CURBSTONE COACHES Mansfield academic advisor for OSU football

The former teacher, administrator and official is close friends with Jim Tressel.
BOARDMAN -- When Bob Mansfield retired from the Youngstown City Schools after 25 years as a teacher and administrator, he didn't think he'd tutor students again.
Mansfield is not tutoring high school or elementary school students these days, but he does spend at least three-to-four days a week tutoring college students, specifically, college football players at The Ohio State University.
Mansfield, a 1964 graduate of Ursuline High and a 1969 graduate of Youngstown State, spoke at the noontime luncheon of the Curbstone Coaches Monday.
Over the years, while he officiated high school, college and professional basketball, he became close friends with former YSU coach Jim Tressel.
"I retired from the Youngstown Schools in 1995 and about that same time I went through a kidney transplant," Mansfield said. "I had been recuperating a while when seven years ago Tressel came up to me one day and told me I was too valuable to just be sitting around."
Added to YSU staff
Tressel added Mansfield to the school's Athletic Academic Advisory counsel and he worked with advisor Marilyn O'Bruba.
When Tressel moved to Ohio State, Mansfield wasn't far behind.
"He called one day last summer and said he needed me down there," Mansfield said. "So Ken Conatser and I went down to work with the Buckeyes."
Conatser was also invited to speak at Monday's Curbstone luncheon, but was unavailable.
"Kenny had to stay down at Ohio State, this is finals week there and one of us need to stay there," Mansfield added.
"Ohio State is such a big place and so much is going on all the time, I just think that Tressel wanted somebody there that he knew in the program. Someone who would tell him just what was going on.
Working with freshmen
"Kenny and I are working mainly with the freshmen class in Columbus," he said. "We have 25 players in for study table every day. The freshmen are required to spend 71/2 hours a week at the study table and there are immediate consequences if you don't follow the rules.
"We have to monitor their class attendance, one thing Jim told us was to make sure they attended classes every day," he continued.
"We've had 98 percent class attendance over the past two quarters and last quarter we had 47 players with a grade point average of 3.0 or better. The entire team has a grade point average of 2.79."
Mansfield talked about the Academic Progress Ratings that were released, showing Ohio State was well below the average.
Ratings misleading
"The APR ratings takes in every player who has entered the program and lasts until they graduate," he said. "We had 14 [football] players drafted last year, 11 of those would be still in the program and they were counted against our point total. Had they not been, we would have been well over the average.
"We meet with the academic advisor people every day and we meet with coach Tressel every day," Mansfield said. "Accountability is what coach Tressel is all about.
Mansfield displayed a remarkable recovery from his kidney ailment. He said it was a matter of attitude.
"They told me it would take 1-to-5 years for me to get back to normal activity. I was on the treadmill in three weeks," he said.
Kehres up next
The Curbstoners will not meet next week because of Easter, but will return March 28 when Mount Union College football coach Larry Kehres will be the guest speaker.
The group will also hold its high school basketball recognition banquet April 11 at the Mt. Carmel Hall at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are available by calling Sam Rogers at (330) 707-0234.
The Curbstone Hall of Fame banquet will be held May 1 at Mr. Anthony's and tickets for that event can be obtained from Paul Good at (330) 549-3412.