A Walk in Our 'Shoe : the history of Ohio Stadium

(Image: Alumni Sunset Supper, 1925) Notwithstanding football’s immense popularity, Stadium boosters had always justified its construction by emphasizing its multiple uses. The area underneath the Stadium’s east and west stands was conceived to hold an exhibition hall, a preparatory space for events, dressing rooms and locker rooms. These 80-by-400-foot spaces were to contain everything from handball courts to “patriotic celebrations and military reunions.” Stadium campaigners were keen to emphasize the military necessity of the stadium, providing facilities for the Department of Military Science, whose courses nearly a third of all students took. In the 1920s and 1930s, commencement week activities such as the Alumni Sunset Supper and Parents’ Luncheon were held under the east side of the Stadium. No one could have anticipated that, for 60 years, Ohio State students would live beneath the stands.