Calendar features 'everyday' Buckeyes
"How would you like to be famous on the campus for a year?"
That is what Rob Sheard, a junior majoring in communications, was asked while eating pizza one Sunday afternoon at a Donatos restaurant near north campus.
Sheard couldn't believe it when Sean Ashbrook, owner of Calendar Models, asked him to try out for one of the calendars he produces.
"I'm not the kind of person who would do this," Sheard said. "I'm kind of shy."
His family and friends couldn't believe it either.
"My mom was like, Why did they pick you?' She kind of teases me," he said.
Sheard's fraternity brothers also joked about Sheard's opportunity.
"Usually they just kind of make fun of me," he said.
Ashbrook puts out two calendars each year - Scarlet and Gray Girls, and Campus Men® . Past calendars have featured scantily-dressed Ohio State students posing as football players, band members and even a Ms. Brutus Buckeye.
This weekend, Sheard and the other students chosen had their first opportunity to find out if they have what it takes to be a "Campus Man" or a "scarlet and gray girl" at a test shoot.
Ashbrook said he considers how people look on film and their personality when considering them for the calendar.
"A lot of it is based on choosing students with an outgoing personality, if they are cooperative and if they would love to do publicity events," he said.
The candidate also has to be an OSU student, Ashbrook said.
"We look for people who would never consider doing this before," he said. "We want the average, everyday student you see on campus."
And that is how Ashbrook finds his models. Ashbrook and his recruiters usually just walk up to a pretty face and tell them about the calendar. He said some are interested and some are not, but most are flattered.
"The looks on people's faces - they are totally shocked," he said. "It's not often someone comes up to you and says do you want to be in a calendar."
One of Ashbrook's recruiters, Courtney Clough, a sophomore majoring in allied medical professions, had the same experiences.
"The girls usually blush and the guys are like, 'You think I'm good looking?'" she said.
Ashbrook said it's not the most professional way to get the students, but it seems to be the most effective.
"We found we got the best kind of people just by walking down the street. It's a very wacky way of finding your students," he said.
Clough said one of her more interesting recruiting experiences occurred while she was watching people at Long's Bookstore.
She saw someone she liked and went up to him to tell him about the calendar. The man, however, was not interested and Clough decided to leave him alone. She went back to talk to a police officer she had been standing by and he told her the person she had gone up to was OSU football player David Boston.
Clough said she looks for people all over campus, usually on her way to class.
"Once I saw two girls at a campus bus stop," she said. "Two girls in one look. It was great."
Some of the calendars have been shot on campus and also in Florida, but Ashbrook usually tries to stay in Ohio.
"We concentrate on the people, not the location," Ashbrook said.
He stressed that the 14 men and women picked to be in the calendar are not professional models. He said the person does not have to possess the physique of Christy Brinkley or Arnold Schwarzeneger.
"We just make people look good," he said.
It is also important to Ashbrook that the models are comfortable with the final production.
"We develop a good relationship with the students," he said. "We try to make sure they are happy."
Ashbrook believes that posing for the project is a good opportunity for students. They also try to have fun with it. He lets students pick how much or how little they want to wear for the photo shoots, but acknowledges how each person looks is directly related to sales.
"Obviously if we put out a great calendar, we have a lot of calendar sales," he said. "We want a calendar that people are going to run out to the stores and buy."
The calendars are sold nationwide, but most of them sell in Ohio. The next calendars will be on store shelves by the first day of Autumn Quarter 1999, Ashbrook said.
"I've already received calls from Buckeye fans who can't wait for the next calendar," he said.
Originally published Feb. 23, 1999. Story © Ohio State Lantern. This text is exactly as published.
