Big Ten Mount Rushmore

A recent Twitter post by Big Ten Barstool (@BarstoolB1G) got me thinking about who would be on the "Big Ten Mount Rushmore".

Now the tough thing is, there are so many possibilities...are we talking athletes, football players, basketball players, celebrities?

I took it as athletes and went with Magic Johnson, Dick Butkus, Jack Nicklaus and Jesse Owens with an honorable mention to Kyle Snyder.

It was tough to leave Archie Griffin off as the only player to ever win the Heisman Trophy twice, which got me thinking even deeper. Ohio State could have soooo many figures on that Mount Rushmore that it's almost too much for the brain to comprehend.

Outside of the people I've already mentioned, think about athletes that have come through in recent memory. Ezekiel Elliott, JT Barrett, Troy Smith (or any QB at OSU in the last ten or so years for that matter), Orlando Pace, Joey Bosa, Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Evan Turner. Women's basketball stars like Katie Smith and Kelsey Mitchell. NHL greats like RJ Umberger or Ryan Kessler. The list of athletes goes on and on and I haven't even mentioned Eddie George. Just legends.

Then you get on to the coaches. Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer, Thad Matta to name a few. These people are talked about like biblical figures not just around Ohio, but the Big Ten too.

That's before we even get to former U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes or Governor John Kasich, or former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

I haven't even touched the 200-plus Olympians and 49 medal winners that have come from OSU, or Hall of Famers like Jerry Lucas, Bobby Knight, Jim Brown, Earle Bruce, or Cris Carter.

The list truly goes on and on, no disrespect to those I didn't mention.

The fact of the matter is Ohio State has produced some of the most talented, world renowned people ever. Hell, even Bo Schembechler got his master's here (1952).

We all know about the stuff going on around OSU right now, and that is not good and completely unacceptable, but time has shown that it is good to be a Buckeye.

There is one person I'd like to highlight, especially coming from our organization, that gets nearly no recognition as an OSU alum, and that is Hall of Fame broadcaster, Jack Buck. Maybe more well-known now is his son Joe, but Jack Buck is maybe one of the five, if not three, best sports broadcasters of all-time, and that goes almost unnoticed by OSU.

A school with so much athletic pride would certainly do well to boast one of the more memorable media members of all time as one of their own as well.

I'd love for SGSR to have more connection to Buck and all he was able to do.

Who says Syracuse produces all the big names? Why can't OSU be next.