THE SHOE

 In 1922, Ohio State University opened it's stadium with a capacity of 66,210.  At the time of it's construction, it was purported to be the largest poured concrete structure in the world.  

The stadium was a replacement for Ohio Field which was built in 1898.  The school used Ohio Field as a venue for not only football but track and field.  Originally, the field held about 500 fans but was expanded to 20,000 when the Buckeyes won their first Western Conference (precursor of the Big 10) football championships in 1916 and 1917.  It was estimated that almost 40,000 fans found a way to watch a game with the Illini in 1919.  Much of the football team's early success and popularity is laid at the hands of Chic Harley (1916,17,19); a gifted football player and, I think, a close friend of my friend Dick Welsh. 

Ohio Stadium is an all concrete structure whose capacity has been expanded to 102,780 with recent  alterations.  It is the third largest on-campus stadium in the United States behind Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, MI and  Beaver Stadium in University Park, PA.  Ohio Stadium was originally built in the shape of a horse-shoe with an open end.  The greed for more stadium revenue prompted the university to enclose the open end.  Many people still refer to the structure as "the shoe" (short for horseshoe) and others as "the house that Harley built."  

The largest non-football crowd in the stadium was for a Pink Floyd concert in 1994 - no chance of losing to Michigan that day.  That day, some people from the Cincinnati area may have been tempted to make the trek northward.  My fondest memories of the structure are not for the few Buckeye games I've attended but for the Fenwick High School State finals held there in the 1980s.