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SPORTS
Whaley is the subject of a book
COLUMBUS -- Tyler Whaley's life is about to take book form.
Ken Gordon, an 18-year veteran sportswriter who has covered the Ohio State Buckeyes football team the past five years, knows a good story when he sees one. And this story is going to demand a lot more space than a newspaper article allows.
Working with Cardinal Publishing Group of Indianapolis, Gordon is about to fulfill a lifelong dream by authoring his first book.
"They deserve some credit for taking a chance on a first-time author," he said of the publishing company. "They believe in the power of the story."
Ironically, Gordon picked another dreamer as his subject.
"It first occurred to me when I went to Ironton in December for a story I wrote about Tyler for (The Columbus Dispatch)," Gordon said of possibly penning a biography of Whaley, who was a senior fullback for the Buckeyes at the time. "I thought to myself, 'Man, this guy could be a book.'"
Originally, Gordon had planned to write a book about the 2007 OSU football team, with a chapter on each game featuring its major contributors. But, a second consecutive national title game defeat forced Gordon to scrap those plans, along with his ideas of writing any kind of book at all.
However, just like the dreamer he has already begun researching for the book, Gordon couldn't let his goals pass him by.
"I was at home the weekend after they lost and it just kind of came to me, like that inner voice or whatever you call it," he said. "I really wanted to try to write a book, and I knew I would be passionate about writing Tyler's story. That's the only way I was going to tackle such a big project - if I really believed in the subject."
The title of Gordon's book, which he said will definitely be released in paperback by next football season, hopefully by September, is in the publisher's hands; but, he has an idea of what he would like it to be called.
"Right now, the working idea is "Buckeye Dreams: The Tyler "Tank" Whaley Story," he said.
For marketing purposes, Gordon believes the story should include "Buckeye" or "Ohio State" in the title.
Gordon said he has about 10 percent of the manuscript written and is initiating himself to the additional workload of such a large endeavor.
"I have a full-time job, plus a family, so it is quite a challenge," he said. "Needless to say, I'm chaining myself to the computer every night."
Aside from Whaley's amazing ascension from a tiny walk-on lineman to a major contributor at fullback for a college football powerhouse, the book will also cover the various people from Ironton who molded his "never say die" mentality.
"A lot of Tyler's story is about where he's from and the people who have helped him," Gordon said. "There are chapters on the history of Ironton, on the Whaley and Tipton families, his high school career, etc. The characters introduced in those chapters will keep re-appearing throughout the rest of the book."
Gordon also mentioned that several book signings, with Whaley in tow when available, will take place in the Ironton-Portsmouth-Ashland-Huntington areas this fall.
"Tyler is going to try to come with me, so there could be some real excitement, I imagine," he said.
Whaley and Gordon are also looking at donating a portion of the book's proceeds back to the city of Ironton.
"We both feel that the (Ironton) community should benefit from Tyler's story," Gordon said.
