About five years ago, I wrote a blog post about my grandson Nikolai’s attendance at his first Ohio State football game. Yesterday, it was his cousin Sam’s turn to enter that hallowed world. This world had changed quite a bit since Nikolai’s first game. Because of COVID, relatively few people (76,540) attended this game against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and instead of paper tickets, we had to gain admission using electronic tickets sent to my cell phone. More on that later.

Since Sam lives most of the time in Indonesia, where football is rarely played or watched, I assumed he wasn’t prepared for what he was about to see.  So as soon as we purchased water bottles (essential given the heat) and reached our seats, I took it upon myself to explain some of football’s basics: touchdowns, passing, rushing, tackling, etc. Sam assured me he knew all about those things, and maybe he did. It was hard to see the expression on his face because of the COVID mask he wore, but Sam certainly cheered at the right times. That included a spectacular 52-yard touchdown run by star freshman TreVeyon Henderson. The only time Sam seemed confused was when Tulsa kicked a field goal. I explained to him that when a team ran out of chances to score a touchdown, they might still be close enough to the opponent’s end zone to kick the ball between the goal posts and score three points. Okay!

As the game progressed, Sam took note of several happenings unrelated to football. He relished the on-field antics of Brutus Buckeye but was puzzled by a flag Brutus kept waving. What was that strange thing on the flag? It turned out to be a picture of Brutus himself. Later, an even bigger flag held aloft by fans in the south bleachers caught his eye. What was that? This time I couldn’t tell for sure, but it appeared to be some kind of ad. Sam marveled at the way the flag moved downward as fans at higher levels slowly transferred the blue-and-white banner to fans below them. Sam enjoyed the halftime show with TBDBITL paying tribute to the year 1921 by turning themselves into Charleston dancers, Jazz-playing trumpeters, and a piano complete with sheet music. Before the game started, he watched the band perform Script Ohio and heard them play the Buckeye fight song and Carmen Ohio.

Because Sam’s mother had a commitment at 7:30, he and I left the stadium around 6 pm, when there was about nine minutes left in the third quarter. At that point, Ohio State led Tulsa 20-6, and ultimately won the game 41-20. Almost all of this experience was rewarding from the Bricker and Eckler tailgate lunch to the scenic walk back from the stadium across the Olentangy River. I say “almost” because the new electronic tickets were a major headache. After enduring the rigamarole of opening an OSU athletic account, having the tickets transferred to my phone, and then assuring they could be opened when needed, a major snag occurred when we prepared to enter the stadium. For reasons unknown, the tickets wouldn’t open unless I first typed in my OSU account username and password. Of course, I didn’t have either one at my fingertips. To their credit, the ticket-handlers were ready for this kind of problem. After giving them my name and the location of our seats, they verified I was the rightful owner of those seats, re-sent the tickets to me, and let Sam and me enter.

There was one silver lining to the electronic ticket problem. Once we were in the stadium, a young woman directed us to a booth where people attending their first OSU football game received a special certificate. The line at the booth was short, so in no time at all, Sam had a certificate certifying that the Ohio State-Tulsa game on September 18, 2021, was the first game he ever attended.  It is my sincere hope it won’t be his last.