Eleven Warriors

Growing up in Toledo, you learn really quickly which side of the fence you are on.  Ohio State/Michigan day in elementary school was always trouble on the playground.

I knew I was a fan in 2002.  I'd been pretty casual up to that point, but for some odd reason, I followed the team from Spring Ball (reading the Dispatch Sports section with an insatiable thirst) through that whole meandering heart attack of a season.  The Fiesta Bowl truly crystallized all those emotions that led up to its playing; and by the time that Dorsey's lame duck flailed hoplessly to the turf, I knew in my heart that though there were a lot of seventh graders like me that rooted for the Buckeyes, there were damn few who were as hardcore as me.

I had all but decided to do my undergrad in Bloomington, as they'd offered me a nice scholarship and their "Communications and Culture" and business school seemed to be a perfect fit--but it was upon a chance conversation with a friend that I knew I was making a mistake.  She told me that while there were a myriad of other schools that were offering similar, if not better, options, that no school offered the broad wealth of programs like Ohio State.  In her heart, she truly was a Buckeye--and it was that love for her school that drove her to attend, the sheer contentedness of attending a school that she'd loved for so long was worth more than any degree from a more prestigious university.

After that talk, I realized that I would enjoy Indiana, but I would only love attending one school: The Ohio State University.  I have zero regrets about that decision. 

When I first heard Carmen Ohio - the chills I got (and still do) were unforgetable.

Both my parents are from Columbus and I was raised in California. I was always a fan but I "knew" it when I was 7, yelling at the tv when OSU loss to USC in the Rose Bowl. 

My dad and two older siblings all went to ohio state and I was adamant that there was no way I would end up there too. I had admissions materials from Kansas Pitt Xavier Clemson and others but when it came time to apply I only submitted one application. To The Ohio State University. I did fill out my Clemson application but I never submitted it. For me it came down to where I would want to be on fall Saturdays and that was in the shoe. 

Ohio native, moved out of state when I was four. Come from a large family on my father's side, so we always got 'home' annually. Was educated second hand from uncles and older cousins.

I missed Woody, and much of Earle....before really cutting my teeth as a Buckeye fan in the 90's. A stint in the military and undergraduate school in PA made for some rough times in the Cooper era.

Now living in the D.C. metro area, the last decade has been awesome...for the the most part. It's really looking great now, and with Maryland joining the B1G I couldn't be a prouder Buckeye.

I married into a Penn State (via my father in-law) family, but that seems to be working out.

Have a two year old son, who is picking up family traditions (his mother had no choice):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLtwsisDQGQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Go Buckeyes!

first was when my dad told me, sometime late 70's during woody's years, but too young to remember the games.

it solidified in the bruce years, chris carter and his red shoes, speilman hitting anything that moved.

when the band showed up at bruce's house and played carmen ohio cuz he just got fired and it was on the news and I was choking back tears, it was over forever.

I wish I could find that video of the band at his house, but no luck.  This will have to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Wu7hSGivs

Born a fan, but the moment I really became the fan I am today was OHSAA boys basketball tournament when Coldwater in 99/00? made the state semifinals in basketball. Tyler Vogel scored the first points ever in the Schott. Just the feeling on campus visiting made it special. 2002 opener vs Texas Tech was also really special, first OSU game, first time in the horseshoe.

I grew up in a non sports household in Cincy. It wasn't until my first year of Dental School in 1992 that I "became a Buckeye".  I was given a ticket to the homecoming game, I think it was Nerdwestern, and I've been hooked ever since.

Carmen Ohio brings a tear to my eye EVERY SINGLE TIME I hear it.  Even when it shuffles threw on my ipod in the car.  I usually blubber like a baby when I take one of my boys(9 and 6) to a game and we sing Carmen at the end.  Nothing is like sharing the experience with your kids.

I've known I was a buckeye since the first time I ever talked to a Michigan fan.

Not sure, technically when I graduated from OSU in 2010.

I would have to say it happen when I was bitten by a radioactive buckeye on a class field trip true story.

I was raised on baseball, but I learned about OSU watching the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. At my freshman orientation, I cried during Carmen Ohio.

The first game I remember watching on TV was OSU vs #1 Iowa in the rain.  That pretty much sealed the deal for me.

I remember watching games with my Dad and great uncle Ted.  They would cheer, cuss and scream at the tv each Saturday.  Earle Bruce would be beloved and hated so many times over course of a Saturday afternoon.  My first Spring Game was 1984 at Welcome Stadium in Dayton, which after the game fans were able to go on the field and get autographs. I was ten at the time and had to hustle a pen from a concession stand worker.  I still have my signed program by Mike Tomczak, Pepper Johnson, Keith Byars and others.  My first trip to Ohio Stadium was the 1987 Indiana game and we lost! Think back to the last time we lost to our little brother to the west.   Basically I was, have been a fan since the 1980's. 

The season Eddie won the Heisman did it for me. I was 10, and that is the first season i remember really watching football and comprehending what was goin on. Eddie, Terry Glenn, and all those guys on that team have been my favorites ever since. What a great season...

I was born at University Hospital while my dad was a dental school student.  He then started a practice in a small town in West Virginia upon graduation.  My parents watched all the Ohio State games on TV, and around age nine, I started to get interested.  I started asking to go to a game, and we went in the fall of '82.  Living where we lived at the time, Columbus may as well have been New York City, and I LOVED it.  Experiencing The Horseshoe was greater still.  They showed me the hospital where I was born, and I thought it was so cool (and still do) that I was born ON the campus of The Ohio State University.  The game we attended though was the Wisconsin game.  When you go to your first game, you want to see a win.  My mom assured me that Ohio State always beats Wisconsin, and for the most part, she was right.  In fact, heading into the '82 season, Wisconsin had never won in Columbus.

The Buckeyes lost 6-0 that day.

However, it didn't dim my enthusiasm.  The trip to Columbus cemented my Buckeye fandom.  We went back up in '83 and watched them beat Michigan State 21-11.  Made up for the previous year, in my young mind!

In 1997..I was 12 at the time and watching Joe Germain and Stanley Jackson win the Rose bowl against Jake "the snake" Plumber..David Boston making that catch in the end zone I don't think I've ever felt so euphoric in my entire life before or since.

The next day I laid in Bed and watched the highlights over and over again on Sports Center. Casual up to that point I knew I was "hooked" at that point and would never root for any other team. I had always worn OSU gear and watched the games with my Dad but I never felt emotionally attached like I did during and after that game.

It's a blessing and a curse at the same time because I'm the kind of person in a bad mood the rest of the weekend when OSU loses and man was it bad in 2007 after that Championship game...good when they win though..It's like a drug lol if I can describe it that way. It takes more and more to make me happy. I don't get excited when we beat teams we should beat even if the team looks good. I really can only get up for high profile games and am a nervous wreck the entire time (unless we are handling them of course.)

Anybody else feel like that? haha I feel like a weirdo now having typed this all out..maybe I do have a problem..lol

I don't understand. I've never known anything else.

I grew up in TTUN. My Father was born and raised in Belaire and is an Alum of tOSU as well as a season ticket holder. I knew when I was a little boy growing up in the 70's in TTUN and my Father took me to a Spring practice & then to games during the Archie years. All the while my friends I was growing up with were talking junk about scUM. All this during the 10 year war. Then I had to live through the Cooper years. I remember after Tressel won in A2 in 2001 sitting with a good buddy and telling him that after Tressel's first 10 years (little did I know that it would only be 10 years) he would have a winning record vs. scUM. This scUM fan friend of mine laughed so hard he fell off his bar stool. Of course I had to remind him after 2007 when he was 6-1 vs scUM that I was correct. And now I live in Atlanta and I take crap from SEC fans. I am sitting here knowing that it will be UFM who will end their streak and I will talk so much smack to them when that comes either in Jan 2014 or Jan 2015. God I can't wait for that day!!!

I mean, I was born into it with no choice. But probably my first "great" buckeye memory is when I was 8 and remembering everyone chanting "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie" during his hesiman season.

When I cried after the Buckeyes lost the National Championship basketball game to Cincinnati in 1961.

1960 watching Lucas & Havlicek win a National Champioship