Ted Ginn Sr.: Having the Courage to be Different

(CBS) Time for a break from all the bad economic news. Instead … The Good News, stories to be thankful for, featuring an American who made his community better against the odds. Correspondent Armen Keteyian takes us to Ohio:

November 30, 2008



Ted Ginn Sr. just might be the most unlikely head of a high school in the country.

A local football coach, he never went to college and doesn't have any teaching or administrative credentials. Yet the school he conceived and runs, the Ginn Academy, is one of the most successful public schools in Cleveland.

"I did so many things different," Ginn said. "I did what other people didn't do. You know what I'm saying?"

"They're going right …" Keteyian said.

"And I'm going left. Because if you're going right and it's not working, you gotta do something different."

So the boys-only Ginn Academy targets at-risk teens, because Ginn says he knows how to reach them.

"You have to teach a kid to dream and not just to dream, you can dream big."

But there's a lot of people that talk about dreams. There are very few who create their own academy with 200 at-risk boys walking the halls, going to class.

How was he able to convince people that his way was the right way?

"I'm not talking about it. I'm being about it. I'm doing it everyday."

He says he needs sweatpants and a whistle, because he runs his school - now in its second year - the way he runs his football teams.

For example, the kids wear uniforms - red coats, with different kinds of ties for different grades.

"You know, when you step on the field you dress, you got a uniform," Ginn said. "And I got the red jackets because you have to be tough to wear a red jacket everyday. They gonna laugh at you. But if you believe in why you wearing that jacket, you know, whatever they say don't matter, you know?

"You gotta have courage to be different."

The students agreed. "When you dress up in the morning, you have a different look, you have a different walk in your step," one boy said.

"It makes us feel better inside like we get more pride," another said.

But Ginn says, a big part of standing out is standing together as so-called Ginn men, living the words recited at the beginning and end of every day:

"We will stay patient, poised, and seize every opportunity for success."

"That's not language you hear a lot in the inner city, Ted," Keteyian said.

"That's right."

Ted Ginn Sr. has been changing the language of the inner city for nearly 30 years, as a coach at nearby Glenville High School.

A machinist by trade, Ginn was working as a school security guard and volunteer assistant coach at Glenville for 10 years when the head coach job opened up.

Without a college degree, Ginn didn't meet the requirements for the job. But he believed he could make a difference and he wouldn't stop until everyone else did, too. He got the job and soon was winning one state title after another.

His "sons," as he calls them, went on to receive more than a million dollars in college scholarships. Among them: Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith, and Ginn's actual son, Ted Ginn Jr, a rising star with the Miami Dolphins.

And that led Ginn Sr to lobby the city board of education with an idea that, at first, sounded outrageous: To start an academy. And how did he get from football coach to head of school?

"Dr. Sanders," Ginn laughed.

"He has the unique capacity to be a teacher, a leader of men and women, and I felt very strongly that he just possessed this wonderful talent to work with young people," said Eugene Sanders, CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

"I think there are a lot of correlations between what we learn as an athlete to life and particularly to school. And I think the results speak for themselves," Sanders said.

Indeed, they do. While about 69% of 10th graders in Cleveland's public high schools are on or above grade level on standardized reading tests, the red coats average nearly 82%.

What does that mean to Ginn?

"That means everything, because that's what it is - that's what you are gauged by. You're going to be judged by the tests," he said. "They want to compete, you know? They don't wanna be shamed."

The Academy's first class will graduate next year. Ginn sees every student as a representative of himself and his academy - and that means sending each one to college and into the world as a man … a Ginn man.

"I wanna be the best, the greatest," he said. "We got the greatest kids in the world. We're not even near where we need to be, you know? The best."

The Ginn Academy Creed

Our mission is to become exemplary students who will reach our full potential and beyond.

We will recognize our genius and realize our self-worth.

We will stay patient and poised to seize every opportunity for success.

We are guided by scholarship, leadership and service to all mankind.

The Ginn Academy will cultivate us to become global leaders of the century.

Phil Dawson: Kudos to the Cleveland Browns' Kicker

By Nate Powers

November 27, 2008

Phil Dawson is the full package when it comes to not just kickers, but professionals too. He has been an ultimate professional since arriving with the 1999 expansion Browns.

His on-the-field record makes him perhaps the greatest kicker in team history, and his approach makes anyone want to imitate him as a professional and a man.

Since becoming a pro in 1999, his field-goal percentage is 83.6 percent, which ranks him first on the Browns all time and fourth all-time in NFL history.

He made his 200th kick earlier this year (He now has 206), and he is the only player in Browns history to make a 50-yard field goal in three consecutive games.

He is the only player to score 100 points in four consecutive seasons, and with 96 points this year, he seems to be on his way to five. He is ranked third all-time in points on the team with 872.

With his field goal at the end of the Monday Night game at Buffalo, he recorded his 11th career game winner. Romeo Crennel didn't even flinch when he sent Dawson out to kick.

The low point in his career came two years ago, when he missed a 26-yard kick in a home game against the Jets, and boos echoed through the stadium.

What nobody knows is that he spent the entire night at the Cleveland Clinic, to be with his daughter who was being treated for a staph infection she didn't have.

This happened after his daughter stopped breathing at home and she was rushed to the hospital. His daughter was born that summer.

The missed field goal followed and so did the news that the staph infection was wrongly diagnosed, and her blood sample was misplaced. She returned home after three days and is as healthy as his other two children.

After the season, a rumor spread that the Browns were interested in Olindo Mare, even though Dawson was more productive in cold weather.

Believed to be on a short leash, Dawson delivered with one of his best seasons if not his best. He won a game in Baltimore and with the help of "the Dawson bar," and also setting a career high in points with 120 (second best in team history).

Who can forget kicking the 49-yard field goal against Buffalo, which also hit the Dawson bar. The kick might have been the most amazing play since the Browns' return in 1999.

As the years go on, Dawson gets better, and he gets more chances at longer field goals. In his first three years in the league he didn't try a field goal longer than 50 yards. Since 2002, he has tried 14 and has made 10.

Dawson was an undrafted free agent from Texas, where he made 9-of-15 from 50 yards or longer. Dawson's offseason lasts two weeks, and then he's back on the weights preparing for the next season.

When Dawson was signed in 1999, he almost went unnoticed since the Browns had signed so many players that year because of their return.

He credits his standard of work ethic off of his father, and his mentor, former Browns punter Chris Gardocki.

After 10 years Dawson has established himself as one of the best kickers in Browns history, if not the best.

Dawson has always shown respect for the great ones that came before him whether it be from the Browns, or the Longhorns, Even his high school where another Browns kicker, Matt Stover went to school.

The Browns kicker has never sold himself short, he leaves it all out on the field.

Browns fans should be happy with the kicker they have, because people like Phil Dawson don't come around too often.

Giants' Johnson leads team in tackles against Redskins

December 1, 2008