Fun Times in O-HI-O

We have had a great trip to Cincinnati so far. We arrived at about 4 p.m. on Friday and had practice at Cincinnati’s arena that evening. The team enjoyed a huge family style Italian dinner at Maggiano’s restaurant before heading back to the hotel for the night.
Today, Saturday, we got to have an exciting NFL experience thanks to some Dartmouth connections here in Cincinnati – Dartmouth alumni really are a family, no matter how many years or miles removed from Hanover.

Mike Brown ’57 is the owner and president of the Bengals and his daughter, Katie Brown Blackburn ’86, is the executive vice president of the team. Thanks to their Dartmouth ties and friends in common, we were able to visit the Bengals Paul Brown Stadium. Katie and her daughters, Elizabeth and Caroline, gave us the royal treatment! We got to watch the Bengals do their walkthrough for their game against the Browns tomorrow right on field level. The players got lots of pictures in the stadium and even some with quarterback Carson Palmer, head coach Marvin Lewis and other players.

After watching practice we got a full tour of the stadium, which also houses the team’s training facilities and offices. We went everywhere from the team meeting rooms, to the head coach’s office to the full size basketball court near the locker room, where the team and Elizabeth played a mean game of knock out. Meghan McFee `11 edged Michelle Meyer ’10 for the win!

The whole experience was a thrill for everyone, but especially for Ohio natives and Bengals fans, Michelle and Louise Vanden Bosch ’11.

We’re back at the hotel now for the afternoon and we’ll relax here until film and practice at 5. Then it will be a quiet night in as we prepare mentally and physically to take on the University of Cincinnati tomorrow at 2.

- Dara

Go Big Green and Go Bengals!