3 Things You Should Know about Ohio Stadium

Ohio Stadium, also known as “The Horseshoe,” or more commonly “The Shoe,” and home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes, opened for business in 1922. It was built largely to handle the crowds who came out to see Buckeye legend Chic Harley, who was an amazing player both offensively and defensively. One Buckeye fan said, “You know it’s the same with my wife. You have to be good on both offense and defense. On offense, you need to be creative with the stories you tell her. On defense, you need to be able to bob and weave quickly to avoid being hit by various pots, pans and kitchen utensils.”

Ohio Stadium is the third biggest football stadium in the country. Columbus, site of the Ohio State fair, where they show the third largest rooting pig in the country. His name is Henry, and he is owned by farmer Oliver P. Pickle. Mr. Pickle said, “Henry is an eating machine. That boy will eat just about anything you set in front of them. One time, we came back from church, and we had stopped off to the local diner for some post church breakfast. Well, we walk out on the sidewalk and we see a fellow they’re selling leather billfolds, wallets and other whatnot. I need a new leather scabbard for my Japanese sword I bought on QVC, so we bought one of them, and cousin Ivan selected a nice variety of wallets that he plans to give out to his nephews at Christmas. Well, no sooner had we got out of the truck, but Henry stuck his big nose in there, pulled the bag out of the floor next to the passenger seat, and proceeded to eat every wallet, billfold and scabbard we had purchased that day. I mean it was a tragedy. But it didn’t hurt Henry but none, in fact I think he was walking a little prouder after that. Gosh darn if I can explain it.”

The original seating capacity of Ohio Stadium was 66,210 fans. The population of the city at that time was approximately 250,000 people. That means that 25 percent of the city could fit inside the stadium. “Yes, we knew right away that we could use the stadium for much more than football,” a city official said. “In the off-season, we use to open a summer camp for kids. We blocked off the open side of the shoe with giant fences made of buckeyes, mud, straw and peeled off labels from root beer bottles. Then we’d fill up the issue with water so the kids could swim from an zoned to end zone. Some of the more athletic kids would get up on top of the field goal markers, swing their body around to get some sharp typical force going, and fling themselves out to the 50 yard line before they splashed. One kid hit wrong, and he had more red marks on his body then a slice of pimento loaf.”