The 1976 Rose Bowl was one that most Ohio State fans would like to forget. The Woody Hayes-led Buckeyes were the consensus No. 1 team in the nation. Having just beat the Bruins 41-20 three months earlier in Los Angeles, the Buckeyes appeared to have a national title locked up. OSU was favored by 15.5 points going into the match-up. On this day however, the Buckeyes lost to Dick Vermeil’s Bruins, 23-10, in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Rose Bowl.

For one “Buckeye” man, there’s thousands of reasons to remember the 1976 Rose Bowl and the three seasons straddling it.

Meet Giovanni Strassini.

Not only did he score the lone OSU touchdown in the 1976 Rose Bowl, but he was an All-American tight end for the ’76 Buckeyes, was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1977 and was named to Ohio State’s All-Century team. As a baseball player, he played third base for the Buckeyes in 1976, earning All-American honors alongside future MLB stars Paul Molitor and Rick Honeycutt.

With a résumé like that, Strassini would have to be what you call an Ohio State legend.

So, when this year’s March Madness rolled around, it made sense that Strassini, now living in North Carolina, would be the headlining VIP at the Charlotte Buckeyes’ Final Four watch party.

At the event, held at Strike City in Charlotte, Strassini signed a bowling pin, which they enshrined alongside his former teammate and two-time Heisman Trophy winner, Archie Griffin.

There is only one problem… no one at Ohio State has ever heard of Giovanni Strassini. Here’s what Ohio State spokesman Jerry Emig said about Strassini:

I cannot find any documentation that Giovanni Strassini was ever a member of Ohio State’s football teams. I won’t go so far as to say that he wasn’t part of the team…as a walk-on for a season or two and just didn’t appear on the rosters, but the following resources were used to determine that he wasn’t listed on any Ohio State rosters.

• Rosters from official media guides from 1971-77 do not list him.

• Rose Bowl media guides for 1973 and 1974 do not list him as a member of Ohio State’s roster.

• Ohio State’s 2005-06 edition of the Varsity O – official letterman’s club – directory do not list him as a letterwinner.

• We do not list anyone by that name as an All-American in any of our All-American lists.

• The list of letterman in Ohio State media guides does not list him as a letterwinner.

Other than that, though … it’s a perfect match!

There was also a Wikipedia page and an IMDB entry which had all the facts that he passed along, and even a Sporcle.com quiz on Ohio State All-Americans that lists him. The imposter was rather thorough, at least.

The guy had it all going on. Pretty genius too. Just pick some random position from some random year and absolutely own it. That’s what Giovanni did until he met the same fate that everyone seems to meet these days: caught by the internet message boards. Sad day. Guy can’t even make a living doing public speaking engagements as a fake made-up football star from 4 decades ago anymore. Manti Te’o almost won a Heisman Trophy with a fake girlfriend… why are we picking on Strassini?