We visited just before The Game, in case you couldn't tell. Photo: Tyler Buchanan/Axios
Our Franklin County Historical Marker Tour heads to the home of the Buckeyes, who are gearing up for (hopefully) another deep College Football Playoff run.
The marker: Ohio Stadium Centennial - "The Shoe" Turns 100, at 411 Woody Hayes Drive.
The intrigue: The stadium was an architectural marvel when it opened in 1922 with reinforced concrete construction, double-deck seating and its famous horseshoe design, the marker notes.
Three more things you might not know about the stadium's early years:
📐 Is there an architect in the house?Howard Dwight Smith, a professor in OSU's architecture school, designed it.
Smith later spent decades as a university architect, designing St. John Arena, the Thompson Library tower and many other buildings.
🪑 Hooray for wooden seats!OSU touted that fans would "not be forced to sit on cold cement," as was the case in most other stadiums at the time.
🫡 Earning an Usher Badge: Early games featured 500 Columbus Boy Scouts serving as ushers, along with:
56 ticket-takers and sellers,
200 concessionaires,
50 program sellers,
And seven students operating the scoreboard.
What's next: The Buckeyes play New Year's Eve in a quarterfinal game between the winner of Miami vs. Texas A&M (Dec. 20).
