I know what you’re thinking… well, I actually don’t. You might be thinking this is a post about Syracuse and Louisville going to the ACC, or playing sports against each other. You might think this is a post about Rick Pitino and his ties to central New York. It’s neither of those; it’s a tale about my very short trip to Louisville and how it has a central New York connection; stay tuned.

I’m presently working out of town; that’s an understatement. I’m in the south, which is sort of freaky and yet I’ve gotten used to where I am. Because I’m down this way I decided to take an overnight trip to visit my friend Ted, who I went to Liverpool High School with, in Louisville. That’s us in the picture standing in front of Churchill Downs, where they run the Kentucky Derby. Since I’m not a horse guy this is as close as I got to going inside.

I hadn’t seen Ted in 16 years, since he came to my wedding. I hadn’t visited him in Louisville in 18 years, when my girlfriend at the time and I drove over from Cincinnati for a quick visit. What’s great is that he and his wife look the exact same, at least in my eyes, and that when we started talking it was like it was back more than 30 years ago; that’s so cool and what true friendship is all about.

On Saturday he took me around the city to see a few sites. I got to meet his son at his home but we went to the University of Louisville so I could meet his daughter. He showed me where they play both football and basketball and I booed both times; gotta keep it real right? Luckily, Ted is still an Orange fan, so even when they play each other his loyalties are in the right place.

We went downtown and walked around with his wife looking for a place to eat dinner before I went back to their place, packed my stuff up and came home. We ended up in an Irish restaurant called Sully’s because they had shepherd’s pie; does anyone know where I can get that here? Anyway it was a very good meal, and as we left Ted wanted to take a look inside a place he thought he might have been before.

We did that, and just as we were walking out this young woman kind of squealed and said “You went to Oswego State?” It might be hard to see in the picture but I was wearing my Oswego State alumni shirt; almost wore my Syracuse shirt but I decided I didn’t want to get into that with anyone, especially after we beat them in football last year but they won the basketball national championship.

We started talking and I learned her name was Cathleen, and she was in Louisville on a fluke because she’s working on a travel guide on Louisville while living in Washington D.C. That became a topic of conversation because I fly back and forth through D.C. and Ted lived in D.C. for 5 years before moving to Louisville. She was telling me how great it was running into someone else who went to college in Oswego and how she’s hoping to come back in October for Alumni weekend, which I may miss since I’ll probably still be out of town consulting then. We exchanged information and I’ll be reaching out to her and making sure we connect on social media.

This type of thing proves that the world is indeed getting smaller, that people have pride in where they went to school (for the most part; high school seems to be a much different animal sometimes), and how we always seem to be happy when we can identify with someone in a “strange” area who has a history like ours. I had the same reaction many years ago when I ran into an Oswego State alumnus in the airport in Detroit.

Where’s the furthest place you’ve ever run into someone who was connected with central New York, and was it as pleasant of an experience as mine was?