Ohio Stadium

At a glance

Overview

Ohio Stadium is the Ohio State University's football stadium, a U-shaped, double-decked reinforced-concrete bowl on the east bank of the Olentangy River, open at the south end, which gave it the nicknames 'the Horseshoe' and 'the Shoe.' It replaced the small Ohio Field on High Street after crowds outgrew it, and was paid for by a public subscription drive that passed $1 million on January 20, 1921. Architect Howard Dwight Smith, an Ohio State alumnus, designed it; E. H. Latham Co. of Columbus built it for a contract price of $1,341,017 between August 3, 1921, and October 1922, after a bend of the Olentangy was straightened to make room. The first game was played October 7, 1922, and the stadium was dedicated at the Michigan game on October 21, 1922. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and, after expansions in 1948, 1991, 2001 and 2014, seated 102,780 in 2022.

The name

Officially Ohio Stadium. Fans nicknamed it 'the Shoe' or 'the Horseshoe' for its open-ended U shape, according to the Ohio History Connection's centennial marker. A third common nickname, 'The House That Harley Built,' credits halfback Chic Harley. (source)

Native American history

No Native American site is recorded at the stadium itself in published sources. The stadium stands on the Olentangy River floodplain; to build it, engineers straightened a bend in the riverbed, routed natural ditches and gullies into sewers, and graded the land east of the river, so any surface traces would have been disturbed. Alfred Lee's 1892 history of Columbus says Franklin County once held nearly a hundred earthworks and mounds, most destroyed before they were recorded; the nearest recorded work up the same river was a rectangular enclosure with a 20-foot mound about a mile west of Worthington. In the 1790s Wyandot families camped at the Forks of the Scioto and Olentangy, a few miles downstream, according to the captivity narrative of Jeremiah Armstrong printed in Lee's history. Lee's history also says the 1795 Treaty of Greenville released all Native lands in Ohio except reserved tracts in the state's northwest corner, which places this land within that cession.

• Worthington earthwork (Olentangy enclosure and truncated mound): earthwork, Banks of the Olentangy about one mile west of Worthington, upriver from the stadium, Pre-contact (mound builder); surveyed by Charles Whittlesey before 1848
• Wyandot camp near the Forks of the Scioto and Olentangy: camp, Near the later Ohio Penitentiary site, downstream from the stadium, 1794-1795
• Treaty of Greenville cession: treaty, All of Ohio except reserved tracts in the northwest corner, August 3, 1795

Stories

A million dollars from the public

The university's official history, published in 1926, describes the drive: the Columbus Chamber of Commerce pledged support in December 1919, a committee under Samuel N. Summer organized every county in Ohio, and appeals went to alumni in 24 foreign countries. The campaign opened October 18, 1920, with 4,000 students in athletic costume marching through Columbus and performing on Capitol Square, followed by military and motor-float parades. Campus and city passed their quotas of $100,000 and $500,000, and on January 20, 1921, the total reached $1,001,071, of which Columbus gave $550,090. To guard against shrinkage the committee kept raising money, and by summer 1922 subscriptions stood at $1,082,000. (source)

Moving a river to build a horseshoe

The stadium was built on the Olentangy floodplain, and to make room engineers straightened a bend in the riverbed, routed natural drainage ditches and gullies into trunk sewers, and graded and paved the land east of the river. The plan called for 40,000 cubic yards of concrete and 4,000 tons of steel, and a short-line railroad built solely for the job carried in 60,000 tons of gravel, 30,000 tons of sand and 1.8 million feet of lumber. Architect Howard Dwight Smith, a civil engineer and Ohio State alumnus, combined features of the Harvard and Yale stadiums into a U-form design that the university archives call the first horseshoe-shaped, double-deck stadium in the United States. The river has come back more than once: it flooded the south towers and track in spring 1927, and high water reached the polo fields to the south in 1937, 1959 and 1973. (source)

The 1926 riot and the end of standing room

The Michigan game of 1926 drew a standing-room crowd the university's own archive puts at about 90,000. Ohio State trailed 17-10 with two minutes left, scored on a 12-yard run and missed the extra point, and Michigan ran out the clock. The Makio yearbook later said the Buckeye defense had looked 'almost as helpless as London during a German Zeppelin raid.' Fans stormed the field, threw glass bottles and broke arms and legs. The university banned standing-room tickets afterward, and the policy stayed in place for nearly 50 years. (source)

Script Ohio and the dotted i

Band director Eugene J. Weigel first put the looped word 'Ohio' on the field on October 10, 1936, basing the script on the marquee of the Loew's Ohio Theatre downtown. The band forms a triple Block O and then unwinds into one continuous line while playing 'Le Regiment de Sambre et Meuse.' The first 'i'-dotter was an E-flat cornet player, John Brungart; in fall 1937 Weigel gave the spot to sousaphone player Glen Johnson. A year later the drum major reached the top of the 'i' three or four measures early, so Johnson turned and bowed to the crowd to fill the time, and the bow has been part of the show ever since. Honorary i-dotters have included Bob Hope in 1978, Woody Hayes in 1983, Jack Nicklaus in 2006 and John and Annie Glenn in 2009. (source)

The Snow Bowl

On November 25, 1950, Michigan came to Columbus for a game that decided the Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth. The temperature was 10 degrees, winds gusted to 28 miles per hour and snow fell at about two inches an hour; Boy Scouts and fans helped pull a snow-laden tarp off the frozen field. Michigan won 9-3 without making a single first down, and the two teams punted 45 times, sometimes on first down, hoping the other side would fumble near its own goal. Ohio State's Vic Janowicz, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy, kicked a field goal for the Buckeyes' only points. Wikipedia's account gives two different attendance figures for the game, 79,868 and 50,535. (source)

More than a football field

The university archives list other uses the stadium has had over the years: a subsidized dormitory for needy students, class laboratories, and a summer playhouse. The Stadium Theater opened beneath the east stands on July 5, 1950, with James Thurber's 'The Male Animal,' a play by an Ohio State alumnus whose script mentions the Hennick's soda fountain, the Neil Avenue gate and the Michigan rivalry. Bleachers in the breezeway at Gate 10 held up to 300 people, and over an eight-week season students and townspeople ran six Broadway plays, four nights each. The theater moved to Hughes Hall in 1968 and to Mershon Auditorium in 1970. The same archive notes a May 1947 track meet in the stadium run in inches of flash-flood water, in which Ohio State's Ed Porter and Harry Cogswell still finished first and second in the 440. (source)

Timeline

• 1890: Ohio State played its first home football game on November 1 at Recreation Park on Columbus's south side, losing to the University of Wooster 64-0. (source)
• 1898: Ohio Field opened on High Street between 17th and Woodruff avenues as the team's first on-campus home, eventually seating about 14,000. (source)
• 1916: With the need for bigger athletic facilities long apparent, the Athletic Board commissioned Professor Clyde T. Morris to plan a bowl-shaped coliseum just west of it. (source)
• 1917: The trustees set aside the university farmland between Neil Avenue and the Olentangy, from Woodruff Avenue south, for athletics, instead of building in the middle of campus. (source)
• 1919: In December the Columbus Chamber of Commerce pledged support and named a committee headed by Lowry F. Sater to start a stadium fund drive. (source)
• 1920: The Stadium Campaign opened October 18 with an athletic pageant in which 4,000 students marched through Columbus and performed on Capitol Square. (source)
• 1921: On January 20 the committee announced pledges of $1,001,071, with Columbus giving $550,090. (source)
• 1921: Ground was broken August 3 with Governor Harry L. Davis present, and the general contract went to the E. H. Latham Co. of Columbus on its bid of $1,341,017. (source)
• 1922: The first game in the stadium was played October 7 against Ohio Wesleyan, before a crowd of around 25,000. (source)
• 1922: The stadium was dedicated at the Michigan game on October 21, with temporary stands pushing its capacity above 72,000. (source)
• 1926: After a 17-16 loss to Michigan before a standing-room crowd, fans stormed the field, and the university banned standing-room tickets for nearly 50 years. (source)
• 1927: During spring break the Olentangy broke its banks and flooded the south towers and the track, sparing the football field. (source)
• 1935: The Notre Dame game sold out, with more than 81,000 in attendance. (source)
• 1936: The Ohio State marching band first performed Script Ohio on October 10, at the Pittsburgh game in Ohio Stadium. (source)
• 1938: Eleanor Roosevelt stopped in November to inspect the Tower Club, a work-study student dormitory built inside the stadium as a Works Progress Administration project. (source)
• 1950: Stadium Theater opened beneath the east stands on July 5 with James Thurber's play 'The Male Animal.' (source)
• 1950: Michigan beat Ohio State 9-3 in the 'Snow Bowl' on November 25, played in a blizzard at 10 degrees. (source)
• 1965: Brutus Buckeye made his debut on October 30, walking down the stadium's entrance ramp at the homecoming game against Minnesota. (source)
• 1971: On June 14 the natural sod was cut into 12,000 rolls and given to about 5,000 donors to a fund for artificial turf, which replaced it. (source)
• 1972: The Ohio Special Olympics summer games moved to the stadium, where they have been held every year since. (source)
• 1974: Ohio Stadium was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. (source)
• 1989: Natural grass was reinstalled between March and May. (source)
• 1992: The Ohio Glory of the World League of American Football played its only season in the stadium, the first professional team based there. (source)
• 1996: Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew made the stadium its home for its first three seasons, 1996 to 1998. (source)
• 2001: A $194 million renovation begun in 1998 removed the running track, lowered the field 14.5 feet behind a slurry wall, added suites and permanent south stands, and raised capacity to 101,568. (source)
• 2007: FieldTurf replaced natural grass, and the old turf went to the City of Columbus for three baseball fields. (source)
• 2014: About 2,500 seats were added over the south entrance tunnels, raising official capacity to 104,944 (Wikipedia's renovation section gives 104,851). (source)
• 2016: A record 110,045 people watched Ohio State beat Michigan 30-27 in double overtime on November 26. (source)
• 2016: Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid drew 86,641, the largest crowd for a soccer match in Ohio history. (source)
• 2022: The Ohio History Connection and the university placed a centennial marker; the stadium then measured 919 by 679 feet, 136 feet high, and seated 102,780. (source)

Sources

• remarkableohio.org: 135 25 ohio stadium centennial the shoe turns 100
• remarkableohio.org: 92 25 site of first ohio state home football game the ohio state university football team
• archive.org: historyofohiosta0002thom djvu.txt
• library.osu.edu: twelve days of buckeyes fun facts about ohio stadium
• library.osu.edu: vips on campus mrs roosevelt tours stadium dorms
• library.osu.edu: football and futbol at the shoe
• tbdbitl.osu.edu: traditions
• library.osu.edu: faqs
• npgallery.nps.gov
• archive.org: historyofcityofc01leea djvu.txt
• en.wikipedia.org: Ohio Stadium
• en.wikipedia.org: Ohio Field
• en.wikipedia.org: Chic Harley
• en.wikipedia.org: Snow Bowl (1950)
• en.wikipedia.org: Script Ohio