A week ago Ohio State football fans and college football fans across the country anticipated Saturday’s games. After Tuesday’s terrorist attacks those anticipations were dampened and put on hold.

Normally Lane Avenue would have been packed with around 40,000 Buckeye patrons, at Hineygate, in the Varsity Club, leaving Holiday Inn or heading to the game.

On Saturday, those fans and pre- game festivities were nowhere to be found.

“It’s actually very disturbing; it’s a beautiful day out there and we all expected football out there,” said Jack Koeppen, an assistant manager at the Varsity Club. “But obviously in view of what happened you can’t have it.”

Koeppen described the usual atmosphere as “crazy chaos.”

“It’s packed inside out, downstairs it’s wall to wall people packed together having a great time. There would be no place for it this weekend. People could not have fun,” he said.

The Holiday Inn, usually packed with guests, was also very quiet with a handful of people to be seen in the lobby and bar.

However, manager Brett Hobsteter said most reservations have been rescheduled for the weekend of Oct. 20, the makeup date for the OSU-San Diego State game.

There was a crowd in Ohio Stadium, but instead of 100,000 clad in scarlet and gray attending the Buckeye-Aztec match-up it was 15,000 modeling red, white and blue for the Show You Care Telethon.

“It’s interesting. The walk up had a much different feeling than it normally does,” said OSU graduate Matt Anderson. “But it’s great that the university is doing this. The stadium, the team and the band, they are all coming together to do this for our country.”

“I would have be here anyway for the game, no sacrifice at all to come down here for this,” Anderson said.

Inside Ohio Stadium, the usual hot dog and cola stands were remodeled into Red-Cross depots. The merchandise being sold was not that of T-shirts and jerseys but American flags.

The terror born in Manhattan’s shattered business district and Washington, D.C., has been felt in Columbus.

“It puts a fear into you. This has never happened before, never had an attack on our soil like this before,” Anderson said. “There’s traveling concerns as well as having everyone in the stadium at the same time. (Terrorists) can’t stop us. We’re putting sports on hold but we’re also coming together for a good cause.”

A mother of four had the same sentiments.

“Even seeing the planes fly overhead is scary, it scares my 6-year-old,” said Columbus resident Tonia Wemyss.

The somber mood was also felt on the field.

“It makes you think, especially on Saturday,” said OSU linebacker Joe Cooper. “To me it seems like (terrorists) attack where there are a lot of people and there is 100,000 at the Horseshoe on Saturday. It stays in the back of your mind. You take it for granted that it wouldn’t happen here but you can’t think like that.”

Beyond the fear and sorrow, a unity was seen around campus on Saturday.

“I understand why they did (cancel games). But things still have to go on regardless of all the heartache there is U.S. right now,” Wemyss said. “We sit around the TV and watch (OSU games). The scarlet and gray is wonderful but this is awesome. People are down but at the same time everyone is pulling together, and doing a lot of praying together here.”