Columbus experience 2012

It really appears the mountain of PSA's and general effort made by OSU between the 2004 and 2006 games, plus the whole calming effect of the timing of Bo's death on changing the tenor of the '06 game, really did wonders for ending the kind of absurdity that was going on in the late 90's and early 00's.  That's a good thing.

"Is their a higher percentage of idiots down there?"

Oh, the irony.

Sorry, I'm just giving you a hard time. I had a similar experience. One Buckeye said something exceptionally inappropriate to me, which I will not repeat here. However, a majority of them either ignored me or were cordial, which definitely surprised me.

My brother and I made the trip from Wisconsin and we also had a great experience. After considering wearing coats over our stuff to the stadium we decided to risk it. The outcome was a very welcoming one. People yelled stuff but we received many welcome to ohio stadiums and the group we sat next to invited us to tailgate with them after. We both agreed wed come back.

Experience around the stadium exceeded my expectations, but the seats were awful. Do not ever get tickets in the B deck. Half the field was obstructured and we couldn't even see the scoreboards. Just an awful setup.

the friends of a friend we pregamed with were surpisingly friendly and courteous. plenty of friendly banter, but it was just that--friendly. same goes for many fans we saw after the game

walking to the stadium was anoher story. had several beer cans thrown at us, chanting of "f**k michigan" (which I was disappointed at the lack of creativity with that), and then just straught up yelling at one another once the crowd started to gather outside the toilet bowl. i mean horseshoe.

all in all, not as dangerous as i thought, but still an experience to fuel my distaste for ohio next time they come to town

Everything has calmed down in terms of physical issues which is great. Foul mouths but no other issues. Easiest game of the 9 I've been to

I have gone to many games in Columbus for the game, and I have to say that today, was by far the most respectful I've seen OSU fans. There was the occasional cussing and stuff, but nothing went out of hand (which in the past, I have always seen) It was very enjoyable, which I can't always say about my past experiences.

I went down to Columbus for the '06 game and it was so-so. Some bar had a screen/projector setup in their parking lot and we ended up watching the game there. I was with a handful of fairly large men, one of whom was an OSU fan and was so attired. I'd say roughly 60% of the people ignored us, 20% were rude and threatening (especially the girls, who screamed in our faces regarding our fandom and assumed sexual orientation while their male friends waited for us to say something, anything), and 20% said they respected our fandom, and hey if Michigan wins, we'll help you get to that policeman over there, but then you're on your own. We all know the outcome of the game, and it still led to beers being thrown at our heads upon our exiting, but at least my jeep wasn't vandalized. So I guess I don't know how toned down it was at that time, but it still felt like we weren't that far away from being beaten at any point. A lot of my secure feelings derived from said large fairly large men. 

On a related note, a couple weeks later I was at a good sized bar in Lancaster, Ohio, that obviously was full of OSU fans. The Big Ten season was already over of course, but important games were still being played. When #2 USC lost to UCLA, a hush fell over the place, as most people were aware of where things stood. I was thinking the same thing as many other people there, but no one said anything, except one dude in the middle of the bar, clad head to toe in Michigan gear, who stood up with both fists raised triumphantly above his head and screamed "Rematch, bitches!"

One for each cup.

My buddy goes to osu and got me tickets to pay him for taking him last year. Sat in 9a and the fans around me were great. The slurs and jokes gots old but I kept to myself the entire game and had some great conversation. Really overall a positive experience and I hope there will be a lot more maize and blue in the stadium in 2014.

myself, but from what I've heard it seems like Ohio fans are polite when the outcome of the game is unknown.  I went to the game in AA in 2009 and every Ohio fan I encountered was a complete ass because they were confident of a win. Possibly a trend occurring.

This was my first time to Columbus and I was expecting the worst as well.  I went with 3 of my good friends.  After reading some of the experiences that were posted on this site, I was waiting to get spit on, yelled at, and potentially have beer poured on me.  However that couldn't have been further from the truth.  We arrived on Friday night and stopped at a bar that we thought would be far enough away from Columbus in Upper Sandusky.  We thought we wouldn't be bothered too much wearing our Michigan garb.  We called ahead and asked if we could watch the NIT finale.  They said yes but they couldn't have the sound on.  When we got there, we found out that it was a huge buckeye bar where the waitresses were all wearing OSU gear and they had OSU related fat heads all over and even their menu was full of OSU related entrees and sandwiches.  They even had an OSU recliner.  The waitress was very nice and the food was good as well.  The owner welcomed us and allowed us to watch the NIT game in a pretty central part of the bar.  We also met buckeye fans who were pretty damn nice and talked with us about the rivalry and wished us luck.  

When we arrived in Columbus a few hours later we decided to venture out to a local bar.  We were wearing a ton of Michigan stuff mind you.  When we arrived we ran into several groups of OSU fans that were at the bar and one of them actually bought us a round of drinks and couldn't have been nicer.  It wasn't a pity nice or an elitist nice like Alabama.  It seemed to be genuine and it was pretty weird.  A younger crowd came into the bar later in the night and one dude was chanting in our face but then apologized and was also wishing us luck.  

On the way back to the hotel we got heckled in good spirits and ran into a 2002 player reunion party where a member of the team flicked us off through the window but then came running out and showed us his championship ring and was pretty assholish but in good jest and actually ended up being pretty funny and welcomed us to Columbus but told us we couldn't enter the party, in a respectful way.  The funny part is that the owner said he didn't care who we rooted for and that the only color he saw was green.  We were going to call it a night regardless, so we went home.  

The next day we got to the game and parked in the same Ackerman lot.  On the way over to the game a strange OSU fan started yelling at us and we all immediately thought, shit, here we go. But no, he was like come here and we reluctantly approached awaiting some snide remark but he invited us over to his tailgate.  There was a Keg and a huge pork roast and a bunch of roast beef.  He offered us all of this in a kind way and we mingled with other OSU fans who were also nice.  It was kind of surreal and I was waiting for them to sabatoge us or for something terrible to happen but it never did.  Everyone wished us luck and were candid about some of their negative experiences visiting Ann Arbor and wanted to give our fans a different experience.  The folks sitting by us were pretty nice too, minus the guy a few rows back that was yelling about how we were poor and our homes were only worth $100.  That was pretty funny in a "that poor soul" kind of a way.  Granted we had a guy bump into us pretty forcefully and a guy yell better luck next year assholes as we walked out but for the most part it was a pretty positive experience.  It was so fuckin cold though.  

I went down to Columbus friday night and played poker in their new Hollywood casino, in a room with 30 poker tables full of OSU-clad fans.  I sat down at a 2/5 table with my michigan hat on...fully expecting the worst.  I was shocked at how friendly everyone was.  (Even after I left +$900 :)).  I heard nothing but horror stories about the stadium, and my buddy and I expected to be terrorized.  We sat in 8AA with most other michigan fans, but the OSU student section was in the area right behind and above us.  The walk to the stadium was absolutely fine, with most OSU fans offering "goodluck".  We were decked out in Woodson and Brady jerseys.  I did not understand this.  Haha.  When Roundtree scored the 71 yard touchdown, I went to the OSU students right behind us and freaked out in their faces (dumb mistake).  I felt like I just unlocked a cage of angry gorillas...and I seriously felt like I would not make it out of the stadium if Michigan would have won.  After that, I didn't go back to the student section and minded my own business (lol).  One of the best experiences of my life, especially getting to jump on a rail in front of an entire section of Buckeyes and making it out alive.  I'll be going back to Columbus every other year.  I thought the stadium was amazing, as was the entire atmosphere.  Go Blue!

I forgot to mention...when Frank Clark absolutely smoked Braxton Miller, his dad was two rows in front of me and started yelling "thats my son!"...we shared a first bump and a bro-hug.  It was an awesome experience.

Sounds to me like hate has turned to pity.  Until we start winning against them again that will probably be the case so I guess that's good (not as much violence as in the past) but there's a part of me that wishes we still got them worked up.

I guess when you know....I mean absolutely KNOW...you're going to win it changes things.  Godfuckingdamn Borges.

Sat in the student section, got yelled at walking to my seat and on random other occasions, but didn't talk back. Eventually made it out without any physical contact/harm.



We need to start invading their stadium like they do.



Also, it's worth going as a fan to truly experience the same hate and vulnerability that the team does.

I'm a 20 something guy in Michigan gear... A prime target. Had some students swearing at me, but not in my face, on the walk to the stadium. Aside from that, friendly people and a great atmosphere.

I live down here so whenever I go to the Shoe for The Game or just any old regular game, I'm with a group of about two dozen and there are never more than three or four Michigan fans.  It makes for an interesting situation occasionally, as our Buckeye friends can be pretty protective.  The only time anything has ever happened is when we're moving to or from the stadium.  People don't immediately recognize that we aren't on our own when we're on the move and that's when the screaming in our faces etc. goes down.  It's an interesting scene when a handful of Buckeyes get in our face in the middle of the street and they are immediately met with twenty other screaming Buckeyes telling them to back off.  It's funny every time.

I also went down to Columbus yesterday. For the sake of redundancy, I will make this short.

My friends and I arrived at the tailgates outside of the stadium about 2 hours before kickoff. We were wearing full maize (student tees) and we decided it would be a great idea to find a friendlier, Michigan tailgate...where we wouldn't die...

We walked around for an hour or so, and received quite a few boos from Ohio fans, but nothing out of the ordinary. In the stadium, the ushers and policemen were all nice and helpful. We only ran into one bad apple in the bathroom (said something about us being poop? gotta love potty talk...quite literally because he was in the stall when he was speaking to us).

After the game, I left the stadium alone, in frustration of course. Obviously the Ohio fans were in a good mood, but I did not hear one bad comment during the walk back to my car. I only received multiple "good games" and "at least you guys are going to a bowl game! See you next season." I was pleasantly surprised from the experience, and I made it back north safely.

I wanted to find a reason to hate them, even more, so badly...but it was hard to find a reason after the game.

after the game, at least 5 groups of OSU fans told us to "Drive home safely!" Such nice people. But in all seriousness, before the game everyone was very cordial, the most harsh words were said right outside the stadium right after the game. And the 40+ year old drunk women are by far the most annoying. I found the crowd this year to be much nicer than 4 years ago when I went previously.

I can see that. My gf is from just outside of Columbus. She really doesn't know much about football other than the basics. When we watched the game here in Chicago she was surprised that UM had the all time series lead. She just assumed OSU always won...

I mean your can't blame her. Since her days in high school UM has only won twice. That's the reality for the Series for many. They treat us and the game like we treat PSU. Big game but they expect to win.

Not sure why, but overall, I'd agree that the Ohio fans were relatively welcoming at this year's game.  While standing in line for bathrooms, I had reasonable conversations with fans who had actual contributions to make (besides "F Michigan, derp, derp, derp").  The fans sitting around us were pretty nice guys, one of them even "fist bumped" me after Michigan's big plays.  On the way out, they did seem a bit more aggressive with victory in hand.  A drunk old man told me I'd "better run" to my car.  Probably a dick 7 days a week. 

One sidenote.  I did talk to a Texas fan who's just a big fan of the college game and wanted to see Ohio v. Michigan.  He's been to several Oklahoma v. Texas games, along with other big rivalry games.  He couldn't believe how angry and aggressive the Ohio fans were towards their guests.  I told him they were actually behaving themselves better this year.  He couldn't believe it could be much worse.  I assured him it could. 

And, one question.  Another Michigan fan entering the game said that Michigan gave 2000 tickets back to Ohio?  I found this hard to believe, maybe because I didn't want to believe our fans wouldn't travel 3 hours with tickets purchased at face value.  Anyone else hear this?  Also, fergodsakes, let's travel better in two years.   

I will never return after what happened to me in 2000. I can't stand those animals and even looking at that stadium makes me want to gag.

Also, they won't be too nice when Michigan wins next year and the year after once everything is in place.

I didn't go to the game, but I'm guessing several factors are at play, including that OSU won and maybe, just maybe, some of the decent fans are finally making an effort to counter the effects of the asshole fans. Practically every CFB blog that has had interactions with OSU fans lists them at or near the top of horrible fans. Maybe the other OSU fans are finally getting tired of the reputation. As we all know, there are asshole fans everywhere, more at some places, fewer at others. But when the decent fans step up, the assholes temper their behavior a bit; also pleasant interactions with decent fans can act as a counterbalance to the horrible interactions with the juggaloes.

It was a world of difference from my ten previous trips. Same 4 or  5 to 1 ratio of positive/polite comments to F bombs.

After the game, someone did body check my 21 yr old daughter, behind me, but her ex-Marine boyfriend responded appropriately.

We responded to verbal taunts by wishing them luck in their bowl game, against ND for the BCS title.

walking across the bridge over the Olentangy, to the shuttle bus area, it was positively somber.  They make more noise when they lose.  I asked several people if it were just hitting them that the probation really cost them, but that was not cited by anyone.

Yes, those B section tickets are tricky, looking around the posts.

Oddly enough, after warning the ex-Marine boyfriend of what to expect from Buckeyes, a grievously over-served Wolverine fan sat next to me just before kickoff.  Loud, obnoxious, bumping into people.  He tossed his cookies in the second quarter and two of his friends escorted him out of the stadium.

I for one, always try to make opposing fans feel welcome and have occassionally admonished some of my Buckeye brethern for exhibitng behavior that was rude tot he opposing fans.  You do have to expect to be razed a little when you go on the road, but that is all part of the experience, in my opinion.  Not all of us are so hospitable to opposing fans, but things have gotten a lot better over the years.  Nowadays, there is a sort of unspoken agreement amongst our more evolved fans that while we can't really eliminate all the douch-baggery we can try to make up for it by being exceptionally acomdating and friendly.  Any of you are welcome anytime to watch The Game from my tailgate and enjoy all the food and libations available, so long as you don't mind watching the game on a b/w cathode-ray TV while locked in a porta-potty.  Kidding of course.  Most of us really do try and do a great job.  But it only takes a few bad ones to make things miserable for others.

Thanks to all the fans that parked in the Special O

Its pretty sobering to hear all of these good stories compared to what OSU was like before. Outside of trash talking, sounds like most people had a good time. Very good thread and great game...