Director of operations for the ‘Italian Bowl’ Pat Nowak talks about the Glass City’s opportunity to host an Italian football game.
Welcome back to Good Day. Are you ready for some football? Might be a little early in the season, but we are talking American Italian football. So it is like, you know, like pigskin, OK, we’re not kicking the ball around here, Italians playing American football and it’s happening in the glass city.
Pat Nowak, director of Operations, has all the details about the July event. And then. The June events too. That’s all leading up to this, everything surrounding it. Pat, good morning. Thanks for being here today. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. This is not just a football game.
No, it is a whole two weeks of excitement. So this actually starts in June. So what are we kicking off with? And it’s not the game. No, we’re kicking off with a passport to the taste of Italy, which is a week of coming and visiting local restaurants. And tasting Italian food.
And they’re going to be vying for two things. The best a People’s Choice award or the top ten of those will go on to a judging for the judge’s Choice Awards, and they will be judged on the best entree, the best dessert, or the OR the best drink.
Can I get in on this judging? Sure. Yeah. I was going to ask who the judges were. So we’re talking about a lot of restaurants that are participating all over the area. That’s right. We have downtown restaurants, Real seafood, Hannon’s Block Soup. We have a Chow. We have Nancy’s Italian.
I mean, there’s just, there’s going to be probably about 35 restaurants involved. I can eat my way through that. Diane, do you think? Yeah, you could be a judge. I could probably do it. You do the desserts? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I could definitely do the desserts. You do the main dish.
I got the desserts. I got the drinks too. Why not? Why not? So that’s the first week of events Is this taste for the passport to the taste of Italy? And then you have more after that. The on June 25th is the Mayor’s Cup. Mayor Wade Kapsukevich has invited local mayors or,
Well, Northwest Ohio mayors, to take part in his skills competition. Oh boy. So it’s like a punt pass kick kind of thing. And it’s going to be at Central Catholic High School. And there’s going to be tailgating, there’s going to be food trucks, there’s going to be children’s activities from the Y.
And it’s all free, it’s all free to welcome our guests to the United States. Wonderful. What a great event. Can you imagine these mayors? I’m interested to see the skills. Well and you know we have mayor’s from Perrysburg and Finley and Defiance and Port Clinton who have already signed up.
So you know we’re hoping for about 25 mayors and hopefully then their towns come cheer them on. Then they, you know they have a really good afternoon then ahead of them for that event and it’s going to be telecast. It’s going to be broadcast so you
Can watch it over and over and over again. Hit the replay, hit the pause. You know you have DVR it lots of fun things. And then so that is the Mayor’s Bowl. But then there are more events coming up too, right? There’s a celebrity golf outing. There is a youth camp for for
Junior high students on Friday. Some of the Italians players will be there helping teach them new and. Great tips, Yeah. So when the players come, what are some of the things that they’re going to be doing as maybe it could be their first time to the United States. Many,
It will be their first time to the United States. They’ll be going to the Canton Hall of Fame to see the Hall of Fame and having a lunch there. They will, of course be practicing because their coaches have said they have to be very, very stringent about their practice schedule.
They’ll be staying at the University of Toledo and they will of course participate in the youth camp. In practice, practice, practice. And then on Saturday, July 1st, the game. OK, but they can practice all they want, right? Yeah. Are they are they playing? So talk about this matchup, you know,
Because people might already be confused because we’re talking about American football but Italian players. So which which teams are coming and how is this game going to go? OK, it is. There are nine teams in Italy right now. They play their season right now vying to come to play their. Italian Super Bowl.
So this is what you’ll be watching at the glass Bowl is their Super Bowl. Now while you’re watching here, it will be broadcast back in Italy. So Italians will be watching their Super Super Bowl on TV to be on the Super Bowl stage here. And for us, it’s kind of some football
Even before the season gets started. So you can kind of get that itch and and going, but I also hear there’s some fireworks that are going to kind of maybe. You know, finish everything up and more than the celebration, right? Right during the game, of course, there’s going to be the tailgating,
All the pomp and circumstance, Marion Battistelli and Italian Sopranos coming in. She’ll be singing the both the American and and Italian national anthems. There is after the game, there is the Toledo night market that will take place in the flatlands so you can extend the day with artisans,
With food, wine and lots of fun. And then it caps off at 10:00 o’clock with the fireworks. Downtown Toledo. Downtown Toledo. Why was it so important that Toledo didn’t just, you know, play host, you know, at the glass bowl and say, okay, you can play your football game here.
But you know, why was it so important that the city, you know it is hosting all of these events leading up to it? Well, you know, we are welcoming guests. You can welcome guests to your house and say hi, you know, goodbye. That’s not the way we want to show
Our hospitality to our Italian guest. We want to make it very inclusive of not only them, but us showing the welcome mat. And for that reason we have to get all of these things going on. To welcome our guests and as you wrap up, tell us how we can get tickets and even
A full schedule of the event. Www.italianbowlusa.com has all the information it has. You can do a QR code right to the tickets. You can see all the sponsors that are involved. Marcos is a big sponsor, of course. Pizza. I get it, you know? Yeah, it goes hand to hand.
It makes sense. I can see. I can do. A passport. A pizza passport. Oh, yes. As we all can. Yeah. So wonderful. It’s going to be a a packed, a jam packed couple of weeks. Right. So you’re going to be pretty tired. But thanks for coming in today. Thank you ahead of it.
And and make sure you make some plans, get your tickets and it’s going to be a lot of fun. As you said, we’re going to be great hosts, right? Yeah. Yes. Thank you so much. Looking forward to it.