Saturday afternoon, the streets of Columbus overflowed with a sea of red and white, the typical indication of gameday at Ohio State University. This weekend, the crowd was sprinkled with green, the mark of Bobcats who made the hour-long trip to support their football team as they faced the national champions.
The last time Ohio University played OSU was in 2010 when the Bobcats were defeated 43-7. 15 years later, the teams faced each other again during primetime. Ohio Stadium’s capacity of 102,780 was exceeded by nearly 3,000 attendees, and despite little hope for a Bobcat victory, supporters looked forward to some solid gameplay.
“It’ll be closer than everyone thinks,” Jack Turner, a freshman studying pharmaceutical sciences at OSU, said a few hours before kickoff. “My prediction is 31-14.”
Sara Greenaway, a sophomore studying marketing at OU and Turner’s girlfriend of over two years, joined him for the day's festivities.
“You can’t miss this game,” Greenaway said. “It’s so close, you kind of have to come.”
Despite wearing opposing colors, the two saw the game as an occasion to celebrate each other's schools and compare the differences between football cultures.
“People leave after the band (at OU games), but at OSU I feel like everyone stays the whole time unless it’s a blowout,” Greenaway said.
Although Turner agrees about the caliber of OU’s beloved Marching 110, there was one caveat to his concession.
“The 110 is better than the Ohio State Marching Band, but Script Ohio, you can’t beat,” Turner said in reference to the OSU band’s famous pregame drill.
The simmering rivalry between schools permeates other relationships during the year and came to a head this weekend. Kelly Ernst, a junior studying visual communications, came to Columbus to visit her best friend, who has a nickname for OU.
“It’s brotherly love,” Ernst said. “She (calls us) little brother, which is annoying because we were here first.”
Adding to this sibling bond, Ernst turned the weekend into an event for her whole family.
“My best friend goes here, my family came up,” Ernst said. “It was just a whole big to-do, it was really fun.”
Ernst travelled to Columbus with a group of friends from OU, including Natalie Bak, a junior studying biology. Over the course of the weekend, Bak found OSU’s emphasis on gameday traditions and festivities is “much, much, much bigger than OU.”
“I have a lot of friends that go here and they always are sat to watch the game,” Ernst said. “They love the football here. Most of the students I know, including myself … don’t really care.”
Despite their disinterest in OU sports and recognizing the likelihood of a victory for OSU, both Ernst and Bak got the chance to experience a different football atmosphere with the bonus of a historic game.
“It just seemed like a once in a lifetime thing, and I wanted to hang out with my friends,” Bak said.
Despite over a decade passing between matchups, the latest face-off between OU and OSU ended with the same outcome: a victory for the Buckeyes, 37-9. Nevertheless, the OU team put up a good fight throughout and gained some valuable experience looking toward their next game against Gardner-Webb University on Sept. 20.
The effort put in by the green and white players against such a formidable opponent made their fans proud, including Bak and Ernst, who went into the evening with resounding support for their team.
“Go Bobcats!” Ernst said.
