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"Script Ohio" - done by - The Ohio State University Marching Band, known as "The Best Damn Band In The Land" or by the acronym is the most visible and possibly best-known tradition of Ohio State football. Home games are preceded by three much-anticipated traditions, and a fourth, "dotting the 'i'" of Script Ohio, enjoys a reputation all its own.
Poster:
realbuck
Category:
Buckeye Football History
Script OHIO
Script Ohio- is the signature formation of The Ohio State Marching Band performed before or during halftime, or after home games. Script Ohio was first performed by The Ohio State Marching Band on October 10, 1936 at the Ohio State versus University of Pittsburgh football game. According to The Ohio State University Library, a similar floating formation was first performed during the 1932 season by the University of Michigan Marching band, however, it was a set-piece, instead of being formed through marching described below.
The Script Ohio is the most identifiable trademark associated with Ohio State Football and The Ohio State Marching Band. It was devised by band director Eugene J. Weigel, who based the looped "Ohio" script design on the marquee sign of the Loew's Ohio Theatre in downtown Columbus.
The script is an integrated series of evolutions and formations. The band first forms a triple Block O formation, then slowly unwinds to form the famous letters while playing Robert Planquette’s Le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse. The drum major leads the outside O into a peel-off movement around the curves of the script, every musician in continual motion. Slowly the three blocks unfold into a long singular line which loops around, creating the OSUMB’s trademark.
Each time the formation drill is performed, a different fourth- or fifth-year sousaphone player has the privilege of standing as the dot in the “i” of “Ohio.” Originally, an E-flat cornet player, John Brungart, was the first "i"-dotter. Because the Script Ohio formation was one of many new formations included by director Weigel, no extra emphasis was placed on the dotting. Brungart dotted the "i" two more times that season, in performances during halftime shows against the University of Pittsburgh and at The University of Chicago. In the fall of 1937, Weigel turned to Glen Johnson, a sousaphone player, and shouted, "Hey, you! Switch places with the trumpet player in the dot."[10] Glen then became the first sousaphone player to dot the "i" on October 23, 1937. Since then, he has dotted the "i" over 80 times.
The dotting of the “i” has been ranked the greatest college football tradition by Athlon Sports, and was most recently named the #1 College Football Tradition by ESPN
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