CINCINNATI — When the Bearcats take the field in Dallas, they’ll make history as the first Group of Five team to play in the College Football Playoff, a feat former players never could have imagined decades ago.
When Jay Bachman last took the field at Nippert Stadium, the Bearcats were a different team. Chuck Studely was coach, the team had celebrated back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference titles and would soon share their home field with a new AFL expansion team, the Cincinnati Bengals.
That spring, Bachman would be drafted as a Center by the Green Bay Packers, then go on to play five seasons in the NFL, four with the Broncos, but even as his helmets changed, the veteran footballer said in his heart, he’s always been a Bearcat.
Bachman played for the Bearcats from 1963-1966
It’s where he met his wife, where his son and grandson would eventually attend, and where Bachman would continue his sports career after retiring from the NFL.
“It was my favorite job of all time,” he said.
When Bachman returned to the Cincinnati area in the 70s, he found an ad in the Enquirer seeking a color commentator for UC football on WCKY radio. After a short audition, Bachman was in, following his former team across the country for three years.
“That was during the Tony Mason era, and I remember the first game we broadcast was at University of Washington on Puget Sound,” he said.
From the sideline to the press box, and now in the stands, Bachman’s been a witness to decades of UC history and he’s gathered even more stories from fellow players and friends.
Bachman works to create books from photos and stories he’s gathered
Now he’s hoping to distill that experience into a series of scrapbooks, following his family’s football history, with the Bearcats at the center.
“So I thought I would make one book and capture some of the pictures that I had,” Bachman said.
It started as a pandemic side project.
“I realized there were only so many hours of ‘Law and Order’ I could watch,” he said. “I’d get up in the morning and next thing I knew it would be 2:00 and I might be working on some of this stuff at midnight because I’ve got one more page to finish.”
The books start with his team in the 60s, and his tenure as co-captain, then Bachman followed some of the players and the coaches. By a year and a half in, he’d put together five books worth of content and that doesn’t even take into account the most recent season of UC football.
“When I finished the fifth one, I said that’s enough, but then we kept saying 2021’s going to be an unbelievable year,” he said.
Bachman’s sixth book is dedicated solely to the 2021 season following the Bearcats historic run to the College Football Playoff from the very beginning.
“Before the season even starts, the work is happening in the weight room,” Bachman said, describing the first few pages of his book. “The work in here is what beat Notre Dame.”
After that, Bachman followed the season game by game while the pages made themselves. Scores from each win, pictures highlighting the memorable moments, and a few photos of him and his family, enjoying the game together.
“Three generations of Bearcats,” he said.
Bachman said that made watching UC finish as the only undefeated team in college football so much sweeter.
“It’s hard to talk about the changes and going to Nippert Stadium and not get a tear in your eye,” he said.
The Bearcats earned a spot in the CFP after ending an undefeated season by winning the AAC championship
When Bachman’s sophomore team won the Missouri Valley Conference title, it would be the last conference championship for nearly 40 years. It wasn’t until 2002, Bachman said, that the team started to turn around.
“We were a nice but not a great team,” he said. “But if you have the right players at the right time and then it becomes a snowball.”
Over the next 20 years, Bachman said the team kept growing and growing and so did the energy in the stands, culminating in the unforgettable moment when the Bearcats won their second straight American Athletic Conference title, punched their ticket to the CFP and students stormed the field.
“It’s a different environment where you’re getting more and more young people involved in the game,” he said.
Bachman said his days of traveling with the team are mostly over, but his children will be cheering the Bearcats on in Dallas. Meanwhile, Bachman will be home in Cincinnati, preparing the final pages of the book as he watches UC make history at the Cotton Bowl.
