Ohio State Buckeyes

Ohio State Buckeyes

The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of The Ohio State University, named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, the Ohio Buckeye – Aesculus glabra. The Buckeyes participate in the NCAA's Division I in all sports and the Big Ten Conference in most sports. The Ohio State Buckeyes men's ice hockey program competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, and its women's hockey program competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The school colors are scarlet and grey. Ohio State's mascot is Brutus Buckeye.

The Ohio State University is one of only four universities to have won a NCAA national championship in baseball, men's basketball and football. Ohio State has also won national championships in men's swimming & diving, men's outdoor track & field, men's volleyball, men's golf, men's gymnastics, men's fencing, co-ed fencing, and synchronized swimming. Since the inception of the Athletic Director's Cup, Ohio State has finished in the top 25 each year, including top 6 finishes in three of the last five years. During the 2005-2006 school year Ohio State became the first Big Ten team to win conference championships in football, men's basketball and women's basketball in the same season. They repeated this feat in the 2006-2007 season, which also included a February 25, 2007 men's basketball game which saw the Buckeyes defeat the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big Ten's first one-versus-two basketball game.

A few of the many outstanding sports figures who were student athletes at Ohio State include Jesse Owens, “The Buckeye Bullet,” (track and field), John Havlicek, Jerry Lucas, and Katie Smith (basketball), Frank Howard (baseball), Jack Nicklaus (golf), Archie Griffin (football running back, the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner), and Chic Harley (three-time All-American football running back). Hall of Fame coaches at Ohio State have included Paul Brown and Woody Hayes (football), Fred Taylor (men's basketball). Notable sports figures in Ohio State history may be inducted into the Ohio State Varsity O Hall of Fame.