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GAMBIER — As Ohio State gears up for a Cotton Bowl date against Miami on New Year’s Eve, one interested reader asked a question about the Buckeyes’ history — specifically against a local outfit.
Here’s what we discovered:
Around Thanksgiving time over a century ago, the Men of Scarlet and Gray competed for gridiron glory against Gambier’s finest, Kenyon College.
The two schools did battle from 1890 to 1929, with Ohio State getting the better of it with a 17-6 record in the rivalry.
However, for the first nine years the two schools met, Kenyon was the team to beat, winning six of the nine matchups.
They say history repeats itself. Between 1899 and 1929, Ohio State exhibited a more familiar team identity to today’s standard, winning all 14 bouts.
Another fun fact about OSU’s first Thanksgiving football tradition? Out of 23 total matchups, only two games were played on Kenyon’s home field.
Between 1890 and 1898, the Buckeyes hosted Kenyon at Recreation Park in German Village. The historic Ohio Field wasn’t built until 1898.
Ohio Field later closed, and the university hosted its first home game at Ohio Stadium, or “The Shoe,” in 1922 against Ohio Wesleyan University.
Some tomfoolery in 1892’s Kenyon v. OSU game
Even back in 1892, college kids got into some good old-fashioned fun — or, as they might’ve called it, tomfoolery.
At the time, students led the charge on OSU’s athletic board and decided to schedule 1892’s Thanksgiving game at 10 a.m., according to an Eleven Warriors article.
The article states that the board decided on an early kickoff to allow folks to make it home in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
However, the student board failed to properly communicate this idea to Kenyon’s team.
Supposedly, there was a big shindig the night before the game in Gambier, and not one Kenyon fan (or player) planned on arriving in Columbus until at least noon on Thanksgiving.
When this news reached OSU’s campus, the university’s then business manager, Walter Sears, caught the first train to Gambier to try and bring the Kenyon team back to Columbus with him, thus skipping the party.
He failed.
Sears attempted to send a telegram back to the capital city before the morning papers ran a story about the big game, but again failed, as the 10 a.m. kickoff headlines ran long before the message came.
OSU players and fans then took to the streets to try and alert incoming fans of the mix-up, again failing to some degree.
Fans still arrived at the gates of Recreation Park expecting a morning kickoff instead of an afternoon one. Surprisingly, they didn’t leave.
The Eleven Warriors article continues by saying the kickoff confusion might have actually boosted attendance, as an estimated 1,200 people arrived.
In the end, OSU got its first victory over the then party animals from Kenyon, 26-10.
Fast forwarding to today, the Buckeyes begin defense of their national championship in the College Football Playoffs on Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Dallas.