Screwy from any angle

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(Image: Ohio Stadium proposed annex, 1944) The Stadium’s shape was imperiled in the fall of 1944, when a routine University report to the State of Ohio on campus building needs included a proposal to attach an octagonal structure to the stadium’s north end. The new combination field house and auditorium would use the stadium’s exterior north wall as its own south wall, and would use the stadium’s north dome as a stage. Hearing of the nascent plans in October 1944, the OSU Alumni Monthly called the appendage “nothing short of monstrosity,” and wrote again the following February, “From any angle, it looks screwy.” Relocated about 500 feet north, the octagon was reborn as St. John Arena.