Ohio State Buckeyes

Damaine Vonada and Jeff McCallister

Ohio history

Heisman

sbradford — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 17:32:47 +0000

Heisman

September 1, 2025

Most college football fans in the Buckeye State hear the word “Heisman” and think immediately of the six Ohio State University players who have won the sport’s most prestigious award — most notably, perhaps, of Archie Griffin, still the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice.

Some might also know that five other Heisman winners were born in Ohio (and that doesn’t include 2019 winner Joe Burrow, who played for Athens High and briefly attended OSU but was in fact born in Iowa).

But with the approach of the 90th anniversary of the first award in 1935, only the most trivia-minded will know the famed trophy’s true Ohio connection.

John W. Heisman himself, the renowned innovator and Hall of Fame coach — the award’s namesake — was born in Cleveland in 1859. And though he grew up in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and played football for Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania, his first coaching jobs were at Oberlin College in 1892 (a season in which the Yeomen beat Ohio State not once but twice, by a combined score of 90–0) and Buchtel College, which is now the University of Akron.

“John Heisman was a pioneer and one of the most important names in college football,” says Denis Crawford, a historian and exhibit designer at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. “Pop Warner is top level; Walter Camp is an all-American. But Heisman is a name you’re going to remember for as long as they give out this award.”

The Heisman Memorial Trophy is presented annually in December to the nation’s outstanding college football player. When it was first awarded by New York City’s Downtown Athletic Club in 1935, to University of Chicago running back Jay Berwanger, it was called simply the DAC Trophy. The following year, however, its name was changed to honor the club’s late athletic director, who had overseen the creation of the award: none other than the retired coaching legend, John W. Heisman, who died on October 3, 1936.

Why did Heisman deserve that honor, one that has not only withstood the test of time, but becomes more prestigious with each passing year? In a word, says Crawford, excellence. Some of Heisman’s “innovations” have become the most basic elements of today’s game; without them, it’s unlikely that college football would be the exciting, entertaining spectacle it is today.

He was the first, for example, to start offensive plays with a snap from center and the first to have players shift positions before the start of the play. He designed the earliest version of the reverse, a double-handoff play designed to get the defense moving the wrong way; his “hidden ball” play was basically an extremely well-executed precursor to the fake handoff. And while he didn’t actually invent the forward pass (it was first used by accident in a game he was scouting), it was only through his advocacy that the play became legal in 1906. He even invented the practice of posting the score, down, and yards to go on a scoreboard.

His early success at Oberlin drew the attention of some powerhouse teams in the South, and he was hired to coach the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) in 1895 and at Clemson five seasons later. His most prolific period was during his time at Georgia Tech, where he arrived in 1904. He stayed for 16 seasons, turning the school into a national football powerhouse whose 1915, 1916, and national champion 1917 teams were unbeaten.

One of the wins in 1916, a 222–0 triumph over Cumberland, was said to be revenge for an earlier 22–0 win by the Cumberland baseball team over the Heisman-coached Georgia Tech team. It remains the largest margin of victory in college football history.

During the offseasons, Heisman managed a summer stock theatrical company and traveled around the South giving performances.

John M. Heisman, the coach’s great-nephew, remembers returning home for a holiday visit in 1972 and finding his father, William, with travel trunks full of old manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and photographs. A minister in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, had found the trunks, packed them and their contents in protective plastic, and shipped them to their owner’s nearest living relative. The trunks had belonged to the legendary coach, who had been married to a Rhinelander native and so was laid to rest in the northeastern Wisconsin town.

“When I was growing up, my father told me stories about my [great-] uncle John and used them as life lessons,” John says. He spent the entire next summer sorting and reading the contents, but in the fall of 1973, he went back to Ohio State to finish his degrees, and the trunks went to the back burner.

Fast-forward to 1984, when John was settled in Toledo and decided to return to the contents of the trunks. He wrote more than 400 pages, whittled away at the book, and polished it. A friend connected John with book publisher Simon & Schuster and introduced him to Mark Schlabach, an investigative reporter and bestselling author, who helped him frame and flesh out its narrative.

Published in 2012, Heisman, the Man Behind the Trophy is still in print. It not only covers the coaching career of his great-uncle, but also tells stories about some of the coach’s other passions — for example, Heisman also was a Shakespeare enthusiast, actor, and theater producer who appeared in dozens of plays during and after his coaching career, many to rave reviews.

“I appreciate being able to tell his story,” John says. “Everybody is gaga about the trophy, but there is so much more Americana in Coach Heisman’s story. What happened before the Trophy was much more important.”

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football

The 'Shoe at 100

sbradford — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 20:09:14 +0000

The 'Shoe at 100

September 1, 2022

Alicia Adams

These days, as we watch more than 100,000 fans pack Ohio Stadium for Buckeyes football, weekend after weekend each fall, it’s impossible to imagine Ohio State University without it.

The centerpiece of the Ohio State University campus and an iconic image of college football in general, Ohio Stadium turns 100 years old in October. Since its opening in 1922, it is estimated more than 50 million people have been in the stadium for game attendance.

Incredibly, however, according to OSU Head of Archives Tamar Chute, the stadium wasn’t always a given.

“We think, in 2022, that this stadium was inevitable — that it was inevitable it was going to be a double-decker and that it was going to be built for more than 60,000 people [its original capacity]. And of course, we inevitably enclose it because we knew we would fill it up so much, right?” Chute says. “Those assumptions are just not true.”

“There was a lot of debate at the time over this crazy, new, huge building,” Chute says. “Why did we need the stadium? What was its purpose? And why would there be more than 60,000 people coming to watch a game? If you looked at their reasons when they talked about it, they rarely, if ever, mentioned football.”

In fact, the stadium came about more as a result of the world’s geopolitical climate than any success of the football team. “Education was a really important driver at the time, as was physical and military preparedness, because these conversations were taking place right after World War I,” Chute says. “The aftermath of that war really tied into the purpose of the stadium. They wanted it for the entire university, for the overall sense of well-being of the students. They wanted to make it something that people cared about, regardless of whether they cared about football.”

The aftermath of [World War I] really tied into the purpose of the stadium. they wanted it for the entire university, for the overall sense of well-being of the students. They wanted to make it something that people cared about, regardless of whether they cared about football.

A unique design

The stadium is affectionately nicknamed “the ’Shoe” for its original horseshoe-shaped outline. Construction on it began in August 1920, and when completed two years later, it was the largest poured-concrete structure in the world.

Local architect Howard Dwight Smith, an Ohio State alumnus and later a professor of architecture — and eventually the university architect — designed the double-deck style and pioneered new architectural techniques during its construction, such as slurry walls that kept out the nearby Olentangy River floodwaters. When the stadium hosted its dedication game against Michigan on Oct. 22, 1922, it filled its seating capacity of 66,210, leaving an overflow of 5,000 fans to stand. After several expansions, the stadium is currently the fourth-largest on-campus facility in the country, with a seating capacity of 104,581 (though more than 110,000 packed in for the 2016 game against Michigan).

Not just a stadium

The stadium’s history is steeped in memorable moments beyond football. It stands as a witness to the annual spring commencement ceremonies; was the original home of the Columbus Crew Major League Soccer team; and has played host to several mega-concerts such as the Rolling Stones, U2, and numerous incarnations of the Buckeye Country Superfest.

But the ’Shoe is more than just a venue for entertainment and graduation. “Ohio Stadium holds a special place in the hearts of all Buckeyes; it is a place of historic significance,” says OSU President Kristina Johnson. “Families have celebrated a loved one’s academic achievement here, champions have been crowned here, and it has helped so many of us fall in love with what it means to be a part of the Ohio State community.”

A home for students

While it’s a well-known fact that students regularly fill the stadium on game days, the general public might not know that students used to actually live in the stadium. In 1933, the OSU Dean of Men, Joseph A. Park, created the Stadium Scholarship Dormitory for students who otherwise couldn’t afford to go to college.

The scholarship offered students reduced tuition and sleeping quarters inside the stadium in exchange for taking care of dormitory housekeeping chores. The dormitory grew along the west side of the stadium and attracted attention, including a visit from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The program exists today, though because of expansions and renovations, the dormitory moved out of the stadium and into Mack Hall in 1999.

The sense of community and special living circumstances of the Stadium Scholarship Dormitory, however, still resonate with former residents. “Even today, more than 20 years later, I still love to tell people I lived in the ’Shoe and had 95,000 die-hard, screaming Buckeye football nuts in my backyard on Saturdays,” says Jessica (Miller) Banks, a former resident and resident advisor from 1995 to 1997. “I have several close groups of friends that I’m still in contact with on a regular basis. The SSD (Stadium Scholarship Dormitory) was unique in that we all lived and worked there, and having nearly 300 people in your everyday life made a huge campus seem small.”

Celebrating the memories

Ohio State University graduates echo similar heartfelt sentiments about the stadium — even if they didn’t live within its walls. “All my memories of Ohio Stadium are linked to family memories,” says Marcia Dowds, class of ’89. “Going to games with one sister, visiting the other when she lived in the stadium dorms, weekends spent with out-of-town relatives coming in for the tailgates and games. Like a childhood home, the stadium represents some of the best memories of my life in Columbus and my time at Ohio State University.”

Maureen Cahill, class of ’81, summed up her feelings about the stadium, capturing the essence of what the original planners had intended. “When at Ohio State University, everybody wants a chance to be in the ’Shoe and be part of what happens in the ’Shoe — it doesn’t matter what the activity is,” she says. “It could be sports, a commencement, or it could be the Special Olympics. It’s just being part of something bigger than yourself, and that’s amazing.”

All photos used in this article are courtesy of Ohio State University Archives.

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Ohio history

Paul Brown: Gridiron Great

sbradford — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 18:37:36 +0000

Paul Brown: Gridiron Great

October 1, 2021

Alicia Adams

Cleveland native and Hollywood actress Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle once told a joke about pro football coach Paul Brown: “A football player died and went to heaven. He saw a football game in progress and on the sidelines, a man in a tie, coat, and fedora hat watching intently. The football player asked St. Peter, ‘Is that Paul Brown?’ St. Peter responded, ‘No, that’s just God pretending to be Paul Brown.’”

The joke slyly illustrates the enormous impact and legacy Paul Brown had on the game of football. Pre-Brown, it was characterized mostly by brute force, with little intellectual finesse. Brown’s genius for innovation transformed it into the mental and analytical game that it is today.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Paul Brown’s death, and his innovations continue to touch almost every aspect of the modern-day sport. “Paul Brown was the pioneer of coaching the game of football as a science,” says former Ohio State University head coach Jim Tressell, now president of Youngstown State University. “Data analytics, meticulous practice planning, playbooks, use of film to study performance — Paul Brown made all of those a part of every coach’s repertoire. It was our study of Paul Brown’s 1942 national champions that gave us the blueprint to become the 2002 national champions.”

John Collins, a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association, takes that a step further: “In my opinion, Paul Brown is one of the greatest football coaches that ever lived, if not the greatest.”

Brown was born in Norwalk in 1908, but grew up in Massillon, where high school football is inextricably woven into the fabric of the history and culture.

As the quarterback for Washington High for two years, he led the Tigers to a 15-3 record. He enrolled at Ohio State, but when he didn’t make the team there, he transferred to Miami University in Oxford and went 14-3 in his two seasons as starting quarterback.

Brown became head coach at Washington High in 1932 at the age of just 24 and compiled an astonishing 80-8-2 record (not even including a preseason win in 1940 against Kent State University!). After the Tigers’ third consecutive undefeated season in 1940, Brown was hired at Ohio State in 1941 and led the Buckeyes to their first national championship in 1942.

Then the military called. Brown served and coached in the Navy during World War II, and while enlisted, was hired to coach Cleveland’s new professional team that, as a testament to his popularity (but against his wishes), bore his name: the Cleveland Browns. When he was eventually fired by owner Art Modell, Brown went on to co-found the Cincinnati Bengals in 1967.

Brown began revolutionizing the game while still coaching at Massillon. He invented a radical technique that now is commonplace: the playbook. Players learned formations and set plays and were tested on that knowledge. Brown also developed a method of calling plays from the sidelines using hand signals. A strict disciplinarian with the heart of a teacher, Brown made punctuality and attending classes as important as playing the game. He also emphasized nutrition and made sure his teams ate adequate amounts of wholesome foods by arranging meals through the local YMCA.

In a 2015 interview for the documentary Paul Brown: A Football Life, Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, told the NFL Network, “There is no one in the game that I have more respect for than Paul Brown. Everything that he did as a coach, 50 years later, everybody is still basically doing the same thing.”

It’s the most apt tribute that can be given to a man whose vision and genius were far ahead of their time.

Brown’s innovations

Paul Brown deployed almost all of his groundbreaking ideas once he reached the professional level. His accomplishments include:

First to use game film to analyze opponents’ weaknesses and scout for new talent
Helped invent the face guard and the radio headset for the football helmet
First to hire a full-time coaching staff
Instituted a college scouting system that is still in use today
First to implement the sideline telephone system to connect to the coaching staff who had a bird’s-eye view of the game
Developed the 40-yard dash to evaluate the speed and acceleration of players
Originated the taxi squad and the draw play
Created the West Coast Defense (also known as the Ohio River Offense)
Broke the color barrier in professional sports in 1946 by signing on Marion Motley and Bill Willis, a year before Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers

Paul Brown Museum: 121 Lincoln Way East, Massillon, Ohio 44646 (less than 10 miles from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton). www.paulbrownmuseum.org; 330-833-4061. Tues.– Sat. 9:30 a.m.– 5 p.m., Sun. 2–5 p.m.

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Ohio history

World War II

Superfan

sbradford — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 18:05:46 +0000

Superfan

August 31, 2021

Vicki Johnson

Between Ohio State University football and agriculture education, Urbana resident Larry Lokai has been wholeheartedly living his passion for 23 years.

When the pandemic called an 11-month halt to his attending football games and making myriad public appearances, the 79-year-old icon — also known as Buckeyeman — says he felt like a part of him was missing. “I don’t feel complete,” he says. “I guess that’s the best way to say it.”

So as restrictions eased in late spring and early summer, Lokai eased himself back into the game. He donned his trademark scarlet-and-gray wig, painted face, and strings of buckeyes and began making a few personal appearances.

Now, as football season approaches, he’s ready to go all-in and plans to be there once again — a favorite of both fans and television cameras at the games.

Along with the hair and face paint, Lokai’s Buckeyeman is best known for handing out buckeyes, the fruit of the Ohio buckeye tree. As he’s expanded the role, he says he’s handed out more than 1.8 million of them.

“Every student who’s come through orientation since 2002 on the main campus has received a buckeye from me,” he says. More recently, he’s also begun giving the nuts to new students at the Mansfield and Marion branches.

In addition, he’s given away 1,800 buckeye tree seedlings in the last 16 years, all of which he grew in his yard — though that portion of the Buckeyeman legacy ended last year. “I gave up trying to keep up with Johnny Appleseed,” Lokai says.

Agriculture tradition

Buckeyeman is much more than a superfan at football games; his reach extends far into the community. Those trademark buckeyes are in fact more of an outgrowth of his agriculture background than a product of his fandom.

After earning his bachelor’s (1967) and master’s (1973) degrees from Ohio State, Lokai taught agriculture for 30 years before he retired in 1997. He also was a 4-H advisor and taught hunter education for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife for 25 years.

After his retirement — during the same years Buckeyeman arrived on the football scene — Lokai began a new ag career.

In 1998, he returned to Ohio State as coach of the poultry judging team for three years. In 2002, he returned to consulting with high school ag teams, and when his grandchildren started entering high school, he started working with their ag contest teams.

When his son started teaching ag education in 2013, Lokai decided that instead of competing against him, he’d help with his son’s teams instead. That, in turn, led to working with teams from more high schools.

Today, he continues to consult with FFA contest teams, and in 2019, four of the teams he worked with took the top four places in state competition. He also judges youth projects at county fairs. To date, he has judged poultry shows in 84 of Ohio’s 88 counties as well as in several neighboring states and as far away as California. Even during the pandemic, he judged at 21 county fairs.

“I can go to any county in Ohio and know somebody,” he says.

In 2016, Lokai was honored by OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences with its Distinguished Alumni Award.

Through his youth work, Lokai carries over his buckeye tradition, giving away buckeyes.

Birth of Buckeyeman

Huge quantities of buckeyes weren’t on Lokai’s mind when he first donned his “uniform.”

Buckeyeman was born in 1998 when Lokai scored tickets to the Ohio State-Michigan game right behind the Michigan bench. He decided to go ultra-Ohio State with face paint and a wig.

His alter ego got a boost in 2000 when he finished third in a Halls Cough Drops national contest to find the loudest college football fan, and by 2015, he was honored as the NCAA Fan of the Year.

Buckeyeman wears four strings of 42 buckeyes each around his neck — one string for each of his children who graduated from Ohio State and 42 because he was born in 1942.

In the early days, Lokai said he would rise at 4 a.m. and put on his face paint and costume. “By 6 a.m., I was at Bob Evans for breakfast, and I’d be at the stadium by 6:30 or 7,” he says. “The last few years, I’ve slept in until 5.”

Another change came eight years ago when Lokai gave up boards and committees to focus on youth activities and Buckeyeman appearances — including his 10-year seat on the Urbana City Council, state and county retired teachers associations, and others.

“I started counting up the meetings,” he says. “By the time I got done, I got out of seven organizations. I had 80 fewer meetings a year in 2014. In January 2014, the sun came up exactly the same.”

As fans gear up for this fall’s season of Ohio State football, Lokai looks forward to returning to his place as a superfan for his 24th year. “I’d like to go to 90 at least,” he says. “I’ll do it until it stops being fun.”

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