Mark Titus has plenty of time to think.
The 21-year-old former Brownsburg Bulldog made the improbable leap from student manager to mens’ basketball player at Ohio State, but has seen just 30 minutes of playing time — in three seasons.
Ohio State junior Mark Titus keeps the bench warm for the Buckeyes.
Years of riding the pine might seem like mind-numbing boredom, but last October, the experience gave Titus and two teammates the life-changing idea to start a blog.
He calls it “Club Trillion.”
“We named ourselves ‘Club Trillion’, because as athletically limited white folk, we found ourselves riding the bench for the Buckeyes,” Titus wrote in his first post. “When the time came for us to get in, there would usually be one minute remaining in the game. So we devised the plan of trying to get ‘the trillion’, which occurs when we play one minute and do absolutely nothing that would appear in the box score, thus making our stat line say one minute played followed by a bunch of zeroes.”
That clever title, combined with humorous and observational blog posts, vaulted Titus to a level of popularity never before seen by a bench-warmer. Since it started in October, “Club Trillion” has attracted nearly 500,000 visitors and gained countless fans, whom Titus refers to as the “Trillion Man March.”
“Club Trillion” recently hit the national stage, when Titus appeared on ESPN.com’s “BS Report” — an online radio show hosted by columnist Bill Simmons. At first, Titus thought his invitation to appear on Simmons’ show was a hoax. After all, this was his literary inspiration, a columnist whom Titus has read since his junior high days. But the request was genuine, and Titus appeared on Simmons’ program on Dec. 16 to discuss “Club Trillion” and his observations as 12th man of the Buckeyes. During the broadcast, Simmons joked that the like-minded Titus might actually be his illegitimate son.
“That’s when I think it started to take off,” Titus said. “He (Simmons) just e-mailed me, apparently one of my readers wrote to him. He’s a really cool guy to talk to, I like his stuff so it was good to get to talk to him.”
Titus updates “Club Trillion” twice a week, or whenever he finds time. When he’s not detailing his teammates’ off-the-court adventures, Titus likes to delve into a variety of topics — anything from how Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner has the greatest stubble-beard in the history of sport, to how the 80s rock band Journey might as well be an amateur Mariachi band without former lead singer Steve Perry.
Speaking of Journey, Titus has a running joke on his blog in which he links to a YouTube video of the band’s “Separate Ways” video when readers least expect it.
“I was trying to think of a running joke I could do,” Titus said. “It had to be subtle and you have to be observant to pick up on it. That Journey video was my favorite one so I try to think of different ways to tie it in. I’m just an Internet junkie.”
Titus’ fans are laughing.
“Club Trillion” t-shirts are a common sight at Ohio State. Titus said home fans excitedly chant his name, while on the road, he gets heckled about his blog posts. While Titus admits he would like to play more, he said “Club Trillion” could be the beginning of a career in writing. He is a marketing major and said he’s always been interested in either writing movie scripts or coming up with creative concepts for advertisements.
“I’ve accepted reality,” Titus said. “A lot of people in my situation kind of get down. But I just saw it as a chance to do something positive.”
Visit “Club Trillion” at http://clubtrillion.blogspot.com/
February 6, 2009 at 1:38 am |
Great story. He might not have seen much on-court time, but a trip to the national championship game and watching the Oden/Conley show had to be fun.
Smart kid with a bright future.