OSU's foreign alumni plan to follow game

Ohio State will have a big following overseas for the national-championship game against Miami.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Andreas Ttafounas wasn't a football fan upon arriving at Ohio State in September 1997. Four years in Buckeye country changed that.
"When I first got to the states I didn't know anything about football," said Ttafounas, a native of Cyprus. "After watching a couple of games with my American friends and learning the rules and everything, I became a huge football fan. I try to watch all OSU games."
So do a lot of other people who live overseas.
From North America to Europe to the Middle East, Ohio State alumni are making plans to follow the Buckeyes in college football's national championship game on Jan. 3 against Miami.
Satellite television
Ttafounas and three other OSU graduates will watch the Fiesta Bowl on satellite television from Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean Sea about 7,200 miles from the site of the game -- Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
Ttafounas doesn't expect any other Cyprus residents to be watching. The Fiesta Bowl starts at 8 p.m. in Ohio -- 3 a.m. in Cyprus.
"Unfortunately people here are not familiar with football," Ttafounas, a 2001 OSU graduate, told The Associated Press in an e-mail.
With a countless number of former Buckeyes living abroad, Ohio State officials aren't surprised that the foreign alumni are planning to watch the Fiesta Bowl.
"If you live in the outback of Uganda, you might not know we're playing for the national championship," said Ron Hopper, senior vice president for the Ohio State Alumni Association. "But where there's regular news and access to the Internet, why wouldn't they be interested in it?"
Chartered clubs
Ohio State has about 200 chartered alumni clubs, about 60 alumni societies and about 122,000 members paying dues to its alumni association, Hopper said.
Kathy Bickel, vice president of alumni outreach at OSU, said Buckeyes fans who plan to be overseas during the Fiesta Bowl have called and e-mailed foreign alumni groups, looking for a place to watch the game.
In Saudi Arabia they could join Ziad Katabi, a 1987 graduate who said he watches the Buckeyes whenever they're on satellite TV.
"I tried to get tickets to watch the game in Tempe, but could not succeed," he said.
Some alumni who don't have the chance to see the Fiesta Bowl on TV have come up with other ways to follow the Buckeyes.
Internet
Jan Schmidt-Krayer, president of the 40-member OSU Alumni Club of Germany, will have to rely on the Internet for game updates because there are no stations in Europe planning to televise the Fiesta Bowl, he said.
He speculates few Germans -- except for 100 or so who also are Ohio State graduates -- are interested in the game.
"Without any TV coverage, it's tough to follow," he said.
In Israel, 2001 graduate Devra Stark will have to wait until after sundown on Jan. 4 to get the score of the game on the Internet. She won't be watching the Fiesta Bowl on TV or following it online because the game falls during the Jewish Sabbath.
"It's the sacrifice of being a Buckeye fan and a dedicated Jew," said Stark, who got married at the Ohio State Hillel House.
In Toronto
The Fiesta Bowl will be the second event for the newly formed alumni group in Toronto, where about 15 to 20 people will watch the game at the Sports Centre Cafe downtown, said organizer Maggie Hermant.
Because the Toronto Maple Leafs play the New Jersey Devils at the same time, Hermant had to reserve a big screen television in advance to guarantee the Fiesta Bowl will be shown at the bar. The reservation was free, she said.
"To try to convince people to watch football with you in Toronto isn't easy because it's a hockey town," said Hermant, a 1987 OSU graduate.