With Ohio State, Ryan Cline's past and present collide
Mike Cline was a two-time captain for Ohio State's men's basketball program, in 1978 and 1979, and with that distinction comes his annual invitation to the program's captain's dinner, a homecoming sort of event for former captains coinciding with a Buckeye home game.
Couple years back, Cline stopped going.
It had gotten awkward, he said, now that his son, Ryan — the little kid he'd brought with him to the event many times — was all grown up and playing for rival Purdue.
Therein lies the collision between the Cline family's generations-long ties to Ohio State and its current loyalties to Purdue, a split that comes to the forefront for Ryan Cline Wednesday night, when the Boilermakers play in Columbus for only the second, but final, time in his college career.
Many players would play the "any other game" card when discussing such a situation. And for Cline, he says, it is any other game when the Buckeyes visit West Lafayette.
"But I feel like it does mean a little more to me going to Ohio State," Cline said, "because I went to so many games there growing up and it's a cool experience going back, and my dad's whole family usually comes.
"It's a pretty cool game for me, I'd say."
Before he stopped attending, Mike Cline would take Ryan to those captain's events in Columbus, in addition to the occasional football game.
They may not have come to college with him, but somewhere in the Cline home in Carmel, there's a photo of Ryan, then probably around 10 years old, in the Buckeye locker room, standing alongside Greg Oden — "I was probably up to his knee," he remembers — and Mike Conley, a vibrant memory for the now 21-year-old.
"When little kids come in our locker room after games, they think it's the coolest thing ever," Cline said. "I welcome them, because when I was young, I thought it was the coolest thing ever, too."
Somewhere in that house, also, hang a couple Ohio State jerseys, one of them being Mike Cline's and the other a more modern version, signed by Oden.
Cline grew up an Ohio State fan, football and basketball, but probably didn't have a lot of choice. He was conditioned as such, born into it, to a family deeply connected to not only the program, but the state.
Mike Cline and his three siblings, including Lisa Cline, one of the top players in Ohio State women's basketball history, were raised in Millersburg, northeast of Columbus, about halfway to Canton.
Mike left Ohio. But though he relocated to Carmel, he's worked for the same Columbus-based company, Worthington Steel, going on 40 years now, since graduation basically.
Mike Cline grew up in Millersburg, where his late father, Herm, started Cline Plumbing and Heating, now run by Mike's brother, Kurt.
Kurt Cline has a suite lined up for Wednesday night in Value City Arena, with two-dozen attendees, Clines or otherwise, expected. Each of Mike Cline's brothers and sisters live in either Millersburg or Columbus. His mother, Jean, 84, planned to come up from Florida for Wednesday's game, but because of weather, she'll visit later in the season, Mike Cline said.
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The collection of Clines will be pulling for Purdue, probably the only school that could come into Columbus and turn those cheers away from the Buckeyes, the team for which Lisa Cline starred for and Mike Cline led in the late '70s, first playing for Hall-of-Famer Fred Taylor, then Eldon Miller his final three seasons.
Mike Cline walked on with the Buckeyes, got hurt, walked on again and became that two-time team captain and key contributor.
A 6-foot-4 guard, he played with Herb Williams and Kelvin Ransey, against Magic Johnson and Kevin McHale, and left the program after a do-over senior year; because of injuries, he was given a redshirt season after he'd already gone through senior ceremonies. Ohio State won 19 games during Cline's second senior season, a year before the arrival of his good friend, Clark Kellogg.
Now, he'll be back in Columbus Wednesday to watch his son play not in St. John Arena as he did, but Value City Arena.
Ryan Cline says it doesn't matter to him that Ohio State didn't recruit him. For one reason, former coach Thad Matta and his staff wound up signing another shooter in his class, Austin Grandstaff, who left the Buckeyes after just 10 games.
Ohio State never so much as called.
"I tell people, 'If they were going to talk to us and not offer us, that probably would have been worse,'" Mike Cline said.
Ohio State passing on recruiting Ryan isn't the reason Mike Cline has been skipping those captains get-togethers. It's simply been about comfort, and with his loyalties split, he's decided to stay away.
In a few weeks, Ryan Cline's Purdue career ends.
"I've thought about going back. Yeah, I probably will," Mike Cline said. "But I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Purdue. I've really come to respect the honesty and the integrity of the Purdue program because of Matt Painter and a lot of the things he does."
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