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TALK TO US: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOTBALL GAME-DAY TRADITION?

Here is a selection of comments you shared with us in response to our July/August question in Ohio State Alumni Magazine. We appreciate your thoughtful responses.

JAN ARTMAN ’63 AND TOM ARTMAN (LM)
Game day at Ohio State is unlike game day anywhere else. Unless you have lived it, you can not comprehend. One of the game day traditions of memory is the ringing of the victory bell.  It is just one of the many goings-on which make fall afternoons at Ohio State so memorable.


LAWRENCE A. BAILEY ’51 (LM)
My favorite game-day tradition is the entrance of the Buckeyes, led by the coach, at the beginning of the game. After 60 years of attending Ohio State games, only missing four, this is still a great thrill. The roar of the crowd, the excitement, and the kickoff to start the game will get any true Buckeye on his feet for an enjoyable afternoon.


KAREN DULINSKI BROWN ’74 (LM)
Football game days are a trip down memory lane for me. If I had to choose one favorite game-day tradition, it would have to be singing “Carmen Ohio,” because that is when I truly feel my connection as an alum. Singing that song now brings back memories of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a roommate/friend or just another Buckeye and blurting out “O-hi-o.” I cherish my memories of Ohio State and my degree has helped make me who I am today. I will always sing “Carmen Ohio” with great pride.


DR. RICHARD L. COHEN ’57 DDS
Chills ran up and down my spine at an Ohio State football game in the ’50s when I first heard the marching band play a simulation of the Westminster Chimes prior to "Carmen Ohio." I still get goose bumps every year when I hear it. It is my favorite football game-day tradition.


AMANDA COOPER ’05
I’d have to say my favorite game day tradition is the singing of "Carmen Ohio" after a victory (or even, but hopefully not, after a loss). Singing that song gives me goose bumps every time. It brings back all the memories of games I’ve attended in the past and all the games left to attend. I love this school!


PATRICIA CASEY EDWARDS ’91 (LM)
My father, who was an avid Ohio State fan, died in June, 2004. My brother-in-law purchased a brick in his honor outside the stadium. It reads “In memory of Michael Casey/Husband, Father, Grandfather, Buckeye fan.” My sister, class of 2000, and I started the tradition of touching the brick, which is located toward the front of the stadium on the east side, every time we walk to a game. Anyone who is with us also touches the brick and they continue to do so even when we aren't with them.  That is my favorite game day tradition.


ALLISON DISCHER FLICKINGER ’97, ’98 MR
Our family has had a football tradition for many years. We get to campus at least three hours prior to kickoff. We will go to see the Danger Brothers or hang out at the Riverwatch Tower to watch the jumbo screen (and the band!).  Then we head over to the Skull Session at St. John's. The best part is when the band and the team enter. Then we all make sure that we are in the stadium at least 30 minutes prior to kickoff. We must see the band take the field. By then we are fired up for our Buckeyes!


DOUG HALL  ’85, ’87 MS (LM)
As a former member of The Ohio State University Marching Band (Q-Row, 1982-1986), I can say without hesitation that entering St. John Arena did more than anything else to get me pumped up on a Saturday. The OSUMB started its game day hours before fans arrive, hours before many woke up. Rookies (first-year members) filled the row’s cooler with ice and drinks and made sure that our row’s mascot (a sawdust-stuffed Tasmanian Devil, dressed in full OSUMB regalia) was in a safe place. Squad leaders inspected uniforms. Members stretched their bodies and their lips, preparing for an active day, often about as strenuous as that of football players. We would play for 30 minutes too, but we don’t get to stop for a huddle every 20 seconds. And we would run through day’s performance once or twice. We then lined up on the field and marched across Woody Hayes Drive to St. John with JI-Row (I-Row is snare drums, J-Row is the rest of the percussion) playing their cadences and the band singing “I don’t give a damn for the whole state of Michigan.” Filing into the area, the drum major would stop X-Row at the bottom of the southeastern ramp to the arena floor. The percussion would finish their sequence of cadences and then begin their ramp entrance. We marched down that ramp (or on rainy days, skidded/slid/skied/held onto the cross-belts in front of us as if our lives depended on it) to a tumultuous greeting from more than 14,000 fans packed into the seats. Even after making that entrance more than 25 times, it gave me goose bumps every time. It gives me goose bumps just writing about it. Watching it today brings a lump to my throat, as it did the last time.


LEONARD KAIL ’50, ’50 MS (LM)
I think the greatest game-day tradition is WINNING!


TIM KREITER ’59
It was fall of 1954. I had reported to school two weeks early to take part in the marching band tryouts. It was scary. Some of the state’s finest young musicians were converging on Columbus and competing for 120 regular positions. We 120 to 150 novice freshmen hoped to fill the 30 to 40 open positions. It’s true that some hotshot freshman might conceivably beat out a regular, but that was a long shot.

Tryouts were by rows. You were assigned a row when you showed up. I was told to report to A-row, the first row in the band. In 1954, each of the 12 rows in the band consisted of ten regular and two alternate positions.  In A-row, there were 5 B-flat trumpet, 5 E-flat cornet, plus the two alternate positions. Typically, twenty to thirty musicians tried out for the 12 positions in each row. Tryouts consisted of sight reading for one of the directors and marching for the student “line leader.” Contestants were graded on the basis of musicianship and marching ability. I learned that ten of the two dozen or so individuals trying out for A-row were veterans from the previous year (several were music majors, others were graduate students, and one was in his 7th year of veterinary medicine). We neophyte A-row contestants all played B-flat trumpets, so we were essentially competing for the five B-flat solo trumpet positions against five seasoned veterans, who all happened to be music majors. When tryout week was over, all ten returning A-row regulars had retained their positions. No surprise. A kid named Lyle Kirk and I (we were both in engineering school) won the two alternate positions in A-row. The dozen or so others competing for A-row, sadly, didn’t make it. Had any of us tried out for any other trumpet row in the band, we may have won regular positions that first week.

Lyle and I discovered, however, that we didn’t have to remain alternates, but we were permitted to challenge other trumpet players in the band for their spots. So by the second game of the season, I had challenged a B-row trumpeter and Lyle had challenged a trumpeter in another row. The trumpeters we challenged played the 2nd trumpet part (not solo), but we figured it was better to be a regular, march, and play the 2nd trumpet part than to remain an alternate, ride the bench, and play the solo part at rehearsals. The guys we beat out were disappointed, but those were the band’s rules.

On the first day of tryouts, 250 or so brass musicians and drummers crammed into Rehearsal Hall, and, when we began playing the Buckeye Battle Cry, I got goose bumps all over. The lower brass and the sousaphones players were outstanding, and their bold counter-melodies and pedal tones gave me the shivers! During the week of tryouts, I would go home exhausted, and I’d have trouble going to sleep. The marches kept replaying in my mind. Our director, Jack Evans, demanded perfection. His goals were to please the peasants in the $4 seats; to discourage his boys from behaving like high-school Harry; and to encourage marchers to adjust to the situation. 

I was on cloud nine when I discovered that I had made the band. It was so exciting to get the uniform. We provided our own white shirts, black ties, and black shoes. The brass belt buckle and cross plate were tarnished, and we were required to polish them each week before the games. That’s when I was introduced to Brass-O. We trumpeters were issued scarlet and grey pennants for our trumpets. In November, when temperatures dropped, we wore heavy, ankle-length, Navy P-coats. You couldn’t see our feet when we marched in our winter coats. It looked like someone was pulling a formation of mannequins on a wheeled platform. When the band officers discovered that I drew cartoons, they enlisted me to illustrate the “Grey Baton,” our weekly mimeographed newsletter. The GB articles got a little seamy at times, especially on trips. But I maintained my usual high cartooning standards (Ha!).

On Saturday morning, we’d meet in Rehearsal Hall for a “skull session” rehearsal prior to the game. Visiting relatives and band alumni would cram into the building to hear us practice. These sessions became so popular that when the new St. John Arena was built, we held the skull session rehearsals there. That huge facility accommodated thousands of people, and high school bands came in droves. We always looked forward to the Saturday when our hometown band attended.

My first ramp entrance was an experience I shall never forget (although they were all exhilarating!) The ten drummers entered the field from the north ramp of the stadium in two columns, formed a single row on the 2-1/2 yard line, and began the drum cadence.  Then the rest of the band marched onto the field in two columns, splitting into a Y-formation at the grass line, half the column veering parallel to the east sideline, the other half to the west, with each row turning in at its respective yard line.  When we were all on the field, the drum major, George Souder, raced full-speed down the ramp, through the center of the band, stopping 15 yards in front of the band, and, to the roar of the crowd, bent over backwards, touching his guard-style hat on the ground behind him–he looked like a coiled snake, ready to strike! The drums gave the roll-off, we bandsmen flourished our instruments to our lips and turned in unison toward the south end of the stadium, and began playing the introduction to the Buckeye Battle Cry, executing the majestic, in-place, high-step strut. At the chorus, we moved out in formation, 8 steps to 5 yards – our trademark quickstep - while 60,000 goose-bump-covered fans jumped to their feet and went wild. “Drive, drive on down the field, Men of the Scarlet and Grey, …” We stopped in front of the flagpole, which was then located at the south end of the field.  After playing the National Anthem, we would typically execute one or two pre-game formations, then assemble in the awesome, counter-rotating, block-O formation, which meant only one thing–the Script Ohio was on its way! The song we played as George “traced” the letters on the field with his baton was “Le Regiment De Sambre at Meuse,” the French national march. Once we had finished forming the script Ohio, we played “Carmen Ohio” and scooted off the field. In an instant, Woody Hayes and the Buckeye team exploded from the south end of the field, and it was kickoff time! It doesn’t get much more exciting than that! I was privileged to be a part of this extravagant ritual for four years.

RYAN LEONARD ’03 (LM)
While a student at Ohio State, one of my favorite traditions on game-day Saturdays was waking up early getting geared up in my scarlet and gray and heading to my friend, Bobby's. Just walking around early and seeing other students clad in Ohio State hats and shirts, grilling food, playing games, and having a good time. I loved walking through the streets hearing everyone yelling, "O-H," and yelling back at the top of my lungs "I-O!" This yelling gets even louder as we head to the stadium from Bobby's. When my sister came to campus as a freshman, this tradition was passed on to her, and it became one of her favorite traditions.

Now that I am an alumni and I do not have the privilege of going to every home game like I used to, I am following new traditions. On game days, when I wake up early, I start the day off by popping in the Ohio State Marching Band CD.  I get to hear all of my favorite game-day songs and I start to get ready. I still put on all of my scarlet and gray and park myself in front of the TV to watch College Game Day on ESPN. Then, as game time approaches, the CD still playing, my family and I gather in front of the TV and watch the game. During the game, we have the grill going, cooking brats, burgers, and hot dogs. The smells take me back to campus as I walk over to Bobby's and then to the stadium.

These traditions make game-day Saturdays so much fun. My family and I follow these traditions for every game. When I come back to campus for a game, I always park East of campus just so I can still hear the people yelling "O-H," and I can yell back, "I-O!" That sound makes me smile, laugh, and remember the times that I had at school. 


RANDY HARVEY OTT ’61 MS, ’66 PHD (LM)
My favorite football game-day tradition is when TBDBITL marches out of the North end of the ‘Shoe, with a sole drummer doing the cadence. If you are real quiet, you can hear them right now. In fact, I see and hear them every day. Your story "The Greatest Show on Turf" was absolutely wonderful. I shed many tears reading it--tears of joy of how proud I am to be a Buckeye. There truly is no grander production than a Buckeye Football Game!

We live in Albuquerque, N.Mex. and we watch all the games at a local sports bar. The game with the "school up north" is already on my mind daily.  


MIKE RETHMAN ’74 DDS (LM)
My favorite game day tradition includes arriving at the Eastside Grill, about a mile from Waikiki Beach at 5:30 a.m. (for a 12:10 p.m. EDT game), with my wife, Gilia Iafolla Rethman ’74 (LM), arranging a display of our Club's aloha apparel, hanging up Ohio State banners and inflating our 8-foot Brutus doll. As the sun comes up and aloha-garbed Buckeyes wander in (sometimes we attract 75 to 100) in their scarlet and gray regalia, I order a much-deserved Bloody Mary for the 6:10 a.m. kickoff. We always have fun meeting mainland Buckeyes vacationing in nearby Waikiki. I mua Buckeyes and aloha!


JAMIE SECOR ’04
My favorite football game-day tradition is the singing of "Carmen Ohio" after the game. I remember struggling through the words after my first game (Penn State) in the 'Shoe, and barely being able to sing through my tears after my last (Michigan State). It is just one of many things that I miss about Columbus on game day.


ROBERT E. WOOD ’57
Coming from Crestline, Ohio, a town of 5,000 people, and assembling with 5,000 new freshman on the Oval, I was amazed at the size of the University. Wow! What am I doing here? But selling football programs really helped me to become a part of this great institution, and to develop an Ohio State spirit.
 
In September, 1952, while the football team, the band, stadium personnel, etc. were preparing for the 2 p.m. game, I was picking up my bundle of football programs and moving to my station at about 9 a.m. It amazed me people were already starting to arrive at the campus and the Horseshoe Stadium. Selling programs was an opportunity for me to finance a little of my education, even though I only received 25 cents per program sold. It was here that I learned to “hawk” the programs, and often sold a program to an individual who wasn’t sure he wanted one, and this lesson was applied some thirty years later.

Thirty years later my children were in high school athletic programs, the parents were expected to participate in fundraisers. I volunteered to sell football programs, and was able to utilize the skills I developed at the Ohio State.