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Site of First OSU Home Football Game Has Place In History
OSU Football Coach Jim Tressel among those dedicating new historical marker Oct. 20
Oct. 17, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio State University fought and lost its first home football game on Nov. 1, 1890 on a field called Recreation Park. The College of Wooster, playing its fourth game in team history, won 64-0.
This central Ohio sports landmark, lost in the public consciousness until recently, will be memorialized with a new Ohio Historical Marker to be dedicated on Friday, Oct. 20 at 11 a.m. at the Giant Eagle store at Whittier and Jaeger streets in Columbus, the current site of the game played more than a century ago.
The historical marker, one of 1,141 around the state that commemorate significant people, places and events in Ohio's past, will be unveiled after brief remarks by leaders of The Ohio State University, the College of Wooster and the Ohio Historical Society.
Joining OHS Executive Director Bill Laidlaw at the podium will be Ohio State Football Coach
Jim Tressel, Ohio State President Karen Holbrook, Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith and two of their counterparts at the College of Wooster - President Raleigh Hales and Athletic Director Keith Beckett.
Members of the
OSU Pep Band will play the Fight Song, the
OSU alma mater and the Wooster alma mater. The marker dedication takes place as Wooster begins its homecoming celebration.
"Imagine a time when college football players did not wear helmets, when games were played without lights and when fans could not experience the game on television or radio," Laidlaw said. "Imagine a time when a few hundred fans showed up for a college football game. Imagine a time when there was no Brutus Buckeye or a Fighting Scot -- or any divisions in college football. Imagine a time when there was no Script Ohio - imagine even a time when there was no marching band or pep band. Imagine a time when the Ohio State Buckeyes could lose a game, 64 to nothing. Imagine a time when they could lose to a more experienced and practiced team --- from Wooster.
"Imagine a time when there was no Buckeye football tradition. It had to start somewhere, and this is where it all began."
The marker's road to dedication began with the hard work of neighborhood leaders Carol Porter of the Schumacher Place Civic Association and long-time local history supporter Court Hall Jr. of German Village. Together, they championed their marker idea with the Ohio Historical Society's Local History Office, which coordinates the marker program statewide. The marker also won strong support from
OSU, the College of Wooster and Giant Eagle.
"This was a great idea from the beginning," said J.D. Britton, head of the Society's local history office. "At the time we first began discussing the possibility, we had relatively few markers dedicated to Ohio's rich sports history, and this was a perfect fit."
Britton said the marker has close ties with long-time supporters of the Society's local history program. Court Hall has supported the Local History program soon after its formation in the early 1980s. The late Eloise Tressel, mother of
Jim Tressel, served many years as president of the Berea Area Historical Society and was a former president of the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums, a statewide coalition of local historical
organizations staffed and supported by the Ohio Historical Society.
"We're delighted that this marker can help honor the football program that today is led by the son of our long-time local history advocate, Eloise Tressel," Britton said. "This marker represents a wonderful convergence of past and present in local history."
On one side, the marker reads: "In the fall, life for many in Columbus revolves around Ohio State University football, from the first kickoff in September to the last play in November. O.S.U.'s first home game took place at 2:30 p.m. on November 1, 1890. The Ohio State University played the University of Wooster on this site, which was then called Recreation Park. Just east of historic German Village, the park occupied the north side of Schiller (now Whittier) between Ebner and Jaeger in what is now Schumacher Place. The weather was perfect, and the crowd reportedly included a number of women, who cheered loudly. Nonetheless, O.S.U. lost to Wooster, 64-0. Wooster, physically fit for the game, showed O.S.U. that training is critical to winning. The tradition of training continues. Today, on football Saturdays in Ohio Stadium on Woody Hayes Drive, the sound of an O.S.U. game can be heard around the world."
The other side of the marker lists the names of the coaches, captains and team players in 1890.
The Ohio Historical Markers Program has been administered by the Ohio Historical Society since 1957. information about the more than 1,100 markers now in place statewide is available at a new interactive website,
www.remarkableohio.org, a partnership between the Ohio Historical Society and the Ohio Channel.
"We want to continue to grow our markers program," Britton said. "The markers stand as an important means of presenting Ohio's history. Dedication ceremonies like the one in Schumacher Place publicly celebrate Ohio's past and help to promote the state's cultural, natural and physical history."
In addition to Porter, Hall and Britton, other members of the historical marker team were Linda Welch, president of the Schumacher Place Civic Association; Daniel M. Slane, former chairman of the
OSU Board of Trustees; Richard C. Crawford, member of the
OSU Athletic Council; and Fran Poniatowski, manager of Giant Eagle on Whittier Street.
10-17-2006, 10:33 PM
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