I love watching great athletes do their thing. It is one thing when you are witnessing say a no-hitter in baseball, but it is completely another thing when you are watching it in-person. Watching professionals play the game is nice, but it is something special when you witness athletic achievements at any level that make you go “wow, I just saw that.”

Columbus is a hotbed for athletes. Off the top of my head, I can think of several NBA and NFL players that are playing right now. I’ve been able to witness some great athletes throughout the years. Most of them didn’t go on to achieve sports immortality, but their achievements can’t go unnoticed. I will talk about some of the special athletes I’ve witnessed in my lifetime and their accomplishments.

  • My brother’s team was playing Columbus DeSales in basketball one year. DeSales had this stud named Antonio Daniels who was a scoring machine. I happened to be home from college for Christmas break and the coach had me play Daniels on the scout team. The coaches felt if they had a chance to win, the team would have to make him pass. Well, that’s what they did and Daniels ended up setting their school record for assists that night as he led his team to a victory. One of Daniels few buckets was a dunk over my brother, which I continue to remind him about as the years go on. Daniels ended up playing for Bowling Green and had a nice NBA career.
  • My junior year in high school some friends and I went to the fairgrounds to watch the Division I regional semi-finals in basketball. Columbus Brookhaven was playing against this team from Toledo that had the Ohio Mr. Basketball, Jimmy Jackson, playing. There was a line a mile long for tickets. The place was packed and Mr. Jackson was as good as advertised as his team won the game. If you don’t know who Jimmy Jackson is then you really aren’t much of a sports fan, but I got to witness his workout routine when I was a personal trainer at a local Bally’s. Let me just say watching his routine convinced me that you cannot assume professional athletes know what they are doing when they workout.
  • My senior year there was a 800M runner from Westland named Darrell Hughes (I think). Luckily, he wasn’t in my division, but he was the frontrunner to win the states in the 800. HIs strategy was completely opposite from the norm. He went out at a slow pace of say 60 seconds then would speed up the second lap in a 52 or 53. In the state meet after one lap he was dead last, then he started passing people. The crowd started murmuring as he was moving up on everybody then down the homestretch in a roar as he ended up securing the title. Talk about getting a crowd excited, it was pretty amazing to watch.
  • In that same meet, I watched a runner named Chris Nelloms secure victory in 4 events setting state records in a couple. In the 400M and maybe the 200M, the runner-up to Nelloms was a guy named Robert Smith. Yes, the same Robert Smith who played for OSU and the Minnesota Vikings and can be seen as an ESPN analyst. At the time, Robert Smith had two of the top 10 times in state history for these events. He just happened to be running against a guy who had better times. What are the odds?
  • A friend of mine, Ryan Wilson, was the son of one of my track coaches in high school. I watched him single handedly give his school, Westerville North, a state title by winning the long jump, 110M high hurdles, and the 300M intermediate hurdles. Not bad in the big school division. Ryan has since gone on to compete at USC, in the world circuit, and just missed making the Olympic squad this past year.
  • Finally, I played with an athlete named Donnie Leshnock. When Donnie graduated, he had the distinction of being only the second male athlete to make first team all-state in three sports (football, basketball, and baseball) in the state of Ohio. That was in 1989 and I don’t know if any other people have joined the club, but he was a special athlete. He ended up playing baseball at North Carolina and getting drafted by the New York Yankees before an elbow injury ended his career.

I’m sure there are others I just can’t think of now. Do you have some special athletic moments you have witnessed? If so, share them with us in the comments box below.