Ohio State football: 10 most memorable Buckeyes season openers

Ohio State players, staff and fans will hope for a very mundane debut to the 2018 season.

The Buckeyes are heavy favorites to defeat Oregon State in Saturday’s opener (noon, ABC) at Ohio Stadium. Last year’s opener was a bit too interesting for a while, as OSU trailed Indiana 14-13 at halftime in Bloomington. The Buckeyes won 49-21 so that game, fortunately for Scarlet and Gray fans, won’t be remembered for long in either Buckeye or Hoosier lore.

But Ohio State has come out of the gate in a notable way plenty of times.

Here, in chronological order, are 10 memorable Buckeyes season openers:

Oct. 7, 1922: Ohio State 5, Ohio Wesleyan 0

OK, this stretches the boundaries of “memorable” since there is probably nobody alive who recalls this game. The year before, OSU lost to Oberlin, and to this day that’s the most recent time the Buckeyes lost to an in-state foe. The win over Wesleyan started a streak of 41 victories over fellow Ohio schools which is still going. This was also the first game at Ohio Stadium.

Sept. 30, 1950: SMU 32, Ohio State 27

The Buckeyes, who entered the game ranked No. 11 in the AP preseason poll, led 27-13 before the 10th-ranked Mustangs came back and won it on a touchdown pass with a little more than a minute left in Columbus. Vic Janowicz scored a touchdown for Ohio State, starting a campaign that ended with him winning the Heisman Trophy.

Sept. 25, 1954: Ohio State 28, Indiana 0

Howard “Hopalong” Cassady had one touchdown on offense and one on defense as the unranked Buckeyes rolled. This kickstarted one of the greatest seasons in school history. Woody Hayes, in his fourth season as coach, led OSU to a unbeaten national championship run culminating in a 20-7 victory over USC in the Rose Bowl.

Sept. 30, 1961: Ohio State 7, TCU 7

This result might have cost the Buckeyes a national title. OSU did get the No. 1 nod at the end of the season from the Football Writers Association of America but the two recognized poll services at the time, AP and UPI, both crowned Alabama as national champions. The Horned Frogs scored the tying touchdown against No. 3 OSU in the fourth quarter in Columbus.

Sept. 16, 1978: Penn State 19, Ohio State 0

This one was notable for two reasons. First, Buckeyes linebacker Tom Cousineau set the school record which still stands with 29 tackles against the Nittany Lions (Chris Spielman later tied it). Second, it was only the second time the Scarlet and Gray had been shut out at Ohio Stadium since 1964; visiting Michigan beat the Buckeyes 22-0 at Columbus in 1976.

Sept. 13, 1980: Ohio State 31, Syracuse 21

The Buckeyes opened 1980 as the preseason No. 1 in the AP rankings. Syracuse came into Ohio Stadium unranked but gave OSU a good scare, taking a 21-3 lead early. Quarterback Art Schlichter rallied Ohio State as Ricky Johnson rushed for the go-ahead touchdown and caught the 2-point conversion pass. OSU fell to No. 2 in the next poll and never regained the top spot.

Sept. 14, 1985: Ohio State 10, Pittsburgh 7

It seems hard to believe now, but for decades football at The Horseshoe was played in the daytime, and only in the daytime. The Buckeyes played their first night game ever at Ohio Stadium against the Panthers to begin what wound up as their sixth consecutive 9-3 season (coach Earle Bruce’s teams were consistent, if nothing else).

Aug. 27, 1986: Alabama 16, Ohio State 10

This marked two firsts for Ohio State. It was the first time they opened a season at a neutral site; this was the Kickoff Classic at East Rutherford, N.J. The second thing which makes this day stand out was that it was the first time that both OSU and its opponent were ranked in the Top 10 going into an opener. The No. 5 Crimson Tide edged the No. 9 Buckeyes.

Aug. 24, 2002: Ohio State 45, Texas Tech 21

Maurice Clarett announced himself to the world and the Buckeyes, unbeknownst to most of the country, started on the path to a 14-0 national championship season. Clarett, a true freshman out of Youngstown, Ohio, rushed for 175 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries against the Red Raiders to lead a Buckeye rout.

Sept. 3, 2016: Ohio State 77, Bowling Green 10

Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer didn’t let up against the school which gave him his first college head coaching job. But this was more about quarterback J.T. Barrett, who grabbed back the starting job in the 2016 season after sharing duties with Cardale Jones in 2015. Barrett set a school record with seven total touchdowns — six passing, one rushing — against the Falcons.

Jim Tomlin

Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.