Ohio State

Ohio State football grew from a late nineteenth-century campus sport into one of the defining programs in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes began playing in 1890 and steadily built an identity around state pride, packed Saturdays in Columbus, and the idea that the best players in Ohio should wear scarlet and gray. Chic Harley, the brilliant early star of the 1910s, helped turn the program into a regional obsession and gave Ohio Stadium its first heroic figure.

The program’s national profile accelerated under Paul Brown and then exploded under Woody Hayes. Brown delivered a wartime national championship in 1942, while Hayes became the towering personality of Ohio State football, pairing bruising line play with a fierce belief in discipline, toughness, and the running game. The Hayes era also hardened the Michigan rivalry into the emotional center of the program, especially during the famous Ten Year War against Bo Schembechler.

Ohio State’s tradition is also tied to star power. Archie Griffin remains unique in the sport as a two-time Heisman Trophy winner, and the Buckeyes have produced wave after wave of All-Americans, first-round draft picks, and championship-caliber defenses. From the 1968 “Super Sophomores” to modern stars at quarterback, receiver, defensive back, and defensive end, the program has rarely gone long without players who feel larger than the season they played in.

In the modern era, Jim Tressel restored a championship edge with the 2002 national title, Urban Meyer delivered another crown in the first College Football Playoff season, and Ryan Day kept Ohio State in the playoff conversation while adding the 2024 national championship. For college football fans, Ohio State’s history is about consistency at the very top: huge crowds, bitter rivalry stakes, national recruiting reach, and a standard where anything short of championship contention feels incomplete.