: Best Way To Honor Chris Hoch? His Work - Bethune-Cookman University Athletics

Chris Hoch really liked my idea. You could tell. The smile on his face was saying "We're going to tear this up," and that his creative mechanism was already in process.

That's the thing, He could always take my idea and make it look better.

You might remember Men's basketball had a player -- Ricky Johnson -- who not only was from Akron, but also the same high school as LeBron James. Ricky's time at BCU coincided with LeBron's with the Miami Heat, and Ricky's homecoming game at Akron was at the same time LeBron was making his return to Cleveland.

Hmm. A kid from Akron going back home after four years in Florida to Northeast Ohio to play in his hometown. That's a good storyline. Dang right we ran with it.

So I tweaked LeBron's homecoming speech. Ricky obliged by swishing a no-look over-shoulder shot on only the fourth take. Chris took the visuals and music presentation to the Nth degree. It generated pre-Ridder era record social media numbers and got play in Ohio. Heck, we even had an unconfirmed report that LeBron liked it.

Here's the video:

Cool stuff, huh? Here's another one....

Men's basketball had this player named Mario Moody who could jump out of the gym. Dunked with ferocity. SportsCenter stuff every night. Gosh knows, we tried.

Well, we found out about something called the Dark Horse Dunker contest. It was a virtual dunk off with the winner invited to compete Final Four weekend. We found out late. The contest gave us 72 hours to get in an entry.

Chris had it ready in 48.

The contest folks lost their mind. Mario's video was one of 16 selected nation-wide. He was matched against some guy from Northern Iowa and for two days, actually led the voting. Chris had a lot to do with it. It's like HE was in the competition, not Mario.

Then Northern Iowa made a late twitter plea to its fan base. Chris and I made a desperate last stand as well, but we knew what would happen. Fifty-one percent to 49.

Being respectful, I tweeted the Northern Iowa player and wished him well. He responded. "Your guy had a great video."

Here it is.

Cool stuff, huh? Good. Here's another one.

We needed some filler for the basketball Coach's show. I really wanted to try having the players reenact Allen Iverson's famed "Practice" rant. We were already doing video head shots, how difficult could it be?

Much more than we thought. Three players, at least three anyway, would go "Man, what am I supposed to say?" Chris and I just looked at each other without having to say "How can they forget 'practice'?" We got it done, anyway. It turned out really good.

Here's the video.

Cool stuff, huh? I have a lot more stories,and even more impressive videos that Chris produced. You know, all the years he produced the basketball coach's show, I never saw either team miss a shot. He made us look really good -- the teams you saw on that show could beat Duke by 40. [That one's for Amanda Hoch, a Die-Hard UNC fan].

The sad thing is there won't be any more new stuff.

Our friend and colleague Chris Hoch collapsed and died earlier this month. Aneurysm. Instantaneous.

He was 44. He left behind a young family. He also left behind a collection of colleagues and quasi family who took a gut punch but somehow got through a homecoming football game.

Blessed am I to have colleagues who take my stuff and make it better. Nolan and his broadcasting. Jasmine and her graphics. Bruce and Darian with their video production. Bryan getting checks through accounts payable and keeping this thing going.

I've misfired on 50 or so attempts to crank out another Radio Mike [Johnson] like tribute. My words fail me. Maybe because the situation hits too close to home. Maybe because I know Darian and Bruce and Bryan delivered great tributes and I'd like you to see them as well. Please click on those links.

Or maybe the simple truth is that best tribute to Chris Hoch's legacy is to showcase the work of Chris Hoch. Remaining appreciate of what we all did together and finding a way to continue the work without him.

Dang it, he did it again. Making my idea better. Now I have that smile on my face ... and a lump in my throat.

Thank you, Chris Hoch.

Here's one more….

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@DaytonaDan: Best Way To Honor Chris Hoch? His Work
October 14, 2018

@DaytonaDan: Best Way To Honor Chris Hoch? His Work October 14, 2018

@DaytonaDan: Best Way To Honor Chris Hoch? His Work
October 14, 2018