Game is setting; next is wedding

Those around the couple
didn’t notice the proposal.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

COLUMBUS — For Greg Kirchner, a 2000 Boardman High School graduate, the ideal place to ask his girlfriend to marry him is Ohio Stadium.

Kirchner and his girlfriend, Kristin Takacs, formerly of Cleveland, first met as Ohio State University freshmen in 2000.

They lived across the hall from each other at Scott House during that first year of college and immediately hit it off.

So during halftime of Saturday’s OSU game against Youngstown State University, just as the tuba player dotted the “i” in Script Ohio, Kirchner got down on one knee with an engagement ring in his hand.

Surrounded by strangers, Takacs said “yes” to Kirchner’s marriage proposal.

Caught by surprise

“It took me by surprise,” said Takacs, 24. “I couldn’t believe it. There were so many things going through my mind. We’ll definitely remember this. OSU is a special place for both of us. It’s a story to tell our kids.”

Kirchner, 25, said he and Takacs, who both live in Columbus, had talked of marriage.

Kirchner decided Saturday’s game against YSU — both are die-hard OSU fans and growing up in Boardman, he is also a Penguins fan — was the perfect time to pop the question.

“I thought it was going to be awesome, and it was,” Kirchner said. “I figured it would be cool to propose at the game.”

When Kirchner got down on one knee, he said no one around him and Takacs even noticed his proposal.

“Nobody really paid attention,” he said. “Everyone was in their own world. When I planned it, I envisioned some people would notice.”

The only person who saw the proposal, Kirchner said, was his father, Ron, who was at the game, but wasn’t sitting near the couple. Kirchner said his father, who knew about the proposal, somehow spotted the couple in the stands with a pair of binoculars.

The two are planning a September 2008 wedding.

Kirchner works as an accountant, and Takacs is a dietitian.

skolnick@vindy.com