Raising the Flag, OSU vs Michigan

Raising the Flag, OSU vs Michigan;

‘The Game’ wrapped up this year with one of the greatest contests in the history of the 119 year, epic rivalry.  A double overtime win over the team up North with a national playoff berth on the line.

The instant classic brought joy to Columbus while also reminding me of my own OSU vs Michigan experience…and an opportunity to write a quick blog to end my blogging drought.

Where:

Ohio State University, 1992.

I was back from my tour of duty in the United States Navy, finishing out my degree at OSU.

I had enrolled as an ROTC student while I played around with the idea of becoming an officer.  ROTC stands for Reserve Officer Training Corp and is one of the most common methods for recruiting and training officers in the United States military.

I had signed up after returning from the Navy….in the Army ROTC.  I know, what’s a Navy squid doing with a bunch of GIRBs? (GI Rotten Bastards)  I actually had a lot of respect for the Army and was seriously thinking about a career as an Army civil engineer.

(It was through Army ROTC that I was able to attend Air Assault Training at Fort Gruber – see Boot of Pain)

                                            (OSU ROTC Bldg, Converse Hall)

The Color Guard:

But what does this have to do with OSU/Michigan football? 

Everything. 

ROTC cadets form the color guard that raises the flag at all OSU home games in the storied Horseshoe.

Each branch of ROTC took turns raising the flag on a rotating basis.  It was a voluntary detail, but a prestigious one.  It also got you a free seat at the game.  In the North endzone, literally on the field.  Which was great for play on the North half of the stadium. .. not so great for the Southern half.

I had been part of the color guard all season and the Michigan game was going to be my third flag raising (remember we rotated the duty with the Navy and the Airforce).

Normally, at the start of each game, the color guard marched from the ROTC building at Converse Hall, South to the Horseshoe.  The guard formed up with cadets on each side of the flag.  The flag itself was HUGE.  About thirty feet long and twenty feet wide.  But while marching the Stars & Stripes to the stadium it was folded into a large tri-color. 

The color guard then marched South to Jesse Owens Plaza, up the Plaza, and into the Horseshoe.  Or more precisely, into the tunnel on the North end of the Stadium that leads onto the field.

(Jesse Owens Plaza looking towards North entrance to Stadium)

There the color guard halted.  Standing at attention, in silence, inside of the darkened tunnel, with the bright green field stretching out before it.  The field, ten acres of sunlit glory with the crimson crowd going up on all sides as high as you could see.

There you stood, waiting while The Best Damn Band In The Land (TBITL) formed up behind you.  Then out you marched in lock step.  From the dark tunnel into a bright field of green with teeming thousands staring down with all eyes on the flag. 

At the site of the flag, and in anticipation of the soon to come game, the crowd would give a cheer.

The color guard then came to a stop just in front of the 147 foot high flag pole.

Then the OSU marching band would stride out, with drilled precision, dividing into two columns, going around on each side of the color guard and onto the field.  As soon as the band emerged from the tunnel a slightly larger cheer would go up from the crowd.

And then The Ohio State Buckeye Football team would run out onto the field to an enormous cheer.

Once the color guard, band, and team were all on the field, the band fired up the national anthem.  And while the band played the color guard expanded the flag out to its full width.  Held taught on each side by cadets as the stars end was attached to the lanyard on the flag pole.

Then as the anthem rose in pitch and volume the color guard released the flag and the lanyard man raced the rope down to the pole and secured it.

That’s how it usually went.

That’s NOT how it went in November of 1992, vs Michigan.

On that day, as soon as the color guard cleared the edge of the tunnel, a deafening roar erupted from the crowd.  The roar shook the stands and crashed over us like a sonic wave.  It rattled your teeth.

And it never stopped.

The band, didn’t wait for the color guard to get to the flag pole.  They charged out of the tunnel at a run.  One band member hit me as he ran past.  Knocking my garrison cap off my head.  Sending it spinning across the end zone.

For the next three hours the roar from the crowd continued.  Unabated.  At rock concert levels.  My ears didn’t stop ringing for two days.  My own throat was horse from screaming through the game.

The game itself ended in a 13-13 tie.  But I’ll never forget it.  It was an unbelievable experience to be part of the opening ceremonies at the ‘The Game’.

Post Script Ohio :

Back in 1992 the field was astro turf.  If you’ve never had the ‘pleasure’ of playing on astro turf let me describe it for you.  Astro turf is a quarter inch of carpet.  With strands/fibers made of short, rough, green plastic.  With the whole thing rolled out over solid concrete.

It was indestructible.  So much so, that if the team or the band wasn’t practicing on the field, the student body was allowed on it.  To play Frisbee, soccer, football or whatever you liked. 

Yup, you could actually go out onto the field, in the Horseshoe, with your roommates, and play football in Ohio Stadium.  Most people did it at least once.  Almost no one did it twice. 

Astro turf sucked. 

It was dangerous.  The quarter inch carpet gave almost no padding from the concrete.  And the plastic grass was so rough and abrasive that if you were tackled on it, any piece of exposed skin was instantly transformed into a rug burn.

It was so bad, the OSU football players would coat their skin with Vaseline to try and reduce the friction and stop burns.  Finally, someone came to their senses and they got rid of the crap.

Post Post Script Ohio:

The end of my senior year, I started interviewing with companies.  One of the companies I interviewed with was General Mills.  They flew me and several other students out to their headquarters in Minneapolis for a gauntlet of interviews.

At the end of the interviews, their human resources department took us out for a dinner.  Just two of their younger HR people with about six of us.  The first thing one of the HR guys says is, “Relax, this isn’t part of the interview process”. 

FYI, whenever someone says, “This isn’t part of the interview process”.  It’s part of the interview process.

Dinner proceeded and during the conversation, it came out our one HR guy was an OSU graduate.  Eventually, talk turned to OSU football as it usually does.  And we started lamenting about how John Cooper’s team always played down to the level of their competition.

Then the HR guy says, yeah but I was in the band and no matter how bad the team played people always said the band was awesome (and they were too).

He then starts talking about how at the Michigan game the band didn’t wait, charged onto the field, and he crashed into one of the cadets and knocked his cap off.  I kid you not.  I looked over at the guy, and said, “Hey brother, I’m the guy whose cap you knocked off”. 

Talk about a small world.