Local man wins electric football crown

Greg Hardmon set up his team for a local game last year.

For Greg Hardmon of Toledo, the Super Bowl is already over.

He recently won the 2008 world championship of electric football at the Miggle Toys Electric Football World Championships and Convention in Livonia, Mich.

Hardmon, a member of the 30-team Great Lakes Electric Football League, defeated Jimbo Dunagan of Chicago, who plays in the Midwest EFL, 7-0, in the title game.

This was Hardmon's first electric football convention and to qualify for the championship game he had to win his division via a round-robin format. He used miniature football figures painted with the logo and colors of the University of Michigan.

First introduced in 1947, Electric Football is widely known for the buzz sound the metal board makes when the electricity is turned on. Seen as a "football/chess-like" competition, the game is generally played by two or more "coaches," utilizing miniature player figures painted in the uniforms of college squads, current NFL franchises, and several historic pro teams no longer in existence.

The line "I sound my barbaric yawp" was penned by what poet: E.E. Cummings, Allen Ginsberg, Walt Whitman, or T.S. Eliot?

Toledoan Chad Justen wasn't sure, so he decided not to risk his winnings on ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He bowed out on that $25,000 question and walked away with $16,000.

Justen, 33, appeared Thursday and yesterday on the game show, which airs at 12:30 p.m. weekdays on WTVG, Channel 13. He and his wife, Adrienne, 32, went to New York City in September for the taping.

Millionaire contestants face questions with escalating difficulty and value. Had Justen guessed incorrectly on the $25,000 question, he would have fallen back to $1,000 in winnings, according to a publicist.

The correct answer: Walt Whitman, from his poem "Song of Myself."

The Toledo Museum of Art has named Rod Bigelow as chief operating officer effective Monday. He succeeds Carol Bintz, who will retire after 17 years at the museum.

Bigelow will oversee finance, human resources, information technology, facilities, maintenance, and protective services. He was at the Art Institute of Seattle since June, 2005, as director of administrative and financial services, and previously worked at the Tacoma Art Museum as chief financial officer.

Bigelow has a masters of business administration degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash.

The free recital by violinist and conductor Dora Mullins tomorrow in the Recital Hall of the University of Toledo's Center for Performing Arts has been canceled due to illness, according to a spokesman at UT.

No new date for her performance has been determined.