.

Note that they built a stadium on top of a parking deck.

Here, the Reds reached the postseason 9 times (yes, Mrs. Bueller: "Nine times!"), winning 5 Pennants and 3 World Series. The Bengals made the Playoffs here 7 times, winning the AFC Championship in 1981 (beating the San Diego Chargers in what is officially listed as the coldest game in NFL history) and 1988 (on both occasions, going on to lose the Super Bowl to the San Francisco 49ers).

Riverfront was a pioneer in artificial turf, the 1st outdoor stadium in either MLB or the NFL to have it, the 1st to host either league's postseason on it, and the 1st to host a World Series game on it. It switched to real grass for its last 2 seasons, 2001 and 2002.

Nevertheless, a Thrillist article that came out in 2017 called Riverfront "a Soviet-style concrete and artificial turf dual-sport monolith." Like the other such stadiums opening between 1960 (Candlestick Park) and 1982 (the Metrodome), it served its purpose (saving its city's MLB and/or NFL team), and was rightly demolished. 

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is now on the site. And just beyond it is the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, opened in 1866 and named for its designer, who used it as the basis for his greatest achievement, the Brooklyn Bridge. The bar and restaurant district on the Covington, Kentucky side of the bridge is known as Roebling Point.

* Paul Brown Stadium. Opening in 2000, and named for the legendary coach of the Cleveland Browns and the founding owner and coach of the Bengals, This 65,000-seat stadium has also hosted the University of Cincinnati (including its entire 2014 home schedule while Nippert Stadium was being renovated, thus the Bengals returning the favor of UC letting them play there in their 1st 2 seasons), Ohio State, and Miami University of Ohio.

It's 4 blocks west of Great American Ball Park, and 2 blocks west of where Riverfront Stadium was. Officially, the address is 1 Paul Brown Stadium. It's bounded by 2nd Street, Elm Street, Mehring Way and Central Avenue.

* Heritage Bank Center. Formerly known as the Riverfront Coliseum, The Crown, the Firstar Center, and the U.S. Bank Arena, this building went up across Broadway from Riverfront Stadium (and can be seen from Great American Ball Park) in 1975, and has hosted minor league hockey ever since, including the current Cincinnati Cyclones.

The Cincinnati Stingers of the World Hockey Association played here from 1975 to 1979. They reached the Playoffs in 1977 and 1979, but were not invited to join the NHL. Hall-of-Famers Mark Messier and Mike Gartner made their "major league" debuts here, and, as such were named to the WHA All-Time Team.

The University of Cincinnati basketball team played home games here from 1976 to 1987 -- though, contrary to what I had posted in previous years, rivals Xavier University never used it as a home court. It hosted the NCAA's hockey Final Four, a.k.a. the Frozen Four, in 1996. Elvis Presley sang there on March 21, 1976 and, just before his death, on June 25, 1977.

Unfortunately, the arena is best known for the tragedy of December 3, 1979, when 11 fans were killed and 26 others were injured, when fans rushed in for "festival seating" for a concert by The Who. This event was immortalized shortly thereafter in an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, ordinarily one of the funniest situation comedies of its time.

It's unlikely that Cincinnati will get a new major league team for this arena anytime soon, partly due to its being a typical 1970s arena, with 1 level of concourse for 2 levels of seating, and not enough skyboxes; and partly due to Cincinnati's market size. The metro area would rank 22nd in population among NBA markets, and 19th in the NHL.

The closest NBA team is the Indiana Pacers, 113 miles to the northwest; the Cleveland Cavaliers are 249 miles to the northeast, the Chicago Bulls 296 miles to the northwest. The closest NHL team, representing the entire State of Ohio (including Cincinnati and Cleveland, normally bitter rivals), is the Columbus Blue Jackets, 107 miles to the northeast; the Detroit Red Wings, 260 miles to the northeast; the Nashville Predators, 274 miles to the southwest; the Pittsburgh Penguins, 288 miles to the northeast; the St. Louis Blues, 350 miles to the west.

* TQL Stadium. The new stadium for FC Cincinnati opened on May 16, 2021. The address is 1501 Central Parkway, about a mile northwest of downtown, and about 3/4 of a mile east of the site of Crosley Field. Bus 21 or 64. The naming rights are held by Total Quality Logistics, a freight brokerage firm headquartered in the Cincy suburbs.

* Crosley Field site. Three different ballparks were at a location bounded by Findlay Street, Western Avenue, Liberty Street and Dalton Avenue, a convenient location for teams coming into the city through the Union Terminal: League Park from 1884 to 1901, the elaborate Palace of the Fans from 1902 to 1911, and the 3rd from 1912 to 1970. First named Redland Field, appliance executive Powel Crosley renamed it for himself when he bought the Reds in 1934.

Photo possibly taken during the 1961 World Series,

since the path for the Expressway has been cleared.

Here, the Reds won the Pennant in 1919, 1939, 1940 and 1961, winning the World Series in 1919 and 1940. The Yankees clinched World Series wins here in 1939 and 1961. Bush Stadium, the former home of the Triple-A team in Indianapolis, stood in for it and Comiskey Park in Eight Men Out, the film about the Black Sox scandal.

Best known as the first big-league ballpark with lights, in 1935, it had an infamous incline, a.k.a. the "terrace," that was trouble for left fielders; a building behind left field with an ad for the Superior Towel and Linen Service, nicknamed the Laundry Roof, which was torn down in 1960 to make way for Interstate 75 and a rerouted U.S. Route 52, the Mill Creek Expressway; and a right field bleacher section known as the Sun Deck for day games and the Moon Deck for night games.

The "terrace," and the "laundry roof" before its demolition in 1960

Crosley was also home to an NFL team named the Cincinnati Reds in 1933 and '34. There was also a Cincinnati Celts, pronounced with a hard C unlike the Boston basketball team, that played in the NFL from 1920 to 1923, but they were a traveling team, playing no home games.

The Beatles played there on August 21, 1966, and, in one of the ballpark's last events, the Cincinnati Pop Festival was held there on June 13, 1970, featuring Iggy & the Stooges, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Traffic, Bob Seger and Mott the Hoople.

Note the terrace in left field, and the Sun Deck in right field

The park was demolished in 1972. An industrial park now stands on the site, a 15-minute walk from Union Terminal. The Number 27 and 49 buses will get you Linn and Findlay, a 7-block walk (counting I-75) from the site.

* Blue Ash Sports Center. A replica of Crosley Field was built in 1988 in suburban Blue Ash, complete with a few original seats. The field's dimensions are the same, and it includes a left-field terrace. The scoreboard shows the correct information (and advertising signs) from the last game, a 5-4 Reds win over the San Francisco Giants on June 24, 1970. The light towers don't look the same, but they are in the right places.

There is, however, no laundry roof behind left field or Sun Deck behind right field. Edd Roush and Ted Kluszewski are dead, and Frank Robinson and Johnny Bench won't show up -- although Pete Rose might, if you offer him enough money.

"New Crosley" is the centerpiece of the Blue Ash Sports Center, which also includes 10 other baseball fields and 2 soccer fields. 11540 Grooms Road, 16 miles northeast of Fountain Square, just inside Interstate 275, Cincinnati's "beltway." Reachable by car only

As for the original 1869 Red Stockings, they played at the Union Cricket Club Grounds, a field with a stand for about 4,000 people. The Union Terminal was built on the site, so if you do come into Cincinnati by train, you're already on the birthplace of professional baseball. 1301 Western Avenue. Bus 1 from downtown.

* Fifth Third Arena. Formerly the Myrl H. Shoemaker Center, the new home of the UC basketball team is adjacent to Nippert Stadium. It seats 13,176 and opened in 1989. The UC Baseball Stadium is also adjacent. It opened in 2004, and in 2006 it was named after UC donor, former Reds owner, cheapskate and Nazi sympathizer Marge Schott. Apparently, the University thought her money was as good as anyone else's. Then again, they also stood by head basketball coach Bob Huggins for years, despite his recruiting violations and drunken driving. In 2020, 16 years after Schott's death, her name was taken off the facility, and it is once again simply "UC Baseball Stadium."

* Cintas Center. Opening in 2000, this is the home of Xavier University basketball. Its tight quarters, seating only 10,250, make it one of the toughest arenas in the country for a visiting team.

And when the Xavier Musketeers and the UC Bearcats play each other, well, let's just say you should pick another game to attend. Since there's no other intracity rivalry of any consequence in Cincinnati (unless you count high school football), this game gets the kind of treatment that Duke-North Carolina, Louisville-Kentucky, and English soccer "derbies" get. As the great college football broadcaster Keith Jackson used to say, "These two teams just... don't... like each other." 1624 Herald Avenue at Clenay Avenue, on the XU campus. Number 4 bus.

* Site of Cincinnati Gardens. Seating 10,208 people, this was one of the oldest surviving indoor sports arenas in North America, opening in 1949 and hosting the NBA's Cincinnati Royals from 1957 to 1972. Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas went from there to Hall of Fame careers, although neither won a title with the Royals. (The Big O did so with the 1971 Milwaukee Bucks, Lucas with the 1973 Knicks.) The Royals moved to Kansas City (and, due to the baseball team having the same name, became the Kansas City Kings, and, in 1985, the Sacramento Kings). The Gardens hosted the 1st nationally-televised NBA game, on January 3, 1965. with the Royals losing to the Boston Celtics, 89-85.

A succession of minor league hockey teams has played there, and it hosted arena football, too. Heavyweight Champion Ezzard Charles, a city native known as the Cincinnati Cobra, defended the title there against Nick Barone on December 5, 1950. The Gardens played host to the Beatles on August 27, 1964; and to Elvis on November 11, 1971 and June 27, 1973.

The Gardens was demolished in 2018, so that property for "light manufacturing" can be built. 2250 Seymour Avenue at Langdon Farm Road, on the northeast side of town, near the Seymour Plaza, Swifton, and Hillcrest shopping centers. Number 43 bus.

Currently without an NBA team, a recent New York Times article shows basketball allegiances around the country. Since most people in Southern Ohio would rather vote for a Democrat than support a Cleveland-based team, the Cavaliers are not popular here, not even with the now-ended return of LeBron James. The Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls were the top 3 choices in that article, although the Heat have no doubt fallen off dramatically without LeBron.

A recent Business Insider article shows the most popular hockey team in each State. Although the Columbus Blue Jackets, as you might guess, lead Ohio, neighboring Kentucky is led by the Nashville Predators, and neighboring Indiana by the Chicago Blackhawks.

It's 109 miles from downtown Cincinnati to Ohio State, 82 miles to the University of Kentucky, 103 miles to the University of Louisville, and 130 miles to Indiana University. And it's 52 miles from downtown Cincinnati to the University of Dayton, whose 13,435-seat University of Dayton Arena (I know, not a very imaginative name), opened in 1969, has hosted more NCAA Tournament games that any other building: 119. (No Final Four has ever been held in Ohio, and none probably ever will, unless they end up putting a dome on Paul Brown Stadium, FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, or Ohio Stadium in Columbus.)

Elvis sang at the University of Dayton's old Fieldhouse on May 27, 1956, and at its "new" Arena on April 7, 1972; October 6, 1974; and October 26, 1976. He also sang at the Hobart Arena in Troy, 77 miles north of Cincinnati and 23 miles north of Dayton, on November 24, 1956.

The Dayton Triangles were an early pro football team, playing from 1913 to 1929, first in the Ohio League -- winning the title in 1913, 1914, 1915 and 1918 -- and then from 1920 to 1929 in the NFL. They were named for Triangle Park, at the confluence of the Stillwater and Miami Rivers, where they erected a 5,000-seat stadium. The Jim Nichols Tennis Center is now on the site. 2424 Ridge Avenue.

But from 1923 onward, they only won 5 games, as the better players didn't want to go to a city as small as Dayton. (Green Bay, the only surviving small city from the NFL's early days, had... other forms of entertainment to lure players.) Then they became... a New York team, being bought by Bill Dwyer, owner of hockey's New York Americans, moved to Ebbets Field and becoming the NFL version of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Through a convoluted series of transactions, today's Indianapolis Colts are descended from the Dayton Triangles, though not officially recognized as such by the NFL. In other words, if the Colts tried to put up banners saying "World Champions 1913, 1914, 1915, 1918," the NFL wouldn't count it.

In 1856, the 1st university owned and operated by African-Americans was founded: Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio, about 60 miles northeast of Cincinnati, 20 miles east of Dayton, and 60 miles southwest of Columbus. Central State University, another historically black college and university (HBCU), was founded in Wilberforce in 1887.

Central State is currently in NCAA Division II. Wilberforce has dropped all the way into the NAIA. Wilberforce won the National Championship of black college football in 1931. Central State has won it 8 times: 1948, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1992.

* Spring Grove Cemetery. If you're a visiting Met fan, you won't care about this. But if you're a visiting Yankee Fan, Spring Grove is the final resting place of Yankee Hall-of-Famers Miller Huggins (a Cincinnati native who played for the Reds) and Waite Hoyt (who broadcast for the Reds.)

Also buried there: Several Generals of the American Civil War, including Joseph Hooker; 4 U.S. Senators, including Salmon P. Chase; 3 Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, including Chase, who served as Chief Justice; Nicholas Longworth, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and husband of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt; several members of the Taft family, including both of President William Howard Taft's parents, Alphonso and Louise, and his brother, Mayor Charles Taft II; Charles Fleischmann, founder of the yeast company that bears his name; Bernard Kroger, founder of the supermarket chain that bears his name. William Procter and James Gamble, founders of the Cincinnati-based company that bears their names, and several members of their families, including Nippert Stadium namesake James Gamble Nippert.

4521 Spring Grove Avenue. Number 20 bus to Winton Road & Froome Avenue, then a left on Gray Road.

Weeb Ewbank, the only man to coach the Jets to a Super Bowl win, is buried at Oxford Cemetery in Oxford, home to his alma mater, Miami University. (Not the one in Florida -- this Miami came first.) 4385 Oxford Millville Road, about 40 miles northwest of Cincinnati.

Cincinnati isn't a big museum city, but it is a Presidential birthplace, very nearly a Presidential birthplace twice over, and a Presidential burial place. The William Howard Taft National Historic Site, where the 27th President of the United States and the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States was born and lived the first 25 years of his life, is at 2038 Auburn Avenue on the north side of town. The same Number 43 bus that would take you to Cincinnati Gardens would take you there.

The tomb of William Henry Harrison, the 9th President, who famously won the Battle of Tippecanoe (near Lafayette, Indiana and Purdue University) against Indians (not the Cleveland variety) in 1811 and died only a month after becoming President in 1841, is 16 miles west of downtown in North Bend.

A 10-minute walk from the Tomb is a house at Symmes & Washington Avenues, where "Old Tippecanoe" lived, and his grandson Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President (1889-93), was born. The Number 50 bus will get you within 2 miles of these sites.

The 1856 Democratic Convention was held at Smith and Nixon's Hall. (There is no connection to the family of President Richard Nixon.) The Renaissance Cincinnati Downtown Hotel is on the site today. Former Secretary of State James Buchanan was nominated for President, and he won, but his Administration was possibly the most disastrous in the nation's history. 36 E. 4th Street at Walnut Street.

The 1876 Republican Convention was held at Exposition Hall. Ohio's sitting Governor, Rutherford B. Hayes, was nominated for President, and "won" the election in "The Fraud of the Century." But the Hall had a bad roof, and was replaced. Cincinnati Music Hall opened in 1878, and, in 1880, the Democrats held their Convention there, nominating Civil War General Winfield Scott Hancock, who lost an incredibly close race to Congressman James Garfield. Music Hall still hosts concerts. 1241 Elm Street at 14th Street, downtown, across from Washington Park.

As I mentioned, the Underground Railroad Museum is on the site of Riverfront Stadium, between the ballpark and the football stadium. Since Cincinnati was on the north side of a river between the free State of Ohio and the slave State of Kentucky, it was a major point on the Underground Railroad. The Cincinnati Museum Center is on the grounds of the Union Terminal.

The Cincinnati Art Museum is at 953 Eden Park Drive, in Johnston Park. The Taft Museum of Art is closer to downtown, at 316 Pike Street. The Number 1 bus will take you to each of them.

The tallest building in Cincinnati is the Great American Tower at Queen City Square, at 660 feet and opening in 2010. 301 E. 4th Street. It surpassed the Carew Tower, a 574-foot Art Deco building at 441 Vine Street, which had been the tallest in town since 1931. (No, it wasn't named for Baseball Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew. Joseph T. Carew had operated the Mabley & Carew department store on the site.)

The transmission tower seen at the beginning of WKRP in Cincinnati belonged to the city's NBC affiliate, WLWT-Channel 5, even though the show was on CBS. The tower has since been dismantled. The building shown as the home of WKRP and referred to on the show as the Osgood R. Flimm Building is the Cincinnati Enquirer Building at 617 Vine Street, just off Fountain Square, so it was (and remains) a media center in real life. 

The show was created by Hugh Wilson (who also wrote the opening theme song, sung by Steve Carlisle, and directed the Police Academy movies), and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at an Atlanta Top 40 station, with the Gary Sandy character of Andy Travis based on himself. The New WKRP in Cincinnati, which ran in syndication from 1991 to 1993, featured some of the original characters, while the others were each brought back as guest stars at least once.

Cincinnati did have, and still has, a radio and a TV station with the call letters WKRC. CBS owns it now, but didn't when WKRP was running. WKRC's AM frequency is 550.) In 2008, an unrelated independent TV station in Cincinnati, WBQC-LD, took advantage of local nostalgia for the sitcom, promoting its conversion to digital broadcasting by rebranding as "WKRP-TV in Cincinnati."

As far as I can tell, the only other TV show set in Cincinnati has been Harry's Law, starring Kathy Bates as lawyer Harriet "Harry" Korn, which was recently canceled after 2 seasons. There was a series titled John from Cincinnati that ran on HBO in 2007, but it was set in Southern California.

On The West Wing, White House Press Secretary, and later Chief of Staff, Claudia Jean "C.J." Cregg is from Dayton, Ohio. So is her portrayer, Allison Janney. So is Martin Sheen, who played the President on the show, Jed Bartlet.

Aside from Eight Men Out (filmed, as I said, in Indianapolis), the best-known movie set in the city was Rain Man. A few other movies had scenes filmed there, including the sports-connected films Summer Catch (the final scene, where Freddie Prinze Jr.'s character makes his big-league debut at GABP and gets taken deep by Ken Griffey Jr. on his very 1st pitch), Seabiscuit and Mr. 3000.

*

Cincinnati calls itself the Queen City of the Midwest, and thinks of itself as a good, solid, family town. Read: They'd rather slit their economic throats and condemn their women to no say in if and when to have a child than vote for a liberal for national or Statewide office. Although they have elected mostly Democratic Mayors including, in 1977, Jerry Springer. (No joke.)

But it's a good sports town, and a University of Cincinnati football game is well worth the trip.