Ohio Trivia
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129 free Ohio trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
71 free Ohio trivia questions with answers. These Ohio trivia facts run the length of the Buckeye State: the swallowtail flag that no other state shares, the seven presidents born here, the tomato juice and ladybug in the state symbols list, and the 1953 discovery that Congress had never quite finished admitting Ohio at all. Then the questions head out across the state, from Cedar Point on Lake Erie and Serpent Mound in Adams County to Hocking Hills, the Amish country of Holmes County and the Ohio Caverns near West Liberty. The cities get their due too: Wright brothers' Dayton, rock and roll Cleveland, Porkopolis Cincinnati, Glass City Toledo, Rubber Capital Akron and the capital itself. Sports fans get The Game, Archie Griffin and the 2016 Cavaliers; foodies get three-way chili and buckeye candy. About a third of the questions are easy enough for a classroom or a family road trip across I-71, a third are medium, and the rest will test people who think they already know Ohio. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and official Ohio sources, and each question shows the sentence that confirms it once you have answered.
30 of 129 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01By what nickname is Ohio commonly known?
Buckeye State
Buckeye State: the nickname comes from the Ohio buckeye, the official state tree since 1953, and Ohio State University's teams are the Buckeyes.
Q 02Which city is both Ohio's capital and its most populous?
Columbus
Columbus became Ohio's capital in 1816, chosen for its central location, and has been the state's most populous city since the 1990 census, well ahead of Cleveland.
Q 03Ohio's state flag, designed for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, is unique among the 50 US state flags for what reason?
It is not rectangular
It is not rectangular: the swallowtail 'burgee' was designed by John Eisenmann for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition and became law in 1902.
Q 04How many stars appear on Ohio's state flag, marking its place in the order of statehood?
17
17 stars: thirteen ring the circle for the original colonies and four more sit at the triangle's point, totalling 17 for Ohio, the 17th state admitted.
Q 05Which bird has been Ohio's official state bird since 1933?
Cardinal
Six other states also chose the cardinal, making it the most popular state bird in the country.
Q 06What is Ohio's official state flower?
Red carnation
The red (scarlet) carnation was adopted in 1904 in memory of President William McKinley, an Ohioan assassinated in 1901 who habitually wore one on his lapel.
Q 07Since 1965, what has been Ohio's official state beverage?
Tomato juice
Tomato juice became Ohio's state beverage in 1965, honouring Reynoldsburg, where Alexander Livingston bred the Paragon, the first commercially successful tomato variety, in 1870.
Q 08Which creature is Ohio's official state insect?
Ladybug
It was adopted in 1975; the ladybug is a farmer's friend because it eats aphids.
Q 09Ohio's official state fossil, Isotelus maximus, is what kind of ancient animal?
A trilobite
Isotelus maximus is a trilobite, a marine arthropod that lived about 450 million years ago when Ohio lay under a shallow tropical sea; it became the state fossil in 1985.
Q 10What is Ohio's official state mammal?
White-tailed deer
The white-tailed deer became Ohio's state animal in 1988; it is also the state animal of neighbouring Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Q 11Ohio's name comes from a Seneca word meaning what?
Good river
Good river: Ohio comes from the Seneca (Iroquoian) word ohi:yo', usually rendered 'good river' or 'great river', the native name of the Ohio River.
Q 12Ohio joined the Union as the 17th state in which year?
1803
1803: Jefferson signed the act recognising Ohio's constitution and boundaries on 19 February 1803, and 1 March 1803, when the first state legislature met, is the official statehood date.
Q 13What did Congress do about Ohio's statehood in 1953?
Backdated its admission to 1803
Preparations for the state's 150th birthday revealed Congress had never formally admitted Ohio, so a bill fixed the oversight retroactively.
Q 21Which Cleveland DJ, credited with popularising the term 'rock and roll', helped the city land the Rock Hall?
Alan Freed
Alan Freed, a DJ at Cleveland's WJW from 1951, popularised the term 'rock and roll' and staged the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball there, often called the first major rock concert, the basis of Cleveland's Rock Hall bid.
Q 22Which architect designed Cleveland's glass-pyramid Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, opened in 1995?
I. M. Pei
Pei admitted he knew little about rock music when hired, so the museum's founders took him to concerts to educate him.
Q 23The Pro Football Hall of Fame stands in which Ohio city, where the NFL was founded in 1920?
Canton
Q 14Ohio was the first state carved out of which federal domain, governed under a famous 1787 ordinance?
Northwest Territory
Northwest Territory: the 1787 Northwest Ordinance set the rules for turning the land north of the Ohio River into states, and Ohio, admitted in 1803, was the first of them.
Q 15Ohio is called the 'Mother of Presidents' because how many US presidents were born there?
7
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley, Taft and Harding were all Ohio-born; only Virginia has produced more.
Q 16Which Cincinnati-born president is the only person to have also been chief justice?
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft, born in Cincinnati in 1857, was president 1909-13 and chief justice 1921-30, the only person to hold both offices; he said he much preferred the Court.
Q 17Before they built airplanes, Orville and Wilbur Wright ran what kind of business in Dayton?
A bicycle shop
The Wright Cycle Company opened as a repair shop in 1892 and was making its own bicycles by 1896; the profits funded the flying experiments.
Q 18Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, grew up in which small Ohio town?
Wapakoneta
Wapakoneta: Armstrong was born there in 1930 and earned his pilot's licence there at 16, before a driver's licence; the Armstrong Air & Space Museum opened in the town in 1972.
Q 19Ohio-born astronaut John Glenn became the first American to do what, in 1962?
Orbit the Earth
Friendship 7 circled the planet three times; Glenn later served 24 years as a US senator from Ohio.
Q 20How old was John Glenn when he flew aboard shuttle Discovery in 1998?
77
77: Glenn flew on shuttle mission STS-95 in October 1998 at age 77, the oldest person to reach orbit at the time and the only Mercury astronaut to fly on the Space Shuttle.
Canton: the league that became the NFL was founded there on 17 September 1920 in Ralph Hay's Hupmobile showroom, and the Canton Bulldogs won back-to-back titles in 1922 and 1923.
Q 24Cedar Point, 'America's Roller Coast', sits on a Lake Erie peninsula in which Ohio city?
Sandusky
Sandusky: Cedar Point occupies a Lake Erie peninsula in the city and is famous for its roller coasters, including Millennium Force, the first coaster to top 300 feet.
Q 25Cedar Point, the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US, opened in which year?
1870
1870: Cedar Point opened in 1870 as a bathing beach and beer garden; only Lake Compounce in Connecticut, opened in 1846, is an older operating US amusement park.
Q 26What is the annual Ohio State vs Michigan football rivalry match known as?
The Game
The Game: Ohio State and Michigan first met in 1897 and traditionally close the regular season against each other; the rivalry is known simply as The Game.
Q 27Which Ohio State running back is the only player ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice?
Archie Griffin
Archie Griffin won the Heisman in 1974 and 1975 under Woody Hayes, who won 205 games and five national titles at Ohio State; no other player has won the trophy twice.
Q 28What is the name of Ohio State University's buckeye-nut mascot?
Brutus Buckeye
Brutus Buckeye, a costumed buckeye nut with a big grin, debuted as Ohio State's mascot in 1965 at a home game against Minnesota.
Q 29Which magazine's story on the burning Cuyahoga River, which 'oozes rather than flows', spurred the green movement?
Time
Time magazine's 1 August 1969 story said the Cuyahoga 'oozes rather than flows'; the river had burned at least a dozen times before, and the coverage helped drive the 1970 creation of the EPA.
Q 30The Ohio River begins at Pittsburgh where which two rivers meet?
Allegheny and Monongahela
The Allegheny and Monongahela meet at Pittsburgh's Point to form the Ohio, which runs 981 miles to the Mississippi and carries more water than any other tributary of that river.