-The Toledo war, technically won by Ohio, was an armed conflict between Ohio and Michigan that resulted in one casualty...a cow. Ohio won and got Toledo because I believe it was a state and Michigan was a territory at the time and hence it had more clout. The consolation prize was the upper peninsula. People who visit both can decide for themselves who really won. This has some bearing on the Ohio State Michigan rivalry to this day.

-On that, Toledo is physically in Ohio but much closer to the University of Michigan (45mn) than it is to The Ohio State University (2.5hrs). It makes it the best place in the country to be part of the rivalry outside of Columbus or Ann Arbor.

-Speaking of rivals Toledo has dominated its rival Bowling Green winning the last 9 vs. the Falcons in the Battle of I-75 in football to keep the Peace Pipe. Like my Buckeyes, this has made rivalries a very mixed bag for TTownPuma (Go Cougars we need to get that fixed so I can enjoy all the rivalry games). Expect Toledo to take the game again this year by a large margin. Toledo has also significantly dominated the Falcons in basketball with basically winning every time but once over the last decade (a double OT loss) or so.

-Toledo is nicknamed the Glass City due to it being a historical leader in glass production with several large glass companies calling Toledo home. It has also produced some well-respected glass artists.

-Toledo has several sister cities, but was named after Toledo Spain, which I believe was its first sister city. I have been on Toledo, Ohio street in Toledo Spain. The newspaper "The Blade" is named as such due to the relationship Toledo has with its namesake in Spain which is historically famous for its swords.

-Toledo's economic mainstay is the automotive industry particularly the Jeep plant that you will pass from the Detroit airport on your way to the "Glass Bowl" (named as such for obvious reasons).

-M*A*S*H highlighted Toledo as Cpl. Max Klinger (Jamie Farr) was supposedly from Toledo. Jamie Farr no longer lives in Toledo but remains active in the community. Tony Paco's as is featured in MASH is a real restaurant (the original location is on the East side...rougher side...of Toledo) in an ethnically Hungarian area of town. There are several locations with autographed buns at all locations of famous visitors. The dogs are great and should be eaten with sauce, mustard, onions, and pickled peppers. Starting this year you can get Paco's dogs at the Glass Bowl. The lines will be insane though because they are not set up for a full house. I would not be surprised if they run out. There are several other locations in town for Paco's. Jamie Farr is the namesake of a major LPGA tour stop in Toledo.

-In the heyday of the auto industry it was expected that the auto tycoons would be big benefactors to the arts so Toledo has a very nice art museum, zoo, opera, symphony, etc. for its size, notwithstanding the fact that it is 1 hr away from Detroit which has a similar arts situation on a bit larger scale.

-Much of the university, including the Glass Bowl, was built as part of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Of course there have been updates and upgrades since.

-In the early 1970s Toledo went roughly 3 years without losing a game, which is still one of the longest winning streaks in college football. Chuck Ealey was the quarterback that never lost a game, but he could not get named as an all-american, presumably because he was an African-American QB ahead of his time. The NFL passed on him, perhaps for similar reasons, and Chuck ran roughshod over CFL competition. To this day he is not eligible for the college football hall of fame due to not being named an all-american. This causes some angst for Toledo fans.

-Toledo is perennially in the top 2-3 teams in the MAC. They are probably overall the 2nd best team in the MAC after Northern Illinois on a year in year out basis, but the third team that is different every year seems to find a way to sneak out the championship more often than not.

-Toledo has a lot of players in the NFL for a MAC school and even more who are in the NFL pre-season level, or just outside the NFL level. There are likely a few of those guys (just under NFL level) on the team this year.

-Toledo is heavily hit by political advertising because politicians can reach both the Ohio and Michigan markets from a Toledo ad buy as well as enegize the respective bases in the area as well as swing voters. The city is solidly Democratic, but it is more of a union Democratic than a left coast Democratic. There is some ability to persuade Toledo voters one way or the other. There are several Republican leaning communities in the area that will also shift from year to year candidate to candidate like the Democrats, so every presidential hopeful comes to Toledo late in the election cycle.

-Toledo has fed coaches to Missouri, Michigan State, Alabama (Nic Saben), Iowa State, Illinois, and a plethora of P5 schools. Urban Meyer coached at Bowling Green and beat Toledo, but Toledo won the MAC. The current staff was basically brought in by Matt Campbell who is now at Iowa State.

-Both Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh were born in Toledo (I believe in the same hospital).

-Other famous Toledoans include: Jim Leyland (World Series champion manager), Katie Holmes, Gloria Stieinem, Art Tatum, Anita Baker, Danny Thomas, John Amaechi, Shae Patterson, DeSean Kiser, Chester Taylor, Kareem Hunt