It's all about heart: Ex-OSU athlete addresses all-stars

BELLVILLE – True to his school, former Ohio State receiver Roy Hall asked his audience to keep Michigan's football team in its prayers.

Wait. What?

As he began his address at the 39th News Journal All-Star Basketball Classic banquet at Der Dutchman Restaurant on Tuesday night, Hall informed everyone of breaking news on one of his phone apps: The Wolverines were immobilized at the airport by a power outage as coach Jim Harbaugh treated them with a trip to Phoenix to watch the Final Four.

"The entire team is stuck on the escalators," Hall said, as laughter filled the room.  "Whenever they get word, they can walk down the stairs and they'll be OK."

Yep, true to his school.

"You guys are all seniors getting ready to go to college," Hall told the 24 players competing in Wednesday's Classic at Lexington High School. "You know what they call a nice-looking woman on campus at the University of Michigan? A visitor."

He asked if anyone knew how to make Michigan cookies. You put the ingredients in a bowl "and beat them for three hours."

After his 28-minute address, Hall received a standing ovation. Not because he yukked it up at Michigan's expense. No, because his impassioned message about giving back — or what legendary OSU coach Woody Hayes called "paying forward" — was truly worthy of the ovation he could have used when he was earning straight As in a less than ideal home life.

His father, a heroin addict, was rarely around. And when he was, he abused Hall's mother.

"I get it. We cheer for the Buckeyes," said Hall, a motivational speaker and team chaplain for OSU coach Urban Meyer as well as president and co-founder of the community outreach Driven Foundation (staydriven.org).  "But when's the last time you cheered for the first- or second-grader who didn't have a dad or mom in the home?

"I know guys with $50 million in the bank and they have no clue what they want to do. Miserable. How is that possible? They forget who invested in them, and they forget who's dependent on them.

"They forget that you can be a 45-year-old male with a son playing ball, and maybe you cheer him, but you can be a 45-year-old male who walks into a kindergarten class with a box of donuts and be the biggest, baddest person they've ever met.

"Your identity can't be tied to athletics. People need to recognize you for your heart — the thing you can't see."

Hall made an immediate connection with the all-stars. Before he became a Buckeye, before he played four years in the NFL, he was first-team All-Ohio in football and basketball for Brush High School near Cleveland. His message was directed at them, and their parents, and the other VIPs in the room.

In addition to offering hope and guidance, especially to school-age kids in the inner city and suburbs, his foundation has distributed over 500,000 pounds of free food to some 5,000 families in central Ohio since 2008.

"The truth is, the majority of you will leave here and say, 'Wow, he talked real loud, and his voice echoed off the walls. Great. But tomorrow I've got to go to work. So what,'" Hall said.

"Shame on you. I want everybody in this room to look in the mirror and figure out how you can be an all-star in the lives of other people ... without a basketball."

His mom's name tattooed on his wrist, Hall remembers how she invested in him, wearing the same boots for seven years so she could provide what she could for her family.

He remembers how the school custodian invested in him, talking to him like a person instead of a star athlete.

He remembers how Miss Harris, the "school cafeteria lady," invested in him, giving him french fries, knowing he might be going home to an empty fridge.

He remembers how his high school Spanish teacher pushed him, invested in him, by giving him the C that kept him from having a 4.0 all the way through school.

"When I was being recruited by The Ohio State University, coach (Jim) Tressel wanted to talk to people who knew me best," Hall said. "He didn't talk to my head coach or any assistants. As fate would have it, he talked to the school custodian, he talked to Miss Harris, he talked to (the Spanish teacher) because he wanted to know why I got a C when I had As in everything else. He was checking my character, checking my heart.

"All of them said the same thing: You wouldn't even know he played ball. He made his life about other people and makes everyone around him better.

"Even though there are challenging times, people are watching what you do for other people. You want to get ahead in life? You boost some other people ahead of you."

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