Father figure Ginn Sr. builds improbable Ohio pipeline

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- One of the biggest power brokers in college football is noshing on bacon and sausage in a Marriott concierge lounge.

Donte Whitner had Ted Ginn Sr. with him at the NFL combine and became Buffalo's No. 1 draft pick. (Getty Images)

Glamorous, he's not. The head coach of Glenville High School has just driven two hours from inner city Cleveland in the early morning to see his son, Ted Ginn Jr.

He's hungry and tired, but he wants to tell his story while he's here.

"I'm not sure, he looks good," the coach says, mimicking Division I-A coaches he used to beg to recruit his players from his school. "I'm not sure how fast he is, if he can go from sideline to sideline. I'm not sure if he can put his foot in the ground."

"I laugh about it now," Ted Ginn Sr. says, lapsing back into the first person, "because from that day on I said, 'I'm not going to let that happen to my kids again.'"

During the build-up to the hypefest that is Texas-Ohio State, Ginn Sr. is the benevolent puppeteer pulling strings in the background. A staggering 21 players from the 2005 Glenville squad earned scholarships, 15 to I-A programs.

The current Ohio State roster is stocked with seven of his players -- quarterback Troy Smith, receiver Ray Small, defensive end Robert Rose, linebacker Curtis Terry, safety Jamario O'Neal, offensive lineman Bryant Browning and, of course, son Ted Ginn Jr.

No. 1 Ohio State might not be in this position had not Ginn Sr. screamed and Jim Tressel listened. Among the early Glenville products were former Michigan linebacker Pierre Woods and defensive back Donte Whitner.

Woods signed as a free agent with the Patriots in May. Whitner was the No. 1 draft choice (No. 8 overall) of the Buffalo Bills.

"It's about putting a kid in position for life," Ginn Sr. said of his football philanthropy, which is much more than churning out college talent.

"Now I've bit off something bigger than that. I want total control of the kid. I want to be everything ... I've got a factory mentality. I need production.

"Power broker" connotes negative imagery. But what is a power broker? Someone who controls a commodity.

Ginn Sr.'s commodities are high school talent and compassion. Eight years ago, he loaded up his car, took out a second mortgage on his house and started hauling his kids to various college camps around the Midwest. Just so they could be seen.