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Back from the Big House

By Ron Pereira Updated on January 13th, 2011

Let me just say this past weekend rocked! As regular readers of the blog know I attended the Ohio State versus Michigan football game this past Saturday.

Well my Buckeyes handled Michigan with ease and won the Big Ten championship. We will most likely play in the Rose Bowl. We still have an outside shot of reaching the National Championship game but I am not counting on it.

My experience in the Big House was excellent. The Michigan fans were excellent starting with my good friend Scott who scored me the ticket! When we first arrived on the scene in Ann Arbor (about 4 hours before kickoff) I got to experience tail gating Michigan style. Scott’s friends (all Michigan fans) were great. Of course they got some good natured jabs in on me… all of which I took with a grin. I mean I was getting free beer so what could I say!

We then made our way to the stadium and saw the ESPN Gameday crew taping the show. Well we didn’t actually “see” them since the line was massive to actually get into where the cameras were. But we saw it nonetheless.

After that we went into the stadium to watch the teams warm up without pads. The stadium was basically empty and what a massive site it was. It’s weird… when you first walk up to the stadium it looks smallish. Then when you actually enter into it you are like… holy Buckeye! It is truly massive inside.

I got some great pics of the Buckeyes warming up. Vernon Gholston is shown in this picture. He pummeled Chad Henne and just about Michigan’s entire offensive line all day long.

Once the game started I was not able to take as many pictures for a few reasons. First a steady rain started before kickoff and never stopped so I didn’t want to ruin my father in laws camera!

Second, being the overly nice person that I am… I gave my spare batteries to this guy (a Michigan fan no less!) before the game as his had run out. Well you guessed it… my batteries went dead late in the 3rd quarter! Oh well. This picture was taken after Beanie Wells took it to the house for a score in the 3rd quarter. Man I love that kid!

In the end OSU beat Michigan for the 6th time in 7 years and all is well. I had a blast and hope to do it all again one day. Special kudos to the folks at the University of Michigan. Most of them were extremely kind and hospitable… even in defeat.

Me and the fam are off to Ohio (from Texas) for Thanksgiving to visit my Mom. I hope all my American friends and anyone else celebrating turkey day have a great and relaxing week. Try to spend time with your families and forget all about lean and six sigma for a few days. That is my plan for sure.

Ron Pereira

Ron has more than 20 years of experience in various manufacturing, supply chain, and senior leadership roles. Ron has held the titles of process engineer, engineering manager, master black belt, and director of manufacturing & continuous improvement. In 2002 Ron was the first American to win the Nokia Global Six Sigma and Overall Quality award in Helsinki, Finland. Ron holds a bachelor's degree in automated manufacturing and an MBA in technology management.

Rob
November 19, 2007 - 1:54 am
Reply

I have to confess that I have no idea how football, or American football, as we call it here in the UK is played. Football to me is called soccer in the USA. I think its similar to rugby minus the body armour. That probably explains why most of the rugby players I know look like this. [http://tinyurl.com/2molww] – This is Gareth Thomas, Welsh player.

[http://tinyurl.com/3dkfoq]