A few hours at the Horseshoe

I've lived in Columbus for nearly 25 years now and until today I had never been to an Ohio State Football game. The only times I set foot in Ohio Stadium were for a Crew match before their stadium was built and a game of the Ohio Glory of the doomed World Football League. For a staff appreciation, the President of the University put some tickets up for a staff drawing and I was one of the winners.

My friend Alexis and her husband joined my Wife and I for a lot of firsts. We were wandering around outside the fan fest and saw the cheerleaders being thrown into the air. And there was Brutus Buckeye. Alexis had gumption and wanted a picture with the legendary mascot. I joined her.

I love mascots and can now cross a picture with Brutus off the list. We got into St. John Arena and watched the marching band do their skull session. A pep rally of sorts.

The band members in red are the alumni band, who had a reunion this weekend. Over 700 members took part today, more on that in a bit.

C-Deck of Ohio Stadium has 41 rows. We were in row 41. There were a lot of stairs to climb. Jokes were made. Who needs binoculars when we can summon the Hubble! We did find our seats without the need of a Sherpa.

There was nothing behind us but a concrete wall. I climbed on our seat and looked over the top of the stadium. Here's the view. 

Bought a Coke, the label was very ironic considering the firing of OSU Marching Band Director, Jon Waters, just a few weeks ago. There are a lot of feelings about this still going around. 

It was my wife's first live football game, she's trying, even with little oxygen. Maybe that's why we're both smiling. 

The background is a concrete wall. The backrest to our seats. At halftime the bands came out and did four Script Ohios. It was rather impressive.

Over 100,000 people were in attendance. That's a city within a city. Sometime in here a half of football was played and Ohio State was totally in control. They were ahead 45-0 at the break and won 66-0. Watching a rout is not much fun so we left after the band played, with many other people. I did take one last picture.

If you look inside the stadium and spot the blue flag on the right, the open space to the lower left of the flag - that is exactly were we were sitting.