By Katie Carns
With $25 you can support cancer research -- and become the owner of a custom-made motorcycle fit for Terrelle Pryor. It would be accurate to say that you’d look like the Buckeyes’ quarterback perched atop the pigskin seat of a bike painted in the with the same paint used the paint Buckeye helmets. Furthermore, you’d own more than just a new ride. The bike is a mobile piece of memorabilia, with a gas tank that sports the signature of Archie Griffin. You may have heard of this two-time Heisman trophy winner and Ohio State alum before. His number 45 adorns the side of the bike while “Block Os” rest on its gas tank near Griffin’s John Hancock.
How could you become the owner of this gem for only $25, you ask? It's simple: buy a raffle ticket. Of course, the more you buy, the better your chances are to win and the more you can do to further cancer research, which is why getting 5 tickets for $100 is your best bet. They will be sold at all Buckeye home games as well as online. You can also snag some at Beckner’s House of Rides, located at 191 Dayton Rd in Newark, where the bike was assembled.
Beckner’s stepped in to complete the bike that James (Jim) Underwood began as a side project in 1996 with the purchase of a Harley-Davidson engine. Underwood was the principle trumpet player for the Columbus Symphony Orchestra from 1988 to 2006. Prior to this he played with several other ensembles, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra, and the United States Marine Band.
One of Underwood’s greatest musical accomplishments came in 2005 when he performed Mahler’s Fifth perfectly. The piece is a daunting one for any trumpet player to perform, but nearly an impossible one for a musician with cancer of the salivary gland. Underwood was diagnosed in 2002, had surgeries the same year and later in 2004 and underwent more than 60 radiation treatments. He was able to continue to play the trumpet after designing a custom mouth piece.
Underwood passed away in 2006, leaving his custom mouth piece and custom motorcycle behind. His wife Marti, to whom he was married for 30 years, wanted to find the way to make the bike mean something for her husband, yet wasn’t sure how to do so until she met Mark Beckner. Beckner agreed to finish work on the bike, then donate it to the organization Ohio Motorcyclists for Children (OMC), an organization whose purpose, according to their website, is “to raise money to support worthy institutions that provide for the medical and emotional welfare of at risk children in Ohio.” Jamie Wilson is the man responsible for finishing Underwood’s bike at Beckner’s House of Rides.
According to Marti’s wishes, all money raised will go to The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center’s-James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. In 2008, the hospital was ranked 19th among America’s best hospitals for cancer care by U.S.News & World Report, and frequently appears in their Top 50 list.
In addition to being sold at Beckner’s House of Rides and Ohio State home games, raffle tickets will be sold online at
http://ohiomcforchildren.org/raffle.html, by check sent to Ohio Motorcyclist for Children, Two Miranova Place Suite 500, Columbus, OH 43215 or by phone at 614-776-2253. Only 1,500 tickets will be sold. The winner will be drawn at the Ohio State - Michigan game on November 27.
For more information, visit OMC’s website listed above or
http://www.facebook.com/LegacyBike.
Click here to read more about Archie Griffin's Tailgating Favorites