LostLettermen.com

Cleveland State’s Ken “Mouse” McFadden, a member of the first No. 14 seeded team to win a tournament game, talks about the new website he’s working on and shares his favorite sports-related traveling story (run time is 6:10; transcript below the jump).

  ……

Lost Lettermen: This is Jose Bosch from LostLettermen.com and I’m currently joined by Cleveland State’s Ken McFadden, member of the 1986 team that upset Indiana in the first round and then made it to the Sweet 16. Mr. McFadden thank you very much for joining us today.

You’re currently a health specialist for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. What exactly does your job entail?

Ken McFadden: Well that’s just a part-time that I have working with low-poverty households, family members and children.

LL: And what kind of things do you work on with those families?

KM: Ohio Medicare, Medicaid. More healthcare resources.

LL: You mentioned it’s a part time job. What do you do on a more full-time basis?

KM: Well I’ve also been working on my website, Vacaso.com.

LL: And what do you do with the website?

KM: What we do on the website is we explore different entertainment and things to do in different cities. It’s more for travelers. Like, for instance you could look up and see what’s going on in Cleveland, Ohio. Or if you’re planning on vacationing in Orlando; a nice hot spot to go to. And you can read about different people and how much fun they had at this place or this site and they checked out this museum.

Things of that nature. Just a where-to-go type of website.

LL: So where did you come up with the idea of putting together a website like this?

KM: Well, being a traveler I’m always on the road. I’ve been all over the United States and I was just sitting down with one of my friends and we were looking at different pictures of different cities and different place that we had been. And we were like, “Hey, this is really cool and that was a nice place to go to.” And so we decided to put it on a website and have different people sign in and tell about the stories that they have in different places and cities and how much fun it was. And you can post it on the website, take a look and there’s maybe something you may want to do.

If you go to Atlanta, Georgia you may want to find out what’s going on at this place. Hopefully somebody’s been there and they have some reviews and you may want to check it out.

LL: Let’s say you yourself are a traveler in any city that you’ve been to. What’s been your favorite traveling story?

KM: Wow. That’s too many. I don’t know if we have enough time. (laughs) Boy that’s really hard to say. I’ve had so many different experiences and so much fun in different places. Wow. I don’t know if one really stands out more than the others.

I love going back to New York in the summer time. We have an annual block party where everybody gets together and comes back in the second week of August every year. And it gives me a chance to see a bunch of old friends and most of my family is in New York, so that’s always a good time. I enjoy that.

But wow. I’m all over the place having fun and kicking back and relaxing.

LL: Well for the sports fans that listen and read this site, do you have a good sports related travel story?

KM: A good sports related travel story. You know, I was just watching the Cleveland Cavaliers game and they were talking about the guys’ pre-game ritual and what they eat. And they were talking about Delonte West and how, maybe one or two games ago, he had just two cheeseburgers stacked with fries and all this food that they would say no to for his pre-game meal and he gets out there and it has absolutely no effect on him whatsoever.

So my story would probably be, we’re playing against DePaul over in Chicago and we’re warming up in the layup line and I go up to (head coach) Kevin Mackey and I tell him, “Mac, I’m hungry. We didn’t have enough food at pre-game.” And he looks at me like, “You’re kidding me, right?” And I’m like, “No.” I need a hot dog, chili and a Coke.

So he sends the manager all the way to the concourse level to get me a hot dog. He said, “You better have the game of your life.” He’s looking at me like, “Is this kid for real?”

Well we end up beating them. Well we beat them pretty handily by about 15 or 18 and he just, he was just stunned. He couldn’t believe it. So the guys were always teasing me about how I’d be putting down food and he can just go out there and eat and no problem.

I’ve never been a person to stretch before the game. I don’t stretch, I never stretch. Two quick sprints and I’m ready to go. So it’s like, he’s like, “That’s unbelievable.” He always found that hilarious about me.

Got a question or comment? E-mail him here

All Ken McFadden Interviews

Liked this story? Click here for Lost Lettermen’s RSS feed and receive all our great content

Click here to start contributing to our wiki database of over 150,000 former college athletes and help us answer the question, “Where Are They Now?”

Tweet This Post