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Kristy Kralj Regula doesn’t remember exactly how she and a team of other WOUB sports students came up with the idea for Gridiron Glory, but she knows it came out of the need to bring more TV sports coverage to a region that wanted to celebrate their high school football teams.

“It’s hard for me to think back 25 years ago,” Kralj Regula said with a laugh. “We just started talking about it. I don’t know how I became the first host. I just got roped into it. I had been anchoring sports for WOUB TV’s nightly news program, NewsWatch. We just started talking about it, and it just happened.”

But in 1999, the first season was not a walk in the park. Putting on a new live, weekly high school football show was no small task for a group of students who were still learning the ins and outs of journalism and TV production.

“The first year was rough. I’m not going to lie. We learned so much. The only way you learn is by doing. We made a lot of mistakes,” said Kralj Regula. “But the second year, when Evan Dawson was host, he went to a high school, and they all knew who Evan was. I thought this was unreal. That was when I knew it was something special.”

As Kralj Regula reflects on the fact that a show she helped to launch has now been on the air for 25 seasons and is still going strong, she gets a little emotional.

“I talk about it with my husband a lot. My dad just recently passed away, and he was always so proud. I look back on it with such fond memories,” said Kralj Regula. “I’m so thankful I chose 51���� and got to participate in something so fun. To see it 25 years later is so cool.”

Kralj Regula is now the assistant news director at WKBN/WYTV in Youngstown, Ohio, and often encounters summer interns from 51���� who work on Gridiron Glory. They always ask her questions about how it started and tell her about the things they are doing now with the show.

“To think that there have been all these students that have passed through and that has been part of their journey as well, I’m so proud it’s still going,” said Kralj. “It’s something that I’m talking to my 12-year-old daughter about, and I am telling her she can do whatever she wants to do. I hope she gains inspiration from her mom and learns that you can make your college experience anything and make a lasting impact.”

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