 "Photo: The Lantern")
Like many students at Ohio State, Michael Kahan decided to jump into the cold waters of Mirror Lake three years ago before the football game against Michigan.
When the fourth-year in marketing told his parents, they were none too pleased. He tried to explain that it was an important tradition, but his dad, an OSU alumnus, would not buy it.
“He told me that when he was a student back in the ‘70s, nobody jumped in the lake,” Kahan said.
His mom asked him when the tradition started, but he had no answer.
“I guess I never really bothered to figure out why we all do it,” he said.
Very few students seem to be aware of exactly how the mirror lake jump came to be.
Julianna Scott, a fouth-year in speech and hearing sciences, said she believes it all stems from seniors hazing freshmen in the 1920s.
Kyle Bray, a fifth-year in biology, said he thinks it started when a group of upperclassmen rallied the school to join in a display of school spirit. Graham Cline, a fourth-year in business, said the jump channels the spirit of Woody Hayes to ensure a victory for the Buckeyes. Abbie Fagin, a fourth-year in history and English, has absolutely no idea.
Reports of students making the murky plunge date as far back as 1902, but the first events that likely inspired the modern tradition can be traced back to the ‘20s.
In the early 1900s, freshmen men at OSU were required to wear hats that distinguished them from the rest of the students, according to Lantern archives. Students daring enough to remove their caps were sometimes thrown into Mirror Lake by upperclassmen. At the end of the year during “May Festival,” later renamed “May Week,” the freshmen held a cap-burning ceremony.
In 1926, however, the atmosphere turned sour as more freshmen refused to wear their hats throughout the year. During the cap burning ceremony of 1926, a riot broke out that resulted in more than 100 freshmen being thrown in the lake.
The tradition of the jump plunged into obscurity until 1990, when members of the marching band led a parade of students on a traditional march around campus. At the end of the parade — at Mirror Lake — dozens of students made the first celebratory jump.
While the jumps of the past few years have drawn crowds of several thousand, less than 100 people leaped into the lake in 1990.
“When I was a freshman four years ago, the event was much smaller than it was this past year,” said Bray, the fifth-year. “It may have been because it was 14 degrees and snowing, but it was freezing cold the last couple of years too.”
“I’ve jumped each of my first three years,” said Scott, the fouth-year. “I don’t really care about the origins of the event. To me the whole thing is about letting loose and having fun with your friends.”
Many of today’s jumpers seem to share that sentiment, including Kahan.
“I eventually just told my parents that the jump was a great time with great friends and I have no regrets,” he said. Now in his senior year, Kahan plans to jump for the fourth time, and this time he knows exactly why he’s doing it.
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