As part of the festivities prior to the 7 p.m. kickoff between the Bombers and Elks, Centerville mayor Brooks Compton is set to present Herbstreit with a proclamation of the honor as well as a coin commemorating the event.
The school also plans to show a brief video of highlights from Herbstreit’s playing days as well as his broadcast career after the playing of the National Anthem.
Herbstreit was a star quarterback at Centerville in the mid-1980s before playing at Ohio State, where he was the captain of the 1992 squad as a fifth-year senior.
Aside from hosting a radio show in Columbus, Herbstreit joined the ESPN College GameDay pregame show in 1996, a role that eventually shot him to stardom in the college football world.
He became ESPN’s lead game analyst in 2006, and two years ago added full-time NFL game analyst to his resume when he joined the new team on Amazon Prime video calling games with Al Michaels.
In 2021, Herbstreit published a book titled, “Out of the Pocket: Football, Fatherhood and College GameDay Saturdays,” detailing a childhood that began in Trotwood and also included stops in Franklin, Mason and Wyoming before he settled in Centerville in junior high.
In the book, he credited his mother with deciding he should be an Elk to play for legendary coach Bob Gregg, who by that time had already turned CHS into one of the top programs in Southwest Ohio.
“She looked into Kettering Fairmont as well as Centerville High,” he wrote. “She talked to a few of the football moms at Centerville, and they complained about how tough Gregg was on his players. The more they complained, the more my mom became convinced that Centerville High was the right place for me.”
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