Fans stand with “Ohio” painted on their bodies before the Ohio State-Tulsa game Sept. 18. Ohio State won 41-20. Credit: Gabe Haferman | Assistant Photo Editor
When basketball enthusiast Madeline Markenson got involved with the men’s basketball section her freshman year, she didn’t have zebra-patterned pants on the brain.
Three years later, the director of the men’s basketball section, which is known as the NutHouse within the student organization Block O, has fully embraced deeply rooted traditions that go hand-in-hand with being part of the student section, and she is not alone. From pulling card stunts in Ohio Stadium to donning pajama pants in the Schottenstein Center, Block O boasts a large number of game day traditions.
“One of our biggest traditions is our Zubaz,” Markenson, a fourth-year in economics, said. “We have these red and white zebra-print striped pants that people in the NutHouse have been wearing for years and years and years.”
The NutHouse has established another, more recent tradition centered around head coach Chris Holtmann’s wardrobe choices. Holtmann frequently wears a salmon-colored blazer to basketball games, and members of the NutHouse have followed suit, leading to pink patches in the Schott.
“I don’t know why, but we just love when he wears the salmon suit,” Markenson said. “He looks good in it. I think we win more when he wears the salmon suit.”
Markenson’s domain is only one of 10 sections that make up Block O, which stands at over 3,000 members strong. Founded in 1938, according to its website, Block O has student sections at football, basketball, soccer and baseball games, among others.
“I think that a lot of people just assume that we’re just football, like that’s all we’re known for, when there’s actually a lot more to Block O,” Savannah Deuer, a fourth-year in sport industry and director of operations for the baseball section, said.
Deuer said the baseball section, the Buckeye Sluggers, is one of the newest sections of Block O. Created in 2007, Buckeye Sluggers has managed to establish its own traditions by following in the footsteps of major league baseball and establishing strikeout cards, keeping track of how many times Ohio State pitchers are able to strike out opposing players.
Although some sections and traditions have been tacked on more recently, others have remained the same since 1938.
Enter the football section’s card stunt tradition.
Lucas Bruckmann, football director and a third-year in finance, said the process of developing the card stunt starts in the football committee meeting Monday before home games.
There, the committee discusses general designs they want to center their stunt around for that particular week, planning it around a holiday, event or opponent, before putting the design in Microsoft Excel, Bruckmann said.
“We can have an image that we’ll use as almost a watermark on Excel,” Bruckmann said. “Then we’ll go through and each cell will be a different color from row to row.”
Block O then recruits volunteers to place the thousands of squares in the stands, matching each seat to a multi-colored card.
Bruckmann has been involved in card stunts since 2019, but he said one of his favorites was done a few weeks ago during the second quarter of then-No. 3 Ohio State against then-No. 12 Oregon.
“My favorite one was the one that just [represented] the American flag to honor our fallen heroes in the attacks on 9/11,” Bruckmann said. “Being from the Northeast, that’s something that’s very impactful in the area that I’m from.”
Just nine years after the first rendition of the card stunt, students began another tradition by chanting “Stadium O-H-I-O” around the ‘Shoe, but in a different capacity than is done today.
In 1942, U.S. Navy sailors were stationed on the USS Lexington, chanting “O-H-I-O S-T-A-T-E” to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” The chant began filling Ohio Stadium five years later before being shortened to the simpler, four-letter “O-H-I-O” that echoes around today whenever Block “O” South sees fit.
The tradition has left an impact on Block O President and lifelong Ohio State fan, Nick Wead.
“One of the coolest things is when you’re in Ann Arbor, doing ‘Stadium O-H-I-O’ throughout the Big House,” Wead, a fourth-year in economics, said. “That is one of the coolest things that I have ever seen and been a part of, and when I was football director, being able to start that is absolutely chilling. It’s an absolute thrill.”
Wead’s fascination with the history of the sailors in 1942, coupled with his familial ties to the Navy, inspired him to create a flag that honors the dying command of War of 1812 officer James Lawrence — something Wead said he hopes will continue to be a tradition carried out by Block O long after he graduates.
“There’s a flag that says, ‘Don’t Give Up the Shoe.’ It’s an adaptation I created when I was the football director two years ago that is from the flag, ‘Don’t Give Up the Ship,’ ” Wead said. “That actually means the world to me. It was one of those things that I hope is one of my marks.”
