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When he woke up this morning, Thursday, May 1, ESPN broadcaster and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit sent former teammate Derrick Foster a text message with his Columbus address. Foster had requested it recently so he could send Herbstreit an invitation for his June wedding.

Then Herbstreit heard the news.

"It's like I got hit in the stomach with a baseball bat," Herbstreit said.

Foster, a 1988 graduate of Patterson Co-Op High School in Dayton, was charged with shooting two Columbus police officers during a Wednesday night drug raid. The officers — John Gillis, 48, Anthony Garrison, 44 — were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to a police spokesman.

"The thing that shocked me was the shooting itself," Herbstreit said. "I just hope it isn't true that he did that. I had lunch today with Joey Galloway (another OSU teammate), and we said this is the last guy in the world you would expect this from.

"I feel real bad for his family, but the lives of those police officers have been turned upside down, too."

Charged with Foster, 38, was 19-year-old Michael T. Gravely, according to The Columbus Dispatch. They face two counts of felonious assault and two counts of attempted murder.

One officer was hit twice in the arm and once in the hip; the other was shot in the leg and was saved by another officer who aided him, said Jim Gilbert, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Columbus.

Foster and Herbstreit were in former OSU coach John Cooper's first recruiting class. Herbstreit played at Centerville High School and became a full-time starter at quarterback his senior season in 1992.

"That's not the same Derrick Foster that I remember that played for us here at Ohio State," Cooper said today. "As I recall, he never had any off-the-field issues that I can remember at all. He was a good kid from a good family who worked hard and did what we told him to do."

Foster is a code-enforcement supervisor in the Columbus Development Department, making $29.76 an hour, according to city records, according to the Dispatch.

Foster was at Patterson with Marco Coleman and the two visited several schools together, including Tennessee and Georgia Tech. OSU was not interested in Coleman, who took a scholarship from Georgia Tech, became an All-America and a first-round draft choice of the Dolphins before the 1992 season, when he still had a year of eligibility.

Foster, at 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, accepted a scholarship from OSU but was plagued with several injuries and did not become a full-time starter until 1992.

In the third game that year, Foster was credited with 10 tackles and three sacks in OSU's 35-12 victory at No. 8 Syracuse. He was named the Big Ten defensive player of the week.

"I don't know if I've ever been prouder of a player in my life than I am of Derrick right now," Cooper said at the time. "He's paid his dues. He's been around here five years and finally got a chance to start."

Herbstreit said Foster was, "one of the few guys I played with that I'm still in touch with. We'd go to games together. We went to the basketball game when Trotwood upset Moeller, and he's a huge Reds fan.

"We had a connection because we're both from Dayton. When you're at Ohio State and you're from the same area, there's a kinship there.

"I was telling a police officer today what a great guy Derrick is. He said, 'I don't think so.' I told him I understand. I just hope he didn't do it."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com. Staff writer Chick Ludwig contributed to this report.

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