Softball: Back to the Future – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Sue Gahn and C.J. Hawkins remember opening up the old Buckeye Field in 1988
By Andrew Ramspacher, Ohio State Athletics Communications
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Home runs hit at Buckeye Field these days come by way of the traditional variety, well-driven shots clearing scarlet-cladded walls some 200 feet away from home plate.
Sue B. Gahn remembers hearing of a time when not only did a 200-foot blast not guarantee a home run, but when the center fielder might have to compete with farm animals if she were to venture too far.
“My freshman year was the last year we played at the old Coffee Road field, and some of the older players said they remembered when there were cows beyond the outfield,” Gahn said. “And there was no fence because it was a recreation field.”
Wow, how far Ohio State softball has come.
Gahn’s freshman season was 1987, the year before the unveiling of the campus-based Buckeye Field and 22 years before its $5.9 million renovation, which is now underway. It includes indoor and outdoor batting cages, a three-plate bullpen, a 650-square foot press box, player clubhouse and an umpire dressing room and is scheduled to be ready for Ohio State’s home opener in March.
“It’s going to be like I’m walking into that Field of Dreams’ situation,” Gahn said of her expectations for the new Buckeye Field. “It’s an honor to be part of it, though. It’s all history.”
Gahn’s teammate in 1988 was C.J. (Urse) Hawkins. A local product from nearby Bishop Watterson High School, Hawkins has a hands-on account about the origins of Buckeye Field.
“I painted the dugouts the first time they went up,” Hawkins said. “I worked there in the summer so I was there every day. It was great, we were very thankful.”
Some nine months later on March 30, 1988, Hawkins and her teammates were able to walk out of the dugout she helped paint onto a field she saw grow garbed in scarlet and gray with “Ohio State” scripted across their uniforms.
Ohio State defeated Youngstown State 7-0 in the first game played at what was simply known then as the softball complex at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, now classified as Buckeye Field.
For Gahn, who spent her freshman season travelling to top-notch facilities in the Big Ten, that day signified a significant transformation in status for the Ohio State softball program.
“It was a night-and-day difference going to Buckeye Field,” she said. “You felt as if the program was beginning to be recognized by the athletic department and the Big Ten. Some of the fields we would go to, we would say, wow, we wish we had this.’”
Gahn’s wishes continue to become realities since she hung up her cleats following her Big Ten champion senior season in 1990 and hopped on as a member of the Varsity “O” board in 2000. Working with other former female Ohio State athletes, she has aided in continuing the movement of women’s athletics.
“We have women on the board who were there before Title IX, so they are able to see how far women’s athletics have come at OSU,” she said. “They are so many more opportunities available for women now and this facility will now be there to go along with them.”
Hawkins has kept softball and her OSU roots very prevalent in her life. Now serving as the head softball coach at Spain Park High School in Alabama, she does not shy away from representing where she came from.
“I live in the southeast and I couldn’t get Buckeye’ on my license plate because that was already taken, so I have 4Ohio,’” she said.
Hawkins echoes Gahn’s words of optimism about where the renovation project to Buckeye Field can send Ohio State softball in terms of the nation’s elite.
“This will allow OSU softball to be compared to what a lot of other schools are doing, while also making it a fan friendly environment,” Hawkins said. “It will help draw big time recruits and help them get to the next level. That’s what you need to get the best athletes.”
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