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Craig Hockenberry: Commencement Address MSJU
The College of Mount St. Joesph
Saturday, May 11th 2013
Revised 4-05-13
Thank you President Aretz (Carrots), Members of the Board of trustees, Fellow Alumni, Faculty & staff parents, and graduates.
Thank you. I’m incredibly honored to be with you today at your commencement at one of the most incredible small colleges in the country.
The truth be told, I barely made it to this great college.
Actually, it is by CHANCE that I’m here with you today.
Growing-up in a small rural farming community in Northeastern, Ohio I had no clue what the requirements were to get into college and frankly by the time I had figured them out it was too late.
I was 46th out of 52 in my class ranking.
I finished High School with a 1.9 GPA
I scored a 9 on my ACT and I did not even show-up for my SAT.
I applied to 6 small colleges in Ohio and rightfully so I was rejected by all of them.
All of my friends were getting letters of acceptance to various colleges and universities across the state, but for me it was time to start facing the brutal facts. It was May and there was most likely not a single college that was going to take a chance on me. My transcript was a disaster and academic portfolio was dismal at best.
It was almost certain that I was headed to Colfor Manufacturing where 690 of the 1,000 people from my home town are employed.
Colfor is where they make bicycle shafts and ball hitches.
24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year.
Everyone that leaves the factory is covered in sweat and filth and heads straight for the local beer joint.
A cycle I wanted no part of, but without a college education that was clearly the path I would have to follow.
I can still hear the sounds of the machinery inside the plant as giant machines slammed and into metal to forge the steel.
As the final days of my high school years began to come to an end I remember, sitting in class finishing an Apple II E computer class and being called to the Principal’s office.
When I arrived I was greeted by a man dressed in a suit and tie and wearing the largest ring I had ever seen. After a very close look I noticed that it was a Rose Bowl ring.
He had my attention.
The moment he spoke I could tell there something special about him.
He introduced himself as Coach John Pont who had just been hired by the College of Mount St. Joseph to start the first ever football program.
He grew up in Canton, Ohio (which was less than 15 minutes from where I lived) He played high school football in region. He and I spoke the same language. I could relate to every word that came out of his mouth.
Coach Pont was a legendary Coach. He played and Coach at Miami and was part of the cradle of coaches. He coach at Yale, Northwestern and he coached Indiana to the first and only Rose Bowl.
He told me I had a chance to part of something special. To play on the first ever football program at the College.
He told me The Mount was the perfect place for a small town boy like me. He said I would get a chance to do four things:
(1) I would get a chance at a great education
(2) I would get a chance to play four years of College football
(3) I would get a chance at good career doing something I loved
(4) I would have chance find the woman of dreams.
I was all ears.
We spend about an hour together where he invited me to The College Get Acquainted Day (GAD).
The event was held every year to get incoming freshman acquainted to the college and the campus.
Since he did not ask I did not tell him how horrible my grades were, but I was sure it would not take him long to find out.
When he left I borrowed my friend’s car and the following weekend I drove to Cincinnati (242 miles away from Malvern, Ohio)
I had cardboard duct tapped to my driver side window.
The car had no muffler and the floor boards were gone on the passenger side so every time I hit a puddle of water it would splash throughout the car.
I was so excited I left on Thursday afternoon and the Get Acquainted Day did not even start until Friday Afternoon. I had no clue how long it took to get to Cincinnati, but I was taking no chances. I was going to be the FIRST person there…
The moment I left it began to rain and did not stop one time. It was a cold rain and I was soaked.
I pulled into the Mount late Thursday night. I parked in the first spot in the front of the college. I had no money. I knew nobody and I was cold, wet, and tired. This was the first time I had ever been away from home.
The next morning I was woken-up by a security person it seemed by chance I had pulled into the presidents parking spot.
As I moved the car I noticed that the entire right side of my face was swollen and my tooth hurt so bad I could barley talk. My throat was sore and I felt as I was getting a fever.
I tried to keep it together and took a stroll around the campus where by chance I ran into Coach Pont.
My shirt was wrinkled and still wet from the drive, hair was a mess (it was not short like it is today so you can only imagine what it looked like), and the entire right side of my face was swollen. I had a difficult time speaking.
Coach Pont was probably thinking…What on God’ Green Earth was I thinking…
However, within a few minutes Coach Pont actually took me to a dentist and they performed an emergency tooth extraction.
When I got back to the college the event began and I ran into a lot of people just like me; they were from small towns across Ohio. They talked liked me, acted like me, and some of them even had stories like mine.
The College staff took us all over the campus and showed us everything we needed to know. Everything was so small and easy. It was perfect for me. It reminded me of my hometown.
I knew I could do it if someone would give me a chance.
Sunday arrived way too quick and I had to start packing-up to leave.
I knew I had no chance of getting into the college based on the requirements and I remember thinking how disappointed Coach Pont would be when he found out how poorly I had done in High School.
I was the last one to leave and I drove all through the night to get back home.
I finished out the last few weeks of my senior year.
I came home one day and found a letter of rejection from The Mount. I was disappointed, but not shocked after all I did NOT meet a single requirement.
However there was a little hand written note that said please call Coach Pont with a number attached.
I immediately called and he said although I was rejected he had worked something out with admissions and that they would give me a chance for the first quarter, but if I failed I would be dismissed.
That is all I needed to hear….. Someone was going to take a chance on me...
When I hung the phone-up with Coach Pont I immediately made history at the College…. I got a Mount St. Joseph Mount Lion Tattooed on my right leg.
That made me the first person in the history of the college to ever tattoo the mascot on their body.
You have to remember 25 years ago Tattoos were not as popular as they are today. Everyone pointed and people talked about it often.
It became a great conversation piece.
25 years later the tattoo is faded, but serves to me as a reminder about how I totally committed myself to something…
It also served another person which I will touch on later…..
How could a quit college and fail and explain this tattoo on my leg to everyone back home not to mention how would I be able to look at it for the rest of my life?
As you all leave the Mount and start your careers I would like to give you your first piece of advice from a small town boy with a toothache and a tattoo…
Take chances, give someone else a chance, and then commit yourself to something you believe in...
I see so many young folks today coming into the work force smart and prepared, but NOT committed to what they are doing.
I find it difficult for people to have an impact when they do not commit themselves to something they believe in…
My years at the Mount were great.
I got all the attention I needed with academics and each year my grades got better and better
I got all the structure I needed with Football. We had study tables, coached checked in on me all the time, teammates would work together making sure we got to class and practices kept me so busy it was impossible for me to fail.
We won our first ever game in a heroic win against Rose Hulman only to get destroyed by Georgetown, KY the very next week 77-0.
I remember the first few seasons there were people on the football team that never even played High School football.
The beatings were brutal. I remember Coach Pont and Coach Huber telling us after every game this would not always be the case. It was hard to hear, but I listen
I played all four years. I never played on a winning season, but never felt more like a winner in my life. I started all four years.
I met great friends and I was getting a great education.
I was living off campus with 5 other football players and everyday was a good day.
Then I got a phone call at 2:13am on Saturday, November 5th, 1993.
It was my father. Who told me that I need to get home right away that my mother had suffered a brain aneurysm and that she was not going to make it.
It was my senior year and we were scheduled to play Thomas Moore in Bridge Bowl IV.
I drove home faster than I ever drove in a car in my life. There were no cell phones and no way to communicate so it was a miserable drive…
When I got there my mother was attached to tubes and a breathing machine.
Brain dead.
She was 40 years old.
It was my 21st birthday.
I remember when we took her off the machine and she stopped breathing I had said to myself that I was never going back to Cincinnati.
A few days later I buried my mother in a small Catholic cemetery in Malvern, Ohio.
I remember the day.
The Church was PACKED every seat was filled there was standing room only.
When I looked around I saw every person I ever knew from my childhood. I remember thinking how easy it would be to just throw in the towel and stay home.
And then during the funeral something amazing happen that changed my life forever…
In walked rows and rows of folks from The Mount Coaches, players, friends, teachers, department chairs and Sister Elizabeth Cashmen
I’m not sure what her title was at the college, but I always assumed it was something important.
She always seemed to follow me around on campus and was at every event I ever attended at the College.
It was by chance that later I came to find out Sister Elizabeth Cashman was a Principal herself in Maryland before coming to the Mount.
She had flown into my hometown with Coach Huber on a tiny airplane.
They landed in a cornfield just west of the tiny Church and arrived just moments before the funeral began.
When she arrived she asked our priest if she could speak at the funeral.
She yielded to the person who read the eulogy and stepped to the altar.
The church was silent.
When she spoke I hung onto every word she said.
I remember her giving such classy remarks on behalf of the College. She thanked the people of the town, gave condolences on behalf of the college to my family, and thanked all my hometown friends for looking out after me during these terrible times…
And then she looked me straight in my eyes in front of my entire town and told everyone that it was her expectation and the expectations of then President Thrailkhill that I would return to the Mount and complete my degree and become my mother’s legacy to the world.
I still hear those words every day.
She was very deliberate in her message she knew the entire town was there and that they would hold me accountable.
She was right.
There was NOT a safe place in the entire town that I escape “the speech” about me return to college. The barber, the banker, the butcher, the local police officer, the volunteer fireman, and even my buddies at Colfor
I did indeed returned to the Mount completed my degree in Education.
My last year was tough I took o 20 credit hours and completed my degree and within a few months I landed my first job in education as a teacher at Roosevelt School in Cincinnati Public.
Later, Roosevelt would shut down and I would eventually be promoted to Asst. Principal at Oyler School in Lower Price Hill and then ultimately to Principal.
Now my second piece of advice to all of you…
As you leave here today you begin down a path to carry out our dreams sometimes you may lose track of those dreams because of a difficult time or a hardship that you encounter.
Find it inside yourself to overcome.
I read a quote once from William Ward.
Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.
I hope that each and every one of you despite many highs and lows find it in your heart to break records. The College and all of our alumni are counting on you.
You will all be up against great competition as thousands of graduates from around the region will enter the market.
Outwork them.
Get your job, stay committed, do good for yourself, celebrate, give back.
So circling back to what coach Pont had promised me four things would happen;
I would get a good education CHECK √
I would get to play four years of College Football CHECK √
I would get a good job CHECK √
But, what about meeting the woman of my dreams? I went through 5 years of College and was living in a major city in Ohio and I could not find the woman of my dreams…??
I had been to every bar on the west side of town, every college dance, Reds Games, Bengals Games, and she was nowhere to be found.
Well, Thank GOD That the Art Department took classes near the education department.
There she was all along just steps from where I lived. It was by chance that we passed each other in the hallway I stopped and turned around and caught her checking out my tattoo.
CHECK the Woman of my Dreams √
We married and now have three children Vivian, Gino, and Rocco I live 4 miles from the college.
I have traveled all over the world and I’m enjoying a lot of success in a very difficult and challenging career as an inner city school principal.
I thank this great college each and every day for taking a chance on me, developing my skills, protecting and encouraging me.
By Craig Hockenberry
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