We normally don't think about these things as we live our lives.  But when you lose someone... someone important to you, someone you share with, you talk with, you laugh with... someone who's opinion you want to hear, someone you love... you wonder... how?

 

     How do you go on without that person?  He has been there for you for 37 years.  To take you places, to show you things, to teach you, to help you, to be there for you.  How do you go on without someone who meant so much to you, just sitting and talking about nothing meant the world?

   

     Larry Faith was my Uncle, he was my God Father, he was my Friend.  He was my Best Friend.

 

     He took me to my first high school football game when I was seven.  We went back and back and back.  Even though he was 18 years older than me, he never made me feel like I was tagging along.  He always wanted me there.  I don't know which I wanted more... to be with him or to actually see the game.

     But he meant something to me before that game.  I can remember singing myself to sleep at night... "Uncle Larry's in Korea" over and over.  He was away in the service and I missed him.  How old could I have been?

     He was the best radio broadcast partner a person could ever have.  All the football and basketball games we announced together the last few years have given me memories I will hold on to and cherish forever.

     The memories... all those high school football and basketball games he took me to as I was growing up... Alliance High School football and basketball through the years, the USA Olympic hockey team in 1980, the Cleveland Browns and all the hours spent talking about what happened and why it did and what went wrong.  And the Cleveland Indians... all the games.  I remember sitting in the old stadium on a cold April day, just him and me, as the Yankees beat the Indians 9-0, but we didn't care, we were happy, because the Browns used the first pick of the draft that day on the guy we both wanted them to take... Eric Metcalf.  How often did that happen?  And sharing the Indians success over the last six or seven years has meant so much after so many years of last place finishes.

     Just strolling through the old stadium, him and me, was one of the best days.  There was no game to watch.  He had season tickets for the Browns and this was the day he could see what seats were available, see if any were better than what he already had.  It was 1981 and it was wonderful... just being in his company.

     His smile will never leave my mind, or his laugh, or his sense of humor. 

     My first Browns game was with Larry, my first Indians game was with my family and Larry was there, first Cavs game... Larry, first Notre Dame game... Larry.  And Mount Union... heck I think Larry was the only guy in the stands back in the sixties and seventies that wasn't a student of the college or didn't have a kid playing.  He would tuck that transistor radio under his arm, grab his binoculars, and spend fall Saturdays watching the Purple Raiders while listening to Notre Dame or Ohio State on the radio.

     I remember coming home from college in the mid 80's and sitting with him at the stadium as Mount Union started to win... a lot.  I've often said I am happiest for Larry over the success of the Mount Union football teams of the last decade.  He was there when very few were.  When a team wins, and wins, and wins, it makes up for a lot of losing from your other favorite sports teams.

     Larry once said to me as we sat at "Charades" in the Wyndham Roanoke Airport Hotel near Salem, Virginia, that this is how he would have chosen it.  If one of his favorite teams were to find success, Mount Union College football was the one... because he would be able to experience the enjoyment unlike he would be able to with any other team.

     Mount Union was Larry's team.

     Larry made six trips to Salem, Virginia to watch Mount Union play for a national championship.  And if the team ever goes back, he will make that trip as well... because he will be within me.

     Larry had a wonderful reunion today with his Dad and Mom in Heaven.  I can only imagine how happy he is.  I think he had to go because his Dad couldn't save that seat for him much longer.  The one on the 50-yard line way up in the top row... just where Larry liked to be.

     Larry was a lot to many people.  And no matter how long I live, I will remember how much he meant to me.