- [Announcer] Production and distribution of City Club forums on Ideastream Public Media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.

(upbeat music) (bell rings) - Hello and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

It's Tuesday, April 11th.

I'm Mike McIntyre, Executive Editor at Ideastream Public Media and moderator for today's conversation, part of the City Club's Local Heroes Series, which spotlights champions here in northeast Ohio whose work changes the way we view ourselves and our community.

We're joined today by a literal champion, Theodore Ginn Sr., Ted Ginn.

He's the Founder and Executive Director of the Ginn Academy, Head Track and Field Coach and Head Football Coach of Ohio's 2022 State Champs, the Glenville High School Tarblooders.

(audience applauding) By the way, he's also a Head Track and Field Coach of the 2022 Champion Glenville Tarblooders and the 2023 Indoor Track Champions, and we just heard from the state champion cheerleaders before this event began.

(audience applauding) Last December, the Tarblooders entered the Ohio Division 4 State Championship game with an already storied legacy.

Under Coach Ginn's leadership, the team has made the playoffs 19 times since 1999.

This time, they soundly beat the Cincinnati Wyoming High School Cowboys 26 to six?

- [Coach Ginn] Six.

- 26 to six, finishing a perfect 15 and 0 season.

The Tarblooders became the first Cleveland Metropolitan School District football team to win a state football championship and rightfully celebrated with an escorted parade and rally at Cleveland's Public Hall later that month.

Ted Ginn Sr. is a man of many titles.

He's the Founder and Executive Director of the Ginn Academy, the first all male public high school in Cleveland.

In January, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission's Annual Award Ceremony.

He's a native Clevelander, a father and a visionary leader in the community.

He's a molder of young men and a man of profound faith, and he can now add state championship winning coach to his long list of much deserved accolades.

This interview, like football, is a team sport.

I'd love to hand the ball off to you in the second half.

So if you have a question for our speaker, you can text it to 3-3-0-5-4-1-5-7-9-4.

Again, that's 3-3-0-5-4-1-5-7-9-4.

You can also Tweet your question @ thecityclub.

It's got the "the" in it, @ thecityclub and the city club staff will try to work it into the second half of the program and within the room, we'll be asking for your questions directly in the second half of our conversation.

Members and Friends of the City Club of Cleveland, please join me in welcoming coach Ted Ginn Sr. (audience applauding) Coach, I want to begin with a victory more important than your state championship and that's your recovery from pancreatic cancer in 2012.

I called you Lazarus when we met recently to talk about this event.

I wonder if you can tell me about that experience, what it taught you about yourself and your faith, how it may have shaped or even reshaped your approach to coaching and helping young men.

- Yes.

First of all, thank you for having me here this afternoon.

Yeah, that situation was pretty, it to me, it was really special.

You know, God will deliver you in situations, but he'll deliver you out of it.

But the purpose of me saying that was the fact that when I had pancreatic cancer, I really found out why I was there.

So when you're the leader of children, people and you're not doing the right thing with it, you know, it's a judgment day for that.

And I felt that God gave me pancreatic cancer to wake me up, you know, to say, "Hey, you understand you are the leader of my children, and you have some people around you that's not for children," but just like me, with my hard headed self, I think I could save everybody.

I could do all of these things, but I put myself at risk, which put my family at risk and he laid me down.

And when I got up, I put my shoes on and I've been running ever since because I know the right thing to do is get the people away from his children and in anything about education, leadership, parenting, anything like that, you know, and it's dealing with children.

It's a serious business.

It's a dangerous business.

And I learned from that, you know, that's the best way I could tell you, you know.

- It's like it's a very small percentage of people that survive that particular kind of cancer.

So it couldn't have been a head cold or something to wake you up?

- Oh no.

- It had to be pancreatic cancer.

- Yeah.

- Tell me about that experience for yourself too and what it did for your own self.

One, it gave you this signal about why you had it and what the message was.

- Yeah.

- But I understand you spent two months in the hospital.

- Absolutely.

You know, it led me into doing what I supposed to do.

You know, you, and that's be a leader of people.

Be a leader of your family and don't play with it.

A lot of times we as leaders, we take time off or, you know, we sometime yourself get in there.

But when you are in the business that I'm in and that's leading people, children, trying to do the right thing, it wakes you up.

And for me, you know, I don't play with it, you know, I know that God is always at the head of my life and I have a purpose.

If you don't have a purpose of why you live, what are you living for?

I just, I'm fortunate to be in a position to do God's work.

'Cause we was all saved to serve anyway, you know, so it just give me opportunity to serve.

- Let me ask you a little bit about your faith, 'cause you've referenced it a couple times already.

You have it boiled down to a catchy rhyming phrase and what is it?

- If God ain't in it, you can't win it.

- If God ain't in it, you can't win it.

(Coach laughing) It would seem an easy message to carry for a parochial school, for example, you're at a public school.

- Yes.

- So how does that faith-filled message play there and how are you able to make that part of what it is you do?

- Well, it's a necessary thing.

I really never, I don't even think about it in that way.

You know, I feel that you have to teach children that their strength don't lie in them, you know, is a higher power.

And so we have our techniques of doing it.

Like we have Fellowship of Christian Athletes, you know, that is part of the program.

Now you don't have to believe in Christ, but if you're gonna be part of this program, you got to come, you know, you serving somebody.

You know, we have all different nationality of people and children that comes to our huddle, you know?

So we find a way to do it and it works.

You can't do nothing without it, you know?

We do F-C-A every week.

- [Mike] F-C-A is?

- Fellowship- - Oh Right.

of Christian Athletes.

If we can't do it in the school, we can do it on the corner.

(audience and Coach laughing) You know what I'm saying?

You know, we gonna get it in, you know?

We do it in the field, you know, we have to do it, you know, because that's where our strength lies.

- You've been a successful track and field coach, a football coach, but you told me you're not a coach, you're a servant.

- Yeah.

- What does that mean?

- That means that I'm being obedient to the light that God left in us to do, which is to serve.

And I have an opportunity to do that.

And I'm being obedient to it, you know.

You can, it's hard to live in the world today if you don't have, be obedient to why Jesus died on the cross and he gave you a gift.

And that's the light.

And that light is to serve.

That's reason I always say we was all saved to serve.

- You won the championships.

It was an emotional moment for you.

But you've said they don't matter.

What do you mean by that?

- That means they got it.

It is just a win, but it's a win for the city.

It's a win for the community.

It's a win for all the people that tried to go before me and they didn't have the expectation to do it or they didn't have the opportunity.

So when you think back years ago, back when I was in school, even, you know, back in the nineties, all the way up to the nineties, the system wasn't set for a inner city school to win this, a title.

When Leonard Jackson made us one league, he gave us the opportunity to participate.

You know, so it's very emotional about that because I think about all the other people that tried it.

That it was never going to happen because of the system, you know?

So they changed the system and today they could take that myth and throw it out the window, you know, so.

- First thing I saw that you said after you won the championship is, "The work is just beginning."

- Yes.

- Boy did you know how to celebrate.

(audience laughing) So let me ask you what you meant by that, because I don't think the work was necessarily football work.

- [Coach Ginn] No.

'Cause I gotta get back to work.

I got 20 seniors that got to go to school and I got to go to work, you know, time, you know, we got a long season and February 2nd is real close.

I still got to get out, beg for some money, you know, beg for scholarships, beg for kids to have opportunity, stay on the kids, you know, we clap our hands now, but we got to go back to work, you know?

So that's what I mean about that, you know.

- You, we talked a little bit before this about the mindset of young people today.

And it's gonna get kind of real here because it's not this happy thing.

I'm this molder of young men, this great coach and everything's gonna be fine.

- [Coach Ginn] Mm-hmm.

- There's some difficulty out in the world today, as you've described it with young people and you have a method of reaching them, but it's not easy.

- No, it's not.

The young people today is exposed to more things than we, people our age have ever seen.

And it's very hard to guide them and teach them be first of all, because all the family are broken.

You know, the tree is broken and the cell phone is raising our children.

You know, social media have taken over everything.

You know, where years ago, you know, home, church, was one and two, you know, social media done rose to the top.

Now, home and church and school, they're at the back of the bus.

You know, and we trying to deal with our children, but the cell phone is killing us, and the mindset of the kids today is real bad.

You know, they're fighting on the cell phone.

And he said, "Why was y'all fighting?

Who was fighting?

Who was fighting last night?"

On the cell phone and then when they see 'em in the street, it's either shoot or fight and we don't know that, and these are the things that's happening to us right in our face, and we don't understand it.

They don't know what they don't know.

Every day at Ginn Academy, we spend more times trying to educate them and I'm not talking about math, science, social studies and english.

It's just awareness, respect, understanding.

They lose hope just like that.

You know, and a lot of times we just riding around, you know, we in danger every day.

I don't care where you at.

You know, look how they stealing the cars and different things like that.

That's fun to them.

It's just no value.

And if we don't set tables, meaning that, in our communities, in our homes, and what I mean by that, but we was raised by the table.

The table was the information center, where you got all your information and you had to repeat that table twice a day.

And who was at the tables?

Mother, your father, grandparent and they give you direction.

Nobody's giving anybody any direction.

Get your McDonald's bag, go to your room, play the game.

Nobody's raising kids.

So Ginn Academy, Glenville Football, Glenville Track is a table.

Those are places where I can give direction every day.

Remind them what life's about.

Teach teaching respect, understand how to navigate through the world.

We just gotta set tables in our city.

- You have a system- (audience applauding) You have a system for coaching sports, you have a system for educating people at Ginn Academy.

You can't have a successful system unless everybody buys into it, and that would be your staff, your coaches, your players, yourself.

How do you create a culture where people buy into what you have been talking about?

- Well, it's the same thing again.

You have to remind the adults, you at Ginn Academy, we a new and innovative school.

We're not dealing with the conventional type setting.

You know, you have to have a relationship with each kid, but the main thing, you got to love them.

And if you don't love them, then this might not be the place for you.

You understand?

Because once again, think about what I told you about being a leader.

See, you a leader of children.

They're in your class.

That's your house.

That's your table.

You understand?

That's God's children.

So when you, that old thing about give me a pass, give me a referral.

We don't have hall walkers.

We walk you to where you need to go.

You understand?

Because everything that it took back years ago and now that stopped production in the school.

We put something there, you know, and I can just give you one example that happened to me last week.

So I'm in the hallway, right?

And well, you know, we have morning session, so I told 300 something kids, I say, "Everything that you are doing today, I don't like."

Now we, I got 300 kids, 350.

I said, "I'm gonna be in the hallway."

That means everything, if you don't have your towel on, you don't have your shirt tucked in, you don't have your belt on.

I'm coming.

(audience laughing) (Coach laughing) Yes sir.

So if you say anything out your mouth, I'm coming.

If you're not doing what the teacher's telling you to do, I'm coming.

So I'm in the hallway.

I had one group of kids, you know, 'cause we have a cohort of kids.

You have a youth support.

So I took a group, I had a ninth grade group, walked 'em to class and man put 'em in the hallway.

So I had this one kid and this is this, it is going to sound, it is dangerous, and this is what people don't really understand.

So I had a kid, every time I see a kid, I said, "Where you going?"

He said, "Well, the teacher gave me a pass."

I said, "We don't have passes at Ginn Academy."

(audience laughing) And this is the truth.

You know what I'm saying?

So now you talk about the buy-in of the teachers.

Just before I came here today, a kid walked out of the class, the teacher right there.

I said, "Where you going?"

"I got a pass."

I said, "Go back and tell the teacher we don't have passes at Ginn Academy."

It's the truth.

You understand?

But some teachers continue to do it their way.

Then when you get that problem, doing it the old way, you understand?

And don't buy into the philosophy here.

Then we back to the regular stuff.

So last week I was in the hallway on second floor.

I got my group in the class and a kid walked up the steps.

I said, "Where you going?"

He said, "I got a pass.

I'm going to see Ms. Jackson to get me a computer."

I said, "Go."

I said, "Who is your youth support?"

He told me what do, I said, "Go back and tell the youth support and tell the teacher, it's no passes at Ginn Academy."

(Mike laughing) Now I'm showing you where the problem come in at.

He wouldn't go back.

He said, straight up, I said "Stop."

He pushed past me, like this.

He said, "Man, I don't know who you are.

I'm going to get my computer."

You understand?

But where did that come from?

From that teacher that gave him the pass.

Because he, I say, he said, "I don't know who you are and I'm going to get my computer, so you can get outta my effing way.

- Um.

- Guess where he at?

(audience laughing) He can't come back to Ginn Academy.

(everyone laughing) But that's because the lack of buy-in from the teacher.

You understand?

And then you just want to write a referral.

We not doing all that.

We not writing referrals, we not suspending people.

We correcting the problem, you understand?

So you suspended for five days, send him home.

Did you correct the problem?

He come right back with it.

See how that don't work?

- [Mike] Hmm.

- That's that old way.

But we at Ginn Academy, new and innovative, doing it different.

(audience and Coach laughing) Or you be laying up under your car.

(audience laughing) - There's one thing I've learned is that there are no passes at Ginn Academy.

(audience laughing) - That's right.

(audience laughing and applauding) You can't walk free here.

(all laughing and applauding) - You're working with, I would say exclusively, but you'll tell me, but young black men.

- Yeah.

- Dealing with all kinds of stuff outside of school.

Racism with concerns about relations with police, with all the things that you mentioned.

And I noticed that Ginn Academy has a Ginn Gallery of Black Male Excellence, something I saw on your website.

Can you tell me a little bit about representation, about seeing what success looks like and not just Marshawn Latimore as a defensive back or Ted Ginn Jr. as a wide receiver and amazing kick returner and all that.

- Yeah.

- But what about representation and how do you enhance that?

- Well, that's what we do every day.

You know, we have a creed that we do all, every day.

You know, recognize your Jesus, realize your self worth.

So we building them every day, you know?

And we have a lot of success.

We have a lot of success that people really don't know because they so focused on football and track and the Marshawns and- - [Mike] Cheerleading.

- Well, cheerleaders, I have a problem with them.

They don't like me.

(audience and Mike laughing) They're my girls though.

(audience and Mike laughing) Yeah, yeah, I love the cheerleaders, but yeah, they a problem too.

I just thought about that.

(audience laughing) My boys can't come around, man.

They be distracting my kids.

(audience laughing) That's reason I have all boys school.

(all laughing) You know?

But, you know, it's so much success.

We have kids that's all over the country and we talk, we teach 'em about being global leaders and we have them.

We got kids at West Point.

I think we have five kids that graduated from West Point with Naval Academy.

We got kids there.

We got kids that's all over the country that people really don't know about, you know.

When I look over there and I see Mordecai, Mordecai really is a good man.

He graduated from Yale.

So y'all need to give him a hand though.

(audience applauding) And just using him as an example, when they told him you shouldn't go to that school.

You shouldn't be around that man.

He don't know nothing.

Ask him.

(audience laughing) - [Mike] Does he know anything?

- He know not to have a pass.

(all laughing and applauding) Yes.

- But you can point to Mordecai and to a number of other people and say, "This is what?

What you can be?"

- That's what you can be.

And I'm,ú let me use Mordecai as an example.

When I was sick- - Should we bring him up here or no?

I'm just kidding.

- Yeah.

When I was sick, Mordecai was in school.

He was at Yale, right?

They had him on this front of the program.

And Mordecai came and I was at home.

I was sick, right?

Mordecai came in, his father said, "You need to talk to Mordecai.

Mordecai wanted to talk to me but he can't understand what's going on."

See, I'm telling you, this is the teaching.

Mordecai said "We was playing Harvard, you know, that's they rivalry.

And the ball fell on the ground and the quarterback jumped back.

(audience laughing) So Mordecai is losing his mind.

He said, "Go in the locker room.

He going, "Let's go man, let's go!"

"We," like this, so I'm sitting there, I'm sick Mordecai's going through all of this, right?

I said, "Mordecai...you're not at Glenville."

(all laughing) I said, "The people at Yale, they there 'cause they going to run the country.

Some of the people that you sitting next to, parents probably the face on money.

(audience laughing) They not there to win the game.

They there to run this country.

So he said, (audience laughing) I said, "You got to get rid of that Glenville rah rah stuff you at Yale."

(all laughing) - Love it.

- That's the truth now.

So those are examples that we do in this Ginn system, you know, so.

- I mentioned your son Ted Ginn Junior.

I think he played 13 plus years in the N-F-L. Was a long shot from the very beginning, right?

- Was a bum.

- They said he was a bust.

- Yeah, he was a bum.

- He was a bum and a bust for 13 years.

- Yes.

- One of the fastest people that's ever played the game.

But I wondered about you, you've coached young people.

Let's keep throwing his name out there, like Mordecai, sorry.

But you coach young people who you're not related to but are so close to, but then you have this son of yours.

What was it like coaching your own kin and how was that any different?

Was it any different?

How did you approach that?

- No, it's probably was a little different.

You know, I'm two different type cultures though.

I'm different than football and I'm different than track.

Now, he liked me in football.

He didn't like me in track.

(audience laughing) Yes sir, he think I'm a crazy man in track (audience and Mike laughing) 'cause I love track, way more than I love football.

- [Mike] Hmm.

- You know?

And people don't know that, you know, but I really didn't coach Ted like that.

I allowed other people, you know?

I just coached him in his mind.

But you know, the only thing that he ever disliked me, well he tells me and my wife now that "I don't know why you made me do all of that."

(audience laughing) You understand?

I say, "But look who, what you turn out to be."

But he still think that I made him do it.

I didn't make Ted do that.

He did it himself.

But it was, it's something that I probably miss.

Is two things that I can't ever forget.

The him, when we first won the state title in track, he was a sophomore.

And just to watch him come out of that hole at Ohio State, I can never fill those gaps.

- Hmm.

- He gonna be in the NFL, he did it all.

But just coming out of Ohio State.

N-F-L. (phish) But Ohio State, that hole will never ever be filled.

- O-H?

- [All Audience] I-O!

- Thank you.

(audience laughing) I'm gonna be taking questions in just a second.

I have one more.

You won a championship.

You got a parade, but I wonder if every young man going off to college is a championship for you.

You talked about how, you had to get back to work 'cause you had 20 kids that you needed to get scholarships for.

- [Coach Ginn] Mm-hmm.

But at Ginn Academy, it's not just the football players.

- No.

- What about that?

Is that the, tell me about the feeling of whether it's college or it's whatever the next step is, but being successful with young men.

- Yeah, well you know, we can go, we can talk about this for a minute, but any kid that come in to Ginn Academy, if I can move him this much, it's successful.

He's successful.

But to see the kids go, you know, we got kids go to college for football, we got kids go to work.

I think we got a little graduation tomorrow.

Right?

With the kids going into the- - [Audience Member] Workforce, yes.

- Workforce, you know, these are the success stories.

These are the championships.

But I get a championship every day though.

You know, to be able to go into school and deal with the kids is a championship.

Anytime you can mentor to children and change their minds.

See mentoring is so strong.

It's so strong that you can have a, change your behavior and change your mindset.

That's the coldest game in the world.

You know, the influence, you know, I listen to people all the time talking about, "I'm a mentor."

I said, "What you do?"

He said, "Well, me and my wife go down here.

We got a kid down on St. Clair.

We take him to get him to the movie and get him a box of popcorn."

I said, "That's all you do."

I said, "You're not mentoring, you just making yourself feel good."

You know, mentoring is every day.

You got to repeat it every day.

Just like that table, your mama, your daddy, you had to sit that bad boy every day.

You couldn't negotiate it.

How was your day?

Did you do your homework?

Did you do your chores?

You got 10 minutes to play and then you come back home, it's time to take your bath and go to bed.

That's over with.

That's the reason the world is so messed up today.

- So when you talk about mentoring, is that, do you believe that's something that we can help solve that problem with if people were doing mentoring the right way?

- Absolutely.

- If everybody kind of pitched in.

- Everybody.

- Everybody.

If everybody do a little, don't nobody have to do a lot.

You know?

And that's what's missing.

We so busy trying to be busy that we losing children, we losing our world, we losing it all.

I'm scared to death.

I don't know who's gonna bring me some water, if I'm sitting in a home somewhere, who's teaching that?

So everybody's really being miseducated, instead of being educated.

The old folks are gone.

- We're about to begin the audience Q and A of this portion of this conversation.

For the live stream audience, I'm Mike McIntyre, Executive Editor of Ideastream Public Media.

We're joined today by Ted Ginn Sr., Founder and Executive Director of the Ginn Academy, Head Football Coach of the Glenville High School Tarblooders.

We welcome questions from everyone, City Club members, guests, students, and those joining via our live stream at cityclub.org.

If you'd like to Tweet a question for Ted Ginn, you can Tweet it @ thecityclub.

You can also text it to 3-3-0-5-4-1-5-7-9-4.

Again 3-3-0-5-4-1-5-7-9-4.

And City Club staff will try to work it into the program.

In the audience though, we'll have some staff members that will guide you.

So folks, there are microphones if you wanna just go ahead and start lining up.

'Cause I know we have about a thousand questions and we'll begin with somebody who I think is gonna start by singing Y-M-C-A.

(audience and Coach) - [Blue Shirt] It's a group song.

Ready Ted?

- Yeah.

(laughing) - Ted, when you're, you know, I hear so much about the kids and you talk about the kids.

I've sat at your table and I heard the table story.

As we're thinking about bringing kids from all these different communities together and you're doing it.

How do you do it successfully, right?

You got kids that weren't friends the day before and they're in the school.

So how do you deal with that?

And what do you do "The Ginn Way" to make sure that those kids become part of the family.

- See, first of all, you have to teach them about being together.

See, everybody don't know.

I got kids from all over the city and some Paynesville, Hudson, everywhere.

They see hope.

If you don't have a philosophy of teaching kids hope and showing them where they can, who they can become, it's no, how you educate 'em.

But the main thing they know that they gonna get loved and that's how you make it happen.

You know, you have to love the children and you got to have a vision for them.

You know?

And the things that I'm sitting here telling you now, nobody's telling the kids anything because we don't have time.

They on the phone.

You got to tell them that's not what it is.

See kids today thinking that it's some white horse, somebody gonna be ride a white horse and come rescue you.

No, it's not happening like that.

So I have to give them an eyesight on what they can be become and they don't even know what they can do.

So you gotta try to give each kid an individual life plan.

That's when you got to know 'em.

You got to touch 'em.

You got to tell 'em every day.

And that's how I keep 'em all together because it's all about hope that they can be somebody and they could be something.

See, because they're not coming to Ginn Academy 'cause C-M-S-D, they coming there for the philosophy of Ginn Academy because why?

The neighborhoods are broken.

Nobody is staying around here.

Nobody's playing basketball, nobody's out in the park.

Nobody is doing anything.

So their community is the school.

That's the table and we teach 'em.

- [Yellow Jacket] With love.

Thanks David.

- With love.

That's it.

- Thank you for the question.

- I'll be remiss if y'all don't have my teachers stand up.

All of you, would y'all please?

- Let's have the teachers from Ginn Academy please.

- The Ginn, no, my teachers.

- Oh, sorry.

Your teachers.

Let's have Ted teachers stand.

- 1974.

- Okay.

- Come on Mr. And Mr. Benedicts.

- Didn't realize they were here.

I'm sorry.

(audience and Mike clapping) - Hey, and the baby.

Look it, baby, stand up.

(audience laughing) Now we dedicated our yearbook to him (audience laughing) and show 'em the yearbook.

There it is.

I would've never got out of school without the Benedicts.

(audience clapping) - Yes.

- We've got a question here, I believe from someone- - Oh Lord.

How y'all let them get to the mic?

- [Audience Member 2] We're not as fast.

- You poked the bear.

- [Audience Member 3] Would you ever make a girls' school?

- Absolutely.

Would you tell these people around here?

See, they own me all the time because it's not fair to them.

And that's a serious question, you know, and I'm working at that all the time because they need just as much as the young men need, you know?

And - (audience applauding) (audience laughing) What else you want me to say?

They bother me, don't they?

They laughing, but they be out on the field, you know, I'm so proud of them and the coaches.

They be out on the field with us, like football players.

They train and that's when they the state champions.

First time ever.

(audience applauding) - Yes ma'am.

- [Audience Member 4] Ted and I were together at Glenville High School and oh, were those the days of my life being with him.

Do you need tutors at the academy?

- Every day.

- [Audience Member 4] All right.

- We need somebody.

- Okay.

I shall- - You know, and just your presence, you know, the kids need it.

- Right.

- [Coach Ginn] They need to see people walking through every day.

- Right.

- [Coach Ginn] You know, because they don't know.

- Right.

- [Coach Ginn] You know, but that's another one of my babies right there.

(audience laughing) - We, during the pandemic, you know, I missed a lot of being with you, but now I'll try to come back.

- [Coach Ginn] Okay.

At my old age.

- Oh.

Nah.

That's my baby.

(audience and Coach applauding) - Yes sir.

- Coach got a question for you.

Now that there's N-I-L in college, I'm kind of curious to know if that has affected your ability to coach and somehow, you know, affect the young men that you deal with.

- N-I-L, name, image, likeness.

It's the- - I just assumed everyone knew that.

- [Mike] Yeah.

I'm the acronym fighter.

- Got it.

(audience laughing) - And it is essentially people being able to make some money while being college students off of their name, their image, or their likeness, Coach?

- Well, I'm so glad you asked that question.

(audience laughing) What it did, it enhanced my business for children.

So right now I'm battling and I'm just telling you the truth with Ohio State, I got a kid that's going there.

Arville Reese.

Now you gotta understand, these are children that come from broken homes, different things like that.

Got a story.

And they're paying these kids before they even leave high school.

You understand?

So all it done for me is just up my negotiations.

So just like you recruiting my kids, I'm recruiting you to pay my kids.

You understand?

And we talking real money.

So I'm kind of mad at Ohio State because they got Arville for cheap or nothing.

Where some of the other kids that's coming into their program, they're paying them and we talking about, so they wanna give him 30, I'll tell you they wanna give him 35,000 a year.

No, you giving some people a hundred, fifty, two hundred, three hundred.

So in their mind they wanted that we Ohio State, that's where they losing a lot of recruits because they wanna come off their standard.

You understand?

So I got five guys or four guys this year, these national guys and the people are calling all over this country to Glenville, at Ginn Academy want to come in and represent the kids in the N-I-L.

They coming from New York, New Jersey.

See, it's about bad as an agent now, and that's the way it is.

But you gotta be knowledgeable with it as a high school coach.

So if your level is a five star, four star, there's certain money you're supposed to get.

But they won't tell you.

But they giving it to the other people, they gonna have to give it to mine too.

So wake up O-H-I-O.

(audience laughing and applauding) Yeah.

- Let me ask you further on that Coach, that, you know, this is a relatively new development.

- Mm-hmm.

- Your job before was just get 'em a scholarship- - Mm-hmm.

- Get them an education.

- Yeah.

Educate 'em.

- Now you're, like an agent.

- I'm an agent.

- You're an agent.

- [Coach Ginn] Absolutely.

I represent them.

- Is that for one thing, it's good that young men are getting paid.

- Mm-hmm.

- And not just the university.

That's one argument.

The other, there's the sort of purest argument that this is kind of, that would adulterate it.

- Yeah.

- That the idea that it's who gets more money?

Where do you come down in that?

Good that they're getting paid?

And what about your role in that?

- Well now, that's a little, I want the money for the children, but it is, the whole thing really bothers me because they not mature enough to understand it.

So I just think they should put it in escrow or some kind of fund or something to make 'em earn it.

- [Mike] Mm-hmm.

- You understand?

And then give it to 'em when they mature, but they, it is wide open.

So that's just my feeling about it.

I wouldn't have never give it to 'em because, you know, you won't be able to coach him.

But unfortunately we got, they gonna have to give him some money.

But see, I'm gonna give you a perfect example.

Last night, Michigan called.

I said, "What about the bag?"

(audience laughing) That's the money.

(Coach laughing) - [Mike] The bag.

- I'm giving you the- - [Mike] No, I got you.

- I'm straight, like you straighten them other lines out.

I'm gonna give you some hood talk.

- [Mike] Okay.

(laughing) (all laughing) Yes sir, so.

I'm just telling you man, you know, it's a great opportunity for the children and they, and you're not gonna get my kids for cheap.

I'm just telling you man.

You know, because they need the money.

And so I'm the representative.

- [Mike] And you say you're gonna need a bigger bag.

- Bigger bag.

- Gotcha.

(all laughing) - [Blue And Red Hat] I'm sorry.

- Yes ma'am.

- Proud of you coach.

I was, I'm class of 69 from the Ville and I actually coached track at Schuler.

- [Coach Ginn] Okay.

- And I kinda knew you like track because you had those football players, you know, they had to train year round and- - [Coach Ginn] That's right.

Your son came on the bus and said, ladies, y'all got a good coach.

She went to Glenville.

- [Coach Ginn] That's right.

- But I would let folks know that Superman was a tarblooder too y'all, okay?

- [Coach Ginn] That's right.

- So the man from the Y, we need a Y in Glenville, Euclid, somewhere over there on the Collinwood, that side of town.

You know, if you can maybe work with him, bring that one up for us.

- [Coach Ginn] Yeah, absolutely.

- Okay.

- [Mike] Great.

Thank you for that tight five, it was good.

(Audience and Coach laughing) - Mordecai's here, everybody.

Ladies, gentlemen, let's go.

(all applauding) - Well, I feel like I was spoken of, so I figured I'd ask a question and, you know, Ginn's gonna give you the heartwarming story of how he like got me together when I came home from school.

But he's not gonna tell you about the time he turned my helmet around 'cause I didn't get in the end zone during the playoffs.

Ginn, you've heard this before.

You are truly, you're one of my heroes for real.

- [Coach Ginn] Right.

- And I honestly believe that I came back to Cleveland to continue on your legacy.

I feel like you inspired me to come back to Glenville.

I started a business in Glenville, well technically two businesses in Glenville.

And I just wanted to ask you just for everybody's edification, what is your dream for the future of Glenville?

You've invested so much in this neighborhood and I just wanted you to share.

- [Coach Ginn] Yeah.

- What do you dream about?

- [Coach Ginn] Well- - What's the future look like?

- I want Glenville to look like Glenville used to look.

- [Audience Member 5] Yes.

- [Mordecai] Mm-hmm.

- You know what I'm saying?

(audience applauding) You know, and you know, I'm still here, you know, I'm not going to go anywhere.

You know, just like people really don't know how it used to look.

You know, we would, I mean, you could get everything you wanted in Glenville, the Go Coast.

- [Mordecai] Yeah.

- Hundred and five.

You understand?

A lot of people that's older here, probably know how it used to look.

Why not now?

You understand?

You know, and we always talk about investing, you know, they have invested money everywhere in Cleveland except Glenville.

You can't trick me with it 'cause I've been here for 50.

You understand?

So, oh, we really invested in Glenville.

No, you on the edge of over there by Cleveland Clinic.

You ain't in the heart.

You ain't coming down St. Clair.

You not coming down Eddie road.

You not coming down right there in the heart of Glenville.

That's something that I don't understand.

You know, so you can't tell me, "Well we getting to it."

Well you've been getting to it for a long time.

You understand?

We could change what we want to change.

But don't forget Glenville is the coldest suburb (laughing) in the city of Cleveland.

I know, and I'm still here and I'm still coming.

- [Mordecai] That's right.

- That's it.

(audience applauding) - Young man.

- My question is a simple question.

I wanted to know, how do it feel knowing that you made history by being the only C-M-S-D school to ever win the state championship?

- Uh, it feel (audience laughing) I mean I'm just honest.

I'm happy, I'm happy for the city, I'm happy for the community.

I'm happy for the children, I'm happy for the people to try before me.

But I think what I struggle with is how much investment did the people do to earn that, for the kids to do that?

It was a lot of work, a lot of sitting down making them believe.

We spent 90% of our time in the last six weeks of the state going into the state fight was in the classroom, mentally not on the field.

Just making them believe that they can achieve.

You know, we have F-C-A meeting, we spent more time doing that to win the state title.

But the thing that really gets me, is everybody can see all the success, all the championships, all the win.

But you going to invest anything into the children, into the community?

Show me that.

- [Audience Member 6] Right.

- That's what bothers me.

I beg for tracks and stadiums all over the city.

We was running on cinders.

Everybody got new stadiums, but Glenville.

We running on cement right now.

Would y'all want me not to tell you?

They say, oh happy.

Give me the key to the city.

- [Mike] Get a parade.

- I can't open up nothing with it.

(audience laughing and applauding) - [Audience Member 6] He tell the truth.

- You shouldn't have had me up here, Mike.

(all laughing) - Guess what?

The cheerleaders are back.

- Oh Lord!

Oh my God!

What Now.

- Coach Ginn, how do us cheerleaders and other female athletes get recognized and respected like the males do?

Like when they play football and basketball?

How do we get recognized?

- I think that we, that's on us, for real.

We need, just like y'all won the state.

Y'all the first ever team in the history of Cleveland Public Schools to win a state title.

I mean a state title in cheerleading.

That's huge.

(all applauding) - [Audience Member 7] So coach, just- - I'm gonna pay you when I get my check.

(audience laughing) I'm sorry man.

Hey man, I'm trying to pay my bill, man.

I'm scared what he gonna say to at the mic.

- No, no, no.

- [Coach Ginn] Alright, go ahead.

- No, Mordecai started out with a really great statement and question about, you know, would you've of like to see Glenville be, but I know that you have a very comprehensive plan that is a vision, that is a part of your legacy that I think is important that this room hears about that.

And then the other thing I, other statement I wanna make is, that I've watched you and you kind of said it just now, about the work that you've done on a shoestring budget.

We've watched Coach literally change kids lives, but we've also watched you really struggle to raise money and for people to invest.

So I would just say this is more of a statement to everybody in the room.

If you have the opportunity, not only does he needs mentorship, but mentorship to doing the work that he does costs money and he struggles every time he's doing something with these kids to raise money.

So that's a responsibility I think that we all have as well to help him spread his vision and to make sure his legacy stands strong.

So again, talk about that plan.

- Oh man, you put me on the spot.

Well, we kinda, y'all kind of talked about it with the why, but my whole plan and I carried around with me for almost 25 years, maybe longer than that.

I got where I wanted a school, an indoor facility, a church, all that on the land, a incubator where the kids can come and see who they can become every day.

And I've been had this for 25 years and walking with it, going different places, talking to people, you know, and that's probably what would let me going up there with that man and knock on the pearly gate, say, "I'm here."

If I can get that, that's huge.

Because you can teach, it's an inner city boarding school.

And why inner city boarding school?

Because that's the only way you can change the behavior and the understanding for children, you know, and just build that community right there.

You got a church, you got indoors, you got dorms, you got all that.

We got all this land in the city.

Nobody, why Cleveland don't have a stadium.

Big as Cleveland is, we don't have it.

But can you imagine kids coming to school and you got Key Bank, you got Chase, you got this company, that company.

And he said, "Look, look, we educating the kids, they can see it.

It's 'cause you got to show 'em.

You got to show 'em, you can't just talk about it.

They got to see it.

And that's my dream, you know, I done tried everything man.

I done went over to Job Corp, they got all those dorms.

I said, "Man, let me get out some of these man."

I done did it all, man.

But that's the only way that you can bring people from all over the country and all over the city to be educated.

And that's what it is, you know.

- Got a few minutes left.

Another question.

Yes, sir.

- Hi Coach Ginn.

First, just to start, thank you for being here today.

We very much appreciate you taking your time to talk with us today.

So thank you very much.

My question is, can you elaborate on what are the problems facing young men today in America and how has that changed and if it's changed in the age of social media?

- Yeah, well it's not just the young men, it's everybody.

It's the young ladies, see everybody because the social media and the cell phone have taken the place of parenting.

You know, no matter where you stay, who you are, wherever you at, those kids are exposed to things that we weren't able to do we was children.

Then the mindset of what it, and COVID really hurt us, real bad.

We haven't recovered from that yet.

When those kids was outta school all that time, we still fighting to try to get 'em back.

You know what I'm saying?

So it it kinda, all this stuff kind of coming together, where the people that's making the policies and procedures for children and education stuff, like, they don't know what they doing.

I'm just telling you because they don't know the mindset of the kids.

The kids lose hope like this because they are believing in, you know, it's not like when Mr. and Mrs. Benedict was at the board teaching.

I'm at the, I'm on the phone.

(audience laughing) They googling what they trying to teach you on the board.

"Well that ain't right 'cause it said right here."

(audience laughing) That is the problem.

They don't have any fear of death.

They don't have any fear of not being successful because of what they seeing in social media.

You understand?

And that's everybody.

You know, we got to back this thing up and start all over again.

But don't nobody want to work.

Don't nobody want to be go outside and build a house when you not all this stuff.

You gonna have to be building houses in factories and then snapping together and going out there.

'Cause don't nobody want to get on the ground.

Don't nobody want to do nothing.

We are miseducating our youth and our people.

Period.

(audience applauding) - I wanna say thanks to you Ted Gin Sr. for joining us today.

- Mm-hmm.

- And also I think we've all learned, as I said earlier, that there are no passes at Glenville High School.

- Absolutely.

- At Gin Academy.

- You better know it.

- Today's forum was part of the City Club's Local Heroes Series in partnership with Citizens Bank and Dominion Energy.

City Club is grateful for your continued support.

We'd also like to welcome guests at the tables hosted by Beyond Breakthrough, Citizens, Glenville High School, Third Space Action Lab, Urban League of Greater Cleveland, the Y-M-C-A of Greater Cleveland, thank you all for being here today.

On Friday, Author and C-N-B-C contributor, Rebecca Fanon, will be here for a discussion about the Midwest's new tech centered focus on manufacturing and what it means for Northeast Ohio.

And on Wednesday, April 19th at seven o'clock in the evening, Cleveland's Mayor, Justin Bibb, will deliver the 2023 State of the City Address at East Tech High School.

For information on these forums and more, visit City Club.org.

And that brings us to the end of today's forum.

Thank you once again to Coach Ginn.

Thank you members and friends of the City Club.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

The forum is now adjourned.

(bell rings) (audience applauding) - For information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of the city club, go to city club.org.

(Ideastream fanfare playing) - Production and distribution of City Club forums on Ideastream Public Media are made possible by P-N-C and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.