Ohio State and Ohio Wesleyan now occupy opposite ends of the college football spectrum. The Buckeyes, whose Columbus campus has an enrollment in excess of 52,000, play in a stadium that seats more than 100,000 and field a team of players.
The Battling Bishops, who draw from a student body of 1,850, play in a stadium less than a tenth the size and offer no football scholarships. But the universities’ football programs began together on that spring morning 118 years ago.
The site of that first game was a mystery until last year, when Dick Gordin a former Ohio Wesleyan athletic director who has studied the history of the university’s sports teams uncovered a letter written by one player in that 1890 game, describing the playing field near a creek called Delaware Run. This weekend, Ohio Wesleyan has scheduled a ceremony to install a historical marker at the site, with dignitaries from both universities attending.
The teams played for the final time in 1932, when Ohio State won 34-7, ending the series with 26-2-1 advantage. By then the Buckeyes were playing Michigan and Wisconsin, and the Battling Bishops were playing Wittenberg and DePauw.
The two schools both started out as Midwest football powers in the late 19th century, early 20th century,” Roger Ingles the athletic director at Ohio Wesleyan, said. The first game that Ohio State ever played was at Ohio Wesleyan and we were the first visiting team to play at Ohio Stadium in 1922. A lot of our past has been intertwined.
At that first game in 1890 the ball was round forward passes were outlawed touchdowns were worth 4 points and goals after touchdown worth 2. Wedges plays in which players locked elbows and ran into each other en masse often causing serious injuries were commonplace.
It was big enough that an estimated 700 people attended watching from a hill overlooking the field. Ohio State won 20-14, with four touchdowns and two goals after for the men of Columbus against three touchdowns and one goal after for the home team.
The Delaware Gazette reported afterward. The game was a spirited one and from the interest aroused it is safe to say that foot ball has taken a firm hold upon both students and citizens.