Far below the Chicago Skyline sits a ballpark and neighborhood like no other…where Ernie, Billy, Fergy, and yes, Butkus and Gale played.  Welcome to Wrigleyville.

Chicago, IL – Past the home of the Chicago White Sox, then north on Lakeshore Drive past skyscrapers, Soldier Field and the Navy Pier.

Anticipation accompanies every mile.

Greeted by calming views of Lake Michigan and joggers, walkers and dogs along paths beside the lake. All of it belies the busyness of big-city life.

Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.

Parking under the tracks of the “L” train. Strolling three blocks through a neighborhood of row houses until I see a narrow view across Waveland Avenue of Wrigley Field.

This is definitely not Columbus, nor does it resemble a college football venue I’ve ever seen. Shoot, I’d never seen anything quite like this place. It was my first visit to Wrigleyville.

I soaked it in. My iPhone camera clicked away. From Waveland Avenue I walked counter-clockwise around Chicago’s greatest landmark onto Addison Street. It’s 8:30 a.m. and I am in search of coffee and donuts. There has to be a great donut place in Wrigleyville, right?

I discover Do-Rite Donuts (and chicken). Decisions to make. But the line is long and I have time.

Resisting the original chicken crispy sandwich is futile (and it’s better than any chicken sandwich I’ve ever eaten). Choosing which donut always feels like a defining moment you can’t afford to blow. I go for chocolate with chocolate icing. This donut has a wide crispy edge that is heavenly – one of the great donut experiences of my life.

I turned up Sheffield Avenue beyond the right-field bleachers. Four, maybe five, charter buses have just delivered the Buckeyes to the friendly confines. At this moment I realize I’ve seen a lot more people dressed in scarlet than I have in purple. The Wrigley vibe is decidedly Ohio State.

Head Buckeye Ryan Day noticed it, too.

“We kind of felt it as the buses were going around the stadium and you’re driving through Wrigleyville, and we just see all this red and scarlet and people fired up early,” he said.

Inside, as the stands fill, they resemble the red maps of election night. There’s a small swath of purple behind each end zone. That’s it. Wrigley Field is 90% red.

The press box view is off the corner of the end zone behind where home plate normally sits. But it’s closer to the field than normal, especially at Ohio Stadium where you’re closer to the Goodyear Blimp than you are to the field.

Seeing the Wrigley Rooftops in left and right fields is plain cool. I remember the day Reds pitcher Tom Browning went out there to visit with the fans and got in trouble. The fans that day were dressed in Cubs blue. Today they are mostly red.

Before the game the scoreboard video shows Cubs highlights alternating with Northwestern football highlights. All the stadium workers are dressed in their Cubs uniforms. You can’t forget who the full-time tenant is.

Wrigley opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Whales of the Federal League. The Cubs first played here in 1916 and debuted with a 7-6 win over the Reds in 11 innings. It was called Cubs Park from 1920-26. Because of the Wrigley Company’s ownership of the ballclub, the name changed permanently in 1927.

Where Ernie played…because of his commitment to the city of Chicago hall of famer Ernie Banks earned the nickname ‘Mr. Cub”.

Baseball reminders show up in obvious and unexpected ways. The Buckeyes’ entrance to the field is slow. They don’t have a big tunnel to sprint out of. They move slowly in single file up the dugout steps like their boarding a bus. They congregate on the sideline at the 40-yard line, sprint about 30 yards behind the O-H-I-O flags, but there’s no manufacturing a great entrance.

Throughout the day I thought of all the greats who represented the Windy City on the plain below. Ernie Banks. Hack Wilson. Ron Santo. Fergie Jenkins. Ryne Sandberg. Dick Butkus. George Halas. Gale Sayers. Sid Luckman.

The Ohio State football players understood the significance of the place they had just played winning football in, handling the hometown team 31-7. They were at Wrigley because Northwestern is building a new stadium that will be shinier than Wrigley but won’t shine brighter.

“The 8-year-old kid in me would be giddy,” Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard says. “I was a baseball kid. This place is one of the most historic places in baseball and in sports. And being able to be out here and play a game on it was awesome.”

Yet, as great as the day was for me and the others who had the privilege to report on the game, the fans and the team, this should be forever remembered as the Carnell Tate game. None of us feel his joy.

Ferocious linebacker Dick Butkus embodied the Bears’ nickname ‘Monsters of The Midway’.

Tate came home with the heaviest of hearts and caught two touchdown passes. His mother should have been among the 30 to 40 family members and friends who were in stands. But Ashley Griggs was killed by a drive-by shooter during the summer of 2023 in Chicago.

Tate didn’t have to consent to a postgame interview. Everyone would have understood if he hadn’t. He hid his emotions as he answered questions with short, honest answers. But he didn’t go deep. Not with so many people around. How could he after such a traumatic injury to his very being.

“We say it all the time that the game doesn’t care about what you’ve been through,” Day said. “But we do, his teammates, do, his coaches do, the people who know Carnell care a lot about him.

“Just the way that he’s handled himself is just an example to everybody. To see him catch two touchdown passes in his hometown in front of a lot of people here watching him, I know it means a lot to him, but also means a lot to us. We’re really happy for him today.”

No other good feeling derived from the day even compared.

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