Krenzel speaks at raccoon dinner

DANVILLE — Over 800 people crammed into the St. Luke Community Center on Monday for a chance to do two rare things — eat raccoon and meet Craig Krenzel.

The dinner, a fundraiser for the Danville Lions Club, draws attention all across the country. This year was the 64th anniversary of the dinner.

“It started out as a joke,” explained Pat Crow, who organizes the dinner along with his wife, Sandy, who is president of the Danville Lions Club.

According to Pat Crow, a few of the Lions Club members were going to have a dinner for the rest of the club at one of the members’ house.

“They didn’t tell them what they were going to have,” said Crow. “When they arrived, it was raccoon. The second year, community members wanted to come.”

Crow said Krenzel drew what he believes is the third-largest crowd the dinner has ever had. Former Gov. James A. Rhodes and Coach Woody Hayes each brought nearly 1,000 guests; Krenzel had 800 in attendance.

“People just loved him, especially the young kids,” said Crow. “They swarmed around him and wanted autographs. They had good questions, too.”

One youngster asked the football star to sign his hat.

“It was pretty cool, he was very tall,” said 8-year-old Justin Thompson of Granville.

Although Thompson doesn’t remember watching Krenzel play, he said he is a very big Buckeyes fan.

After signing autographs — and even sampling some ’coon — the football star spoke to those in attendance.

Krenzel graduated from high school in Michigan, and got his first start as an OSU signal caller in a game against the Michigan Wolverines. Krenzel led the Buckeyes to victory — the first OSU victory in Ann Arbor in 14 years.

He started by saying he was honored to be speaking at the dinner after hearing who the past speakers had been. He then went on to reveal information that isn’t usually heard about the football team.

“One of the questions I always get asked is what it takes to be successful,” said Krenzel. “I say that I was always in the right place at the right time, and got pretty lucky. But there’s a lot to be said about that.”

He said a lot of preparation is required to get one’s self into the right place, at the right time. Hard work and readiness are the keys.

“I knew that I was going to always be prepared if I got my chance to play,” said Krenzel. “Everyone watches the quarterback, and the whole team looks to him to call the plays. There’s no doubt in my mind that we won a national championship because each player on that team was prepared, and had self-motivation.”

Krenzel spoke about how he and his teammates never really thought a lot of how big each of their games were. He said that before the OSU–Michigan game his junior year, he and roommate Ben Hartsock looked out their motel room to see a sea of scarlet and gray lined up to enter the stadium.

“Wow, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me,” Krenzel recalled saying to Hartsock.

Krenzel said playing football was just a normal part of his life at the time, and was something he had done since he was 7 years old.

Krenzel admitted to the audience that he enjoyed the raccoon, then asked where it could be bought.

“You can’t really just go to the store and ask for raccoon, can you?” he asked. “I’m going to look at them completely different next time I see one laying on the side of the road.”

Funds raised at the dinner will help support the Danville community in many ways, including band, vision charts, scholarships, diabetes research and Eagle Scout projects, among others.