When the Ohio State Marching Band takes the field at halftime during Saturday’s game and performs Script Ohio, to whom should we give credit for this beloved tradition that has stood the test of time – our own “Pride of the Buckeyes” or the U of M marching band?
Few people know the true history of Script Ohio, marched by The Best Damn Band in the Land at many Buckeye football games throughout the years. In 1932, the University of Michigan marching band took the field at Ohio Stadium, according to the OSU Library Web site’s archive page, and stood in a formation spelling out “Ohio” in script writing.
Was this where the seed for the idea of Script Ohio was planted? Perhaps. But before we hastily give all the credit to Michigan, it should be pointed out the Script Ohio we see marched today on the field is something else all together.
“Many years ago, formations written in script were a fairly common technique, but it was a stationary formation that Michigan did,” said OSU Marching Band director Jon Woods. “The Script Ohio we recognize, the famous one, is the animated one. We’re the ones that took the script writing to another level, by forming the block, adding movement, adding the following the leader of the drum major.”
True, Michigan’s band might have marched “Ohio” in a script first, but today’s “Script Ohio” is the invention of OSU.
“It’s the animation that has made that formation unique and interesting. And then of course we have singing, and the icing on the cake is the sousaphone player dotting the ‘i.’ That’s a far cry from the stationary script that Michigan did,” Woods said.
At the first performance of Script Ohio, the “i” was dotted by a trumpet player as simply a movement to continue the formation, according to the OSU official athletics Web site. In 1937, band director Eugene Weigel had an idea to switch the trumpet player with a sousaphone player and brought the instrument from the back of the band to the spotlight.
The kick, turn and bow completed by the “i-dotter” was an improvisation introduced by the first “i-dotter” to take up a few measures of music because the drum major had arrived at the top of the “i” too early. The crowd loved it and the routine became part of the “i-dotting” tradition.
Taking part in the tradition this Saturday is Dan Wanders. He chose first which game he would dot the “i” in and for him, picking the Michigan game was a no-brainer, he said.
Assistant director of the marching band Jon Waters was a former band member himself and dotted the “i” for the 1998 game against Michigan. He recalls what a privilege and an honor it was for him to take part of the tradition.
“It was neat to walk in the footsteps of those who had done it before and step into the spotlight for that day,” he said.
Obviously very important to the “i-dotters,” this tradition is also very important to the other members of the marching band.
“It’s our trademark,” Wanders said. “We’ve done it for 70 years now, and for the people who have done it before us and the people who will come after us, it is something we want to keep going. I don’t even know how to describe it except to say that it’s the best thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
This tradition, which has stood the test of time and evolved from Michigan’s stationary script to the “incomparable Script Ohio” we know today, has become one of the most recognizable traditions in OSU history and has become important to the entire OSU community.
“From my senior year of high school, I made it my goal to dot the ‘i’ in Script Ohio someday,” Wanders said. “To do it at this game, this is a dream come true. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.”