Ohio State Football Trivia
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This Ohio State football trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and covers the Buckeyes from the first team in 1890 and Chic Harley's crowds that built the Horseshoe, through Paul Brown's 1942 champions, Woody Hayes and the Ten Year War, Archie Griffin's two Heismans, Earle Bruce, Cooper and Tressel's 14-0 season, to Urban Meyer's 2014 playoff title and Ryan Day's 2024 run through the 12-team bracket. The traditions are here too: Script Ohio and the sousaphone player who dots the i, Brutus, Gold Pants, Hang On Sloopy and the Illibuck. It suits a Columbus tailgate, a Big Ten bar quiz or a family argument about who really knows the team, with easy questions any fan will get and hard ones about coaches, seeds and Heisman years. Every answer was checked against encyclopedic sources before it went live, and each question explains itself as soon as you pick.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Delaware, Ohio school hosted Ohio State's first football game?
Ohio Wesleyan
Ohio Wesleyan hosted the game on May 3, 1890, and Ohio State won 20-14; that fall the Buckeyes lost their first home game 64-0 to Wooster.
Q 02Ohio Stadium, which opened in 1922, is best known by what nickname?
The Horseshoe
The Horseshoe opened to doubts that 66,000 seats could ever be filled, yet more than 70,000 packed in for the 1922 dedication game, which Michigan won 19-0.
Q 03The rotunda at the north end of Ohio Stadium was designed to resemble the dome of which ancient building?
The Pantheon
The Pantheon was among the Roman buildings architect Howard Dwight Smith had visited and sketched as a young man; his stadium design won an American Institute of Architects gold medal.
Q 04Which future pro football team founder coached Ohio State to its first national championship in 1942?
Paul Brown
Paul Brown was a high-school coach two years earlier: Ohio State hired him from Massillon Washington, where his teams had won six straight state championships.
Q 05Which phrase became shorthand for Woody Hayes's attack at Ohio State?
Three yards and a cloud of dust
'Three yards and a cloud of dust' fit a coach who ran his fullbacks into the line; Hayes was often quoted as saying three things can happen when you pass, and two of them are bad.
Q 06Woody Hayes was fired the day after he struck an opposing player during which 1978 bowl game?
Gator
The Gator Bowl ended his 28 seasons at Ohio State: Clemson nose guard Charlie Bauman intercepted a late pass, Hayes punched him on the sideline, and he was fired the next morning.
Q 07Before Ohio State, Woody Hayes coached Denison and which school nicknamed the 'Cradle of Coaches'?
Miami RedHawks
The Miami RedHawks, then called the Redskins, gave Hayes a tackle named Bo Schembechler, who later became his fiercest rival as Michigan's head coach.
Q 08Who is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice?
Archie Griffin
Archie Griffin fumbled on his only carry in his first game as a freshman, then ran for a school-record 239 yards in his second.
Q 09Which NFL team drafted the two-time Heisman winner in the first round in 1976?
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals drafted his Ohio State fullback Pete Johnson in 1977 and his brother Ray in 1978, reuniting all three.
Q 10Who was the first Buckeye to win the Heisman Trophy, in 1944?
Les Horvath
Les Horvath had already moved on to dental school when Ohio State coaxed him back for an extra wartime season; he later practised dentistry in Los Angeles.
Q 11Which running back won the Heisman for Ohio State in 1995?
Eddie George
Eddie George lost two goal-line fumbles against Illinois as a freshman; as a senior he ran for a then school-record 314 yards against the same team.
Q 12Which quarterback won the Heisman Trophy for Ohio State in 2006?
Troy Smith
Troy Smith first got on the field for Ohio State as a running back and kick returner, and did not take over at quarterback until midway through 2004.
Q 13Ohio State's 2002 title came with a double-overtime Fiesta Bowl win over which team?
Miami
Miami arrived on a 34-game winning streak, and its sideline was already celebrating in the first overtime when a late pass-interference flag gave Ohio State new life.
Q 21Which SEC team did Ohio State rout at home to open the 2024 playoff?
Tennessee
Tennessee fans turned large parts of Ohio Stadium orange, yet the Volunteers trailed 21-0 after one quarter and lost 42-17.
Q 22Which head coach led Ohio State to the 2024 national championship?
Ryan Day
Ryan Day lost to Michigan for the fourth straight year that November, at home and as a heavy favourite, then won four playoff games in a row.
Q 23Where was the first Ohio State–Michigan football game played in 1897?
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor saw Michigan score every point before halftime, then spend the second half kicking the ball away and leaving Ohio State to try to move it.
Q 14Which Ohio State quarterback was named offensive MVP of the January 2003 Fiesta Bowl?
Craig Krenzel
Craig Krenzel kept the title game alive in the first overtime by completing a pass on fourth-and-14, and he ran in the tying touchdown soon after.
Q 15Which Ohio State coach, famous for his sweater vest, won the 2002 national title?
Jim Tressel
Jim Tressel, introduced at a basketball game in January 2001, promised fans they would be proud of his team in 310 days at Michigan; Ohio State won that game 26-20.
Q 16Ohio State's sweater-vested coach resigned in 2011 after players were found to have traded memorabilia for what?
Tattoos
Tattoos, and cash, came from a Columbus parlour owner in return for rings and jerseys; the coach had been tipped off by email months earlier and told no one.
Q 17Urban Meyer had won two national championships at which school before taking the Ohio State job in 2011?
Florida
Florida won the first of them at Ohio State's expense, beating the top-ranked Buckeyes 41-14 for the 2006 season's title.
Q 18Ohio State won the first College Football Playoff title in January 2015 by beating which team 42-20?
Oregon
Oregon met a fourth and final seed that many felt did not belong, and that had already upset top seed Alabama in the Sugar Bowl semifinal.
Q 19Which third-string QB led the 2014 playoff run after Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett were hurt?
Cardale Jones
Cardale Jones made his first college start in the Big Ten title game, a 59-0 rout of Wisconsin, and the championship game was only his third.
Q 20Ohio State won the 2024 national title, the first under the 12-team format, by beating whom 34-23?
Notre Dame
Notre Dame trailed 31-7, then scored 16 straight points; a long third-down pass from Will Howard to Jeremiah Smith set up the field goal that sealed it.
Q 24Since 1934, what does every Ohio State player receive after a win over the Wolverines?
A gold pants pendant
A gold pants pendant recalls new coach Francis Schmidt's 1934 quip that Michigan's players put their pants on one leg at a time like everyone else; his teams then shut Michigan out four years running.
Q 25The stretch of the rivalry when Woody Hayes faced Bo Schembechler is known as what?
The Ten Year War
The Ten Year War began when Schembechler, once an assistant to Hayes, upset the top-ranked Buckeyes 24-12 in 1969 and ended their 22-game winning streak.
Q 26The 1950 Ohio State–Michigan game, played in a Columbus blizzard, is remembered by what name?
The Snow Bowl
The Snow Bowl saw the two teams punt 45 times, often before fourth down, and Michigan won 9-3 without making a single first down.
Q 27Who traditionally dots the 'i' in Script Ohio?
A senior sousaphone player
A senior sousaphone player has taken the dot since 1937; the year before, the first one went to a cornet player, and the band made nothing special of it.
Q 28Ohio State's marching band goes by which nickname?
The Best Damn Band in the Land
The Best Damn Band in the Land is said to owe its name to Woody Hayes, who supposedly blurted it out after a pep rally; the band's director admits there is no actual evidence.
Q 29Which comedian dotted the 'i' in Script Ohio as an honorary guest in 1978?
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, born in London but raised in Cleveland, took the dot in 1978; the band offers it to an outsider only on very rare occasions, for service to Ohio State.
Q 30What was the first Brutus Buckeye costume, built by Ohio State students in 1965, made of?
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché made a heavy nut that looked like a bowling ball with legs; a fiberglass shell soon replaced it, and a prune-faced 1975 redesign was booed off the field.