Inside ‘The Shoe’

A legendary football team needs a legendary rival. At The Ohio State University, home of the Buckeyes, that rival is M-M-M-Michigan. Wait, say our secret sources in Columbus. We can’t just say that name out loud! Our Buckeye brethren will only admit it in hushed tones. “That team up north,” they whisper. All we can tell you is that it starts with an M.

So let’s get real about the House that Harley Built (that would be Chic Harley, Ohio State’s first true star, who played for Ohio State from 1916 to 1919). It’s the place where fans from that team up north cross state lines for the annual showdown known simply as The Game. Ohio Stadium is a towering feat of early-20th-century engineering, a classic poured concrete structure that at its unveiling in 1922 was the largest structure of its kind in the world. The architectural inspiration was Harvard Stadium, itself a horseshoe-shaped poured concrete colossus modeled after the ancient Greek arenas that housed the first Olympic Games.

The stadium boasts a stunning rotunda at its entrance in addition to many flourishes that were unique innovations in their time, including curved seat rows (the better to give Buckeye fans good sightlines), interior walkway ramps, and no less than 78 gates (the better to fill the stadium quickly with those fans). Designer Howard Dwight Smith, an Ohio State professor of architecture, won the 1921 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for public architecture for this remarkable achievement. Fans today call the stadium simply “The Shoe.”

It’s a house built for a storied program. The Buckeyes have collected 37 Big Ten titles and eight national championships (most recently in the 2014 season, when the Buckeyes blasted Oregon 42-20 in the title game). In addition to Harley, legendary players who have graced this field include running back Archie Griffin, the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner in history; running back Eddie George, himself a Heisman winner; and offensive tackle Orlando Pace. And that’s just football. Perhaps the most famous athlete ever to grace Ohio Stadium was sprinter Jesse Owens, who plied his trade at Ohio State while honing the sprint skills that led him to four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

To the Buckeyes’ biggest fans, Ohio Stadium is all about family. Take Bill Tuttle of Bowling Green, Ohio. Tuttle married into an Ohio State family and promptly took up the mantle of chief Buckeye party master. The classic Block O and buckeye leaf insignia is spray-painted onto a rock at his home, a short drive from the border with, um, that team up north. The party’s at his house every game day when he’s not at Ohio Stadium; a while back, two elderly ladies stopped by and admitted they just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

In 2003, Tuttle scored a $5 ticket to the North Carolina State game (the fan who sold him the seat told him, “I just want enough money to buy a pop and a pretzel”). Tuttle sat “in the closed end of The Shoe, C deck,” he remembers. The Buckeyes were coming off a national championship season. NC State’s quarterback was a guy named Philip Rivers. The Buckeyes stayed with the Wolfpack all the way to triple overtime. They won the game 44-38 on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Craig Krenzel to Michael Jenkins. Tuttle watched that game in the presence of no less than 104,890 fellow members of Buckeye Nation; today, Ohio Stadium boasts the sixth-largest college football stadium in the United States. (Don’t ask who’s number one on that list. Hint: that team up north.)

Tuttle says it simply. “Best game we’ve ever seen.”

Ohio Stadium has given fans memories to last decades. Going back to the week of The Game again — when the annual face-off comes around, all the letter Ms on the Ohio State campus are crossed out. Signage on campus is literally defaced (temporarily, one hopes) to remind all Ohioans that on game day at Ohio Stadium, there is only one football team to cheer for, and there are only 25 letters in the alphabet. And when that team up north enters Ohio Stadium, over 100,000 people remind them exactly where they’ve landed.

What some have dubbed as “the greatest rivalry in sports,” wouldn’t be possible without such a solid fanbase and equally solid home-base like Ohio Stadium. And all of this toting of both Ohio State’s fan- and home-base is no exaggeration. Case in point: just this October. When Ohio State had its latest matchup with Michigan State, Buckeye fans broke an unexpected record. The 104,797 stadium-goers at the Oct. 5 game against Michigan State set an all-time high for most Wi-Fi data used during a single-day event, with 25.6 terabytes, according to the Ohio State Department of Athletics. For perspective, that’s more than both Super Bowl 53 and the Final Four game of this year. There’s no denying Buckeyes show up and show support, whether they’re in the stadium or in the Twittersphere.

But what’s more, these Wi-Fi records, fan testimonials, legendary rivalries, all reveal how The Shoe is one of sports great stadiums.