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This Ohio State football trivia quiz has 50 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ohio State first fielded a football team in which year?
1890
Attempts in 1886 and 1887 fizzled; the school joined the Western Conference, now the Big Ten, in 1912.
Q 02Ohio Stadium, which opened in 1922, is best known by what nickname?
The Horseshoe
It is also called 'The House That Harley Built', after Chic Harley, whose record crowds forced its construction.
Q 03The rotunda at the north end of Ohio Stadium was designed to resemble the dome of which ancient building?
The Pantheon
The stadium, designed by Howard Dwight Smith, joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and now seats 102,780.
Q 04Which future NFL founder coached Ohio State to its first national championship in 1942?
Paul Brown
He was hired from Massillon Washington High School in 1941 and later founded the Browns and the Bengals.
Q 05Which coach won 205 games, five national titles and 13 Big Ten titles in 28 seasons from 1951 to 1978?
Woody Hayes
His conservative attack was famously described as 'three yards and a cloud of dust'.
Q 06Ohio State's legendary coach was fired the day after striking an opposing player at which 1978 postseason game?
Gator
The player was Clemson middle guard Charlie Bauman, who had just intercepted a pass; university president Harold Enarson made the call.
Q 07Before Columbus, Woody Hayes coached Denison and which other Ohio school?
Miami RedHawks
He also served in the Navy in World War II, rising to lieutenant commander.
Q 08Who is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice?
Archie Griffin
The Columbus native won in 1974 and 1975, started four Rose Bowls, and his No. 45 was retired in 1999.
Q 09Which NFL team drafted the two-time Heisman winner 24th overall in 1976?
Cincinnati Bengals
He is one of only two players to start four Rose Bowl games; Brian Cushing is the other.
Q 10Who was the first Buckeye to win the Heisman Trophy, in 1944?
Les Horvath
Janowicz followed in 1950 and 'Hopalong' Cassady in 1955.
Q 11Which running back won the Heisman for Ohio State in 1995?
Eddie George
The next Buckeye winner was a quarterback in 2006.
Q 12Which quarterback won the Heisman Trophy for Ohio State in 2006?
Troy Smith
He was the seventh Buckeye winner, counting Archie Griffin once.
Q 13Ohio State's 2002 title came with a double-overtime Fiesta Bowl win over which team?
Miami
It ended a 34-game winning streak and made the Buckeyes the first team ever to finish 14-0; a late pass-interference flag on Glenn Sharpe is still argued about.
Q 21As what seed did Ohio State enter the 2024 College Football Playoff?
Eighth
The title game was played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on January 20, 2025.
Q 22Which head coach led Ohio State to the 2024 national championship?
Ryan Day
Quarterback Will Howard and freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith were the stars of the run.
Q 23Ohio State's first meeting with its Ann Arbor rival, in 1897, ended how?
A 34-0 shutout loss for the Buckeyes
Michigan still leads the all-time series, which has been played at the end of the regular season since 1935 with a handful of exceptions.
Q 14Which quarterback started for Ohio State in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and was named co-MVP?
Craig Krenzel
Freshman Maurice Clarett's strip of Sean Taylor after an interception set up a key field goal.
Q 15Which coach, famous for his sweater vest, went 9-1 in The Game and won the 2002 title?
Jim Tressel
He had won four I-AA titles at Youngstown State, later became that school's president, and was sworn in as Ohio's lieutenant governor in February 2025.
Q 16Ohio State's sweater-vested coach resigned in 2011 after players were found to have traded memorabilia for what?
Tattoos
The 2012 team then went 12-0 under Urban Meyer but was barred from the postseason by NCAA sanctions.
Q 17Urban Meyer had won two national championships at which school before taking the Ohio State job in 2011?
Florida
One of those titles came at Ohio State's expense, a 41-14 win in the January 2007 BCS championship game.
Q 18Ohio State won the first College Football Playoff title in January 2015 by beating which team 42-20?
Oregon
The fourth-seeded Buckeyes had upset top seed Alabama in the semifinal.
Q 19Which third-string QB led the 2014 playoff run after Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett were hurt?
Cardale Jones
Ezekiel Elliott ran for 246 yards in the title game at AT&T Stadium and shared MVP honours with Tyvis Powell.
Q 20Ohio State won the 2024 national title, the first under the 12-team format, by beating whom 34-23?
Notre Dame
The Buckeyes entered as the eighth seed; Will Howard was offensive MVP and linebacker Cody Simon defensive MVP.
Q 24Since 1934, what does every Ohio State player receive after a win over the Wolverines?
A gold pants pendant
The tradition began under coach Francis Schmidt, who reportedly said the Wolverines put their pants on one leg at a time like everyone else.
Q 25The 1969-1978 stretch of the rivalry between Hayes and Bo Schembechler is known as what?
The Ten Year War
It began with a 1969 upset loss that ended a 22-game Buckeye winning streak.
Q 26The 1950 edition of The Game, played in a Columbus blizzard, is remembered by what name?
The Snow Bowl
It was scheduled for November 25 amid one of the worst storms on Ohio record.
Q 27Who traditionally dots the 'i' in Script Ohio?
A senior sousaphone player
The band first performed the maneuver on October 10, 1936, against Pittsburgh, to the march 'Le Regiment de Sambre et Meuse'.
Q 28In which year did the Ohio State marching band first perform Script Ohio?
1936
Honorary i-dotters over the years have included Bob Hope, Jack Nicklaus and Buster Douglas.
Q 29Which of these was among the honorary i-dotters listed for Script Ohio?
Bob Hope
The honour is otherwise reserved for fourth- and fifth-year sousaphone players.
Q 30Brutus Buckeye made his debut at a homecoming game in which year?
1965
Students Ray Bourhis and Sally Huber built the first papier-mache nut, soon replaced by a fiberglass shell.