Bells and whistles

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(Image: Ohio Stadium victory bell, 1954) The Victory Bell has tolled for 15 minutes after every Buckeye home win since its first peals for a victory over California on October 2, 1954. A gift of the classes of 1943, 1944 and 1954 installed in the southeast tower 150 feet above the field, its clangor could be heard for five miles around. Since the bell’s installation, members of the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega have been tasked with ringing it. This is not without some danger: the bell’s 2,420 pound bulk occasionally pulls the ringer along with it toward the open edge of the tower. During the night prior to a 1965 meeting with Iowa, the bell’s three-foot-long, 60-pound clapper was stolen. It was found five days later, draped around the statue of William Oxley Thompson on the oval, with an enigmatic note: “Here is the clapper / that rings the bell / that hangs in the tower / that’s part of the Stadium / that belongs to Woody.”