Mr. March! Better Than a Month of Sundays
GUS DAKIS has been hanging around the rooms of countless women at The Ohio State University lately.
He has flexed his muscle, and even showered in front them, all the while keeping their dates in line.
Dakis, a 1985 graduate of St. John Central High School, in Bellaire, is Mr. March in the "1991 Campus Men® of the Scarlet & Gray" calendar, a slick, full-color publication featuring both all-American and provocative shots.
"Mine's kind of risque, but I think it's done in taste," Dakis said of the pin-up featuring him in an outdoor shower. "I'm in a pair of white shorts, and they're wet."
Those types of photos of both men and women (featured in the companion "Women of the Scarlet & Gray" calendar) have stirred some controversy around the OSU campus, but Dakis seems unaffected.
"My experience has been that everyone who has seen my picture liked it," the 23-year-old said. "This year they (the calendars' producers) were more adventurous, but I don't think anybody who's in it is ashamed.
Even Mom gave her approval.
"She loved it," Dakis said of "Mom," Mary Ann Alexander of Bellaire. "When she first saw it, she said 'Oh my gosh!,' but she's really proud of me."
The calendar goes from the industrious Mr. January -- in blue jean shorts and a tool belt -- posing outside a house under construction to Mr. May lying on his stomach on the beach with fish net draped over what a skimpy bathing suit reveals.
The pin-up's producer, 23-year old OSU marketing student Sean Ashbrook, describes the not-so-all-American shots as "something to make you raise your eyebrows."
"There's always some controversy over things that people are envious of," said Ashbrook, a part-time student who has produced the calendars for four years now. "The reason for the provocative nature of the campus calendars is because we're here to sell calendars statewide, not to be a campus project. It's not a university-sponsored publication."
For the 1991 production, Ashbrook and other photographers in his company, College Image Corp., used color film and the Florida beaches as a backdrop for the first time inn the calendars' four years of existence. Dakis, however, had to remain on campus during that week-long summer trip to schedule in his senior year of radiologic technology studies.
He will graduate this June with a Bachelor's degree enabling him to work as an X-ray technician. He plans to return to OSU for a year-long training course and specialize in radiation therapy.
Dakis was chosen to show off his physique after Ashbrook and crew came recruiting at the gym where Dakis works out daily.
"At first I wasn't sure if I would look good enough but then I started thinking that OSU is a big school and it's an honor that they're asking me to be in it," Dakis said of the calendar. "It's a way for me to leave my mark at OSU so when I graduate, I can say 'yes, I was Mr. March.'"
His first foray into modeling did not include a paycheck, but rather a $350 fee he and the other models paid to Ashbrook. The money pays the wholesale price for some 70 to 80 calendars, which the models then sell at retail price, Dakis said.
"I sold them all and made $300 to $400 profit, so I bought 50 more,: said Dakis, who was planning to pedal the pin-ups during his Spring Break trip to South Padre Island, near the coast of Texas.
"They were so easy to sell. I just went to girls' dorms and we had an autograph table set up outside a campus bookstore.
"It helped pay the bills and tuition-it helped a lot " he added
Ashbrook explained that because College Image Corp is a student-owned company we can't afford to pay the models outright Most students are more interested in being in it because it's an honor to be immortalized in a calendar at OSU - that's 12 students among 50,000."
Not only are the students selling the calendars but their parents are as well. Upon their release last fall, the pin-ups also were carried by several Waldenbooks stores across the state including the Ohio Valley Mall.
Josetta Ludwig, assistant manager at the St. Clairesville store, said the calendars spurred no controversy while on the shelves there.
Controversy or not, Dakis doesn't mind the fact that his is one of the more steamy shots in the calendar.
"When I see the picture, I'm proud of it. I didn't want to be average. I wanted it to stand out," Dakis said. "I wanted to go all the way and do it so when people see it, they go 'Wow!'"
Originally published March 30, 1991. Story © Martins Ferry Times Leader. This text is exactly as published.
