Paul M. Banks has an exclusive with Ohio State’s Mark Titus, founder and author of the enormously popular “Club Trillion: Life views from the end of the bench” blog.
For part two of this interview go here
Ohio State walk-on Mark Titus created his own blog, “Club Trillion”, whose name refers to his stats in most games: 1 minute of playing time, and zeroes for every other statistic. His blog, and lack of playing time have garnered lots of national media attention including: ESPN.com’s ‘BS Report’ with Bill Simmons, the New York Times.
Last April, Titus used his blog to formally announce his entrance into the 2009 NBA Draft. Even though his draft stock is about as high as Lehmann Brothers. This specific blog entry was a headline story on Yahoo!’s home page.
PB: So the Ohio State SID tells me she has to arrange more media requests for you than just about any player. What’s been the best part of all the publicity you’ve received?
MT: “I just wanted to tell some stories, having a unique perspective, being on a top 10 basketball team. I never expected it to be as big as it is. That wasn’t the goal, I was trying to have a lot of fun with it all and it’s been pretty fun for me.”
PB: Web 2.0, Facebook where you have about 10,000 fans, Twitter- all this stuff emerging now made it the perfect time for something like this to blow up?
MT: “Everything worked out well for me, the fact that I’m at a school where there’s a huge following all over the world. We got alumni everywhere so that definitely helps, the social media going on helps me, the fact that we have a really good team helps, it’s all been a nice culmination.”
PB: And it’s made you kind of a campus celebrity?
MT: “When I go out in Columbus now, people recognize me and that’s kind of fun for me. Because the first year at Ohio State- I was Greg Oden’s friend, and walking around it was “Whose that guy walking around with Greg Oden?” Now people know my name.”
PB: And it’s changed the national perception of bench-warmers, and computer geeks- two types of people who typically are seated as far away from the “cool table” as possible.
MT: “I never really had that intention, but it has. There’s a lot of people who have fun not playing. I guess that’s been the most rewarding part. There’s high school kids who email me and tell me they don’t play on their high school team. They were discouraged but then they found out about my blog and now they turn it into a fun game and they’re not so discouraged anymore.”
PB: So now you could even say it’s cool to be a benchwarmer and a blogger…maybe?
MT: “Yeah exactly, I had no idea what a blog even was until I started mine. Benchwarming is not necessarily something I loved doing. It’s not like 2 years ago I wanted to be the face of benchwarming or anything. Now that we’re having fun wit it, it’s no so bad.
PB: And you have a book deal in the works?
MT: “I’ve been contacted by a lot of publishers, I need to get a book agent and sort it all out. There’s going to be a book, a fun little thing. I’m going to write about my experiences at Ohio State, the fun things I’ve been able to do, the great players I’ve played with, and more behind the scenes stuff that I haven’t been able to talk about on my blog.”
PB: Future plans after graduation?
MT: “I really don’t know. I’m really opinionated, so maybe a column or something would be cool, but I don’t have my eyes set on anything. Whatever comes up, I’ll try to tackle.”