NOTE: If you've already read this story, and many of you have, you can skip to the bottom for the cool update. If you're here for the first time, hopefully you enjoy the story from start to finish.
ALTOONA, Pa. -- I won't lie, I felt silly on the drive over. Because, c'mon, there's no way this was going to be true.
Then I saw it.
Holy s***, I thought to myself.
Ummm ... could this actually be possible?
There it was. The Ohio license plate, on the car parked in the driveway.
In Boalsburg.
At the address where Urban Meyer had been rumored to have purchased a house, so that he could become Penn State's next football coach.
I've told this story a couple of times on my radio show over the years, but this is the first time I've ever written about it.
Ten years ago, late in the 2011 season, there was a lot of speculation that Meyer could be in line to succeed Joe Paterno. Meyer was working for ESPN at the time, and Paterno was nearing the end of his tenure.
I'm not getting into details of the scandal here. That's not the purpose of this story.
The juicy rumor that Meyer was buying a house in Boalsburg had been around a few days. So, while in State College for a press conference when I was working for the Altoona Mirror, I told colleague Neil Rudel that I would drive up separately that day. We usually made the 45-minute drive together and talked about all sorts of things Penn State related, but on this day I needed to stick around longer.
I wanted to drive over to Boalsburg and visit the house myself. Because that's what reporters do. We go knock on doors when we have to in order to find or confirm news.
As far as I know, I'm the only reporter who actually visited the house. No one else has ever written anything about going there. The really interesting thing is that somehow the internet sleuths at the time had actually narrowed it down to the exact address, so anyone could have found the house with ease. I don't know, maybe others did.
Boalsburg is 6 miles from Beaver Stadium, about an 8-minute drive. Again, during that 8 minutes, deep down inside I felt like this would be a waste of time.
But as I pulled up to the house, with a For Sale sign in the yard, there was the car in the driveaway. With the Ohio license plate.
I got out of my SUV, walked behind the car to make sure it was an Ohio plate and walked to the front door. Rang the bell. Waited about 5 seconds.
Then the woman answered. A bit older, maybe in her late 50s or early 60s with gray hair. I knew for sure it definitely was not Shelley Meyer, Urban's wife, who was much younger. She didn't look old enough to be Shelley's mom.
"Sorry to bother you," I said.
That's sort of my go-to line when approaching awkward interviews, to at least try and put the person at ease.
"I'm a Penn State football reporter for the Altoona Mirror," I continued. "I know this may sound strange, but there are rumors that Urban Meyer is buying this house."
She didn't look at me like I was crazy. I do recall that. You know, like, if you did that to most people they would respond, "What? I don't know what you're talking about."
This woman just kind of looked at me for a second or two and didn't say anything.
"Do you know who Urban Meyer is?" I followed up asking.
"Yes, I know," the lady said. "But this isn't his house."
"Oh, OK," I said, before attempting one last grasp to find information.
"I'm sure you know how big that would be if Urban Meyer is moving here," I said.
"Oh yes," she said. "But this isn't his house."
And that was it. I had to believe her, even if I still have my doubts to this day about whether she was somehow hiding something. The fact that she wasn't surprised at all that a reporter showed up asking about Urban Meyer still seems fishy to me.
I walked away as she closed the door. She may have thought I was some kind of wacko, but she was polite during our roughly 45-second encounter. And I felt I had at least tried.
Was all of this stuff about the house in Boalsburg just an urban legend? Probably so. In large part because I think that if something like that had indeed happened, or was about to happen, then word about it would have gotten out somehow and confirmed all these years later.
Now, I have heard from a few people over the years who insist this story was true, or at least partially true, and that Meyer was indeed looking to buy a house in Boalsburg. Also, that Meyer was indeed interested in becoming Penn State's next coach.
I honestly have no idea if any of that is true. If it was true, hopefully someone can come up with those juicy details at some point in the future.
All I know is that when I saw the Ohio license plate, for a few minutes I believed that it actually was a possibility.
If that woman who answered the door is out there somewhere and happens upon this story, I want to say I am sorry for bothering you, and thank you for being so polite.
Oh, and I hope you were telling me the truth. Because a part of me has always wondered if you truly knew more than you let on.
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UPDATE: Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to finally have some closure on this story, which turned out to be even better than I could have imagined.
This house I visited 10 years ago, Urban Meyer did NOT buy it.
Bill O'Brien did.
The same house, believe it or not. What an incredible coincidence!
Here's the rest of the story, which I was able to piece together with some help over the past two days since the column was first published.
A friend and colleague who has covered Penn State football for many years contacted me Tuesday afternoon and told me he knew who the woman was who answered the door. She's not a relative, but is a family friend whom everyone views as a grandmother figure.
She's from Ohio, and it was her car in the driveway. She was housesitting for the owner. She didn't want her name used to protect privacy, so I'm respecting that.
She said "of course" she remembers me knocking on the door 10 years ago, and that she did know who Urban Meyer was, being from Ohio.
"No one else came," she said of any other curious reporters or fans.
"Completely false about buying."
So there it is, Meyer did not buy the house. But through this woman and another source, I was able to track down that O'Brien eventually did buy it shortly thereafter when he became Penn State's coach in 2012.
I was connected to a man who lives in that same neighborhood, and he described the owner of the house that O'Brien bought from 10 years ago. It was a man originally from New Jersey who fit a certain description, and I was able to get the man's name.
I then went back to the woman with the man's description and name, and she confirmed that, yes, it was the same man who had owned that same house where she was housesitting.
So, there you have it.
This may not be earth-shattering information to anyone. But after 10 years, it brought a huge smile to my face to finally get some closure on this wacky story.
Thank you to everyone who has reached out to comment on this bizarre little tale over the past two days. I hope you find the ending as interesting as I do.
