A Brief History of Ohio State's Friday Football Games

Friday games are rare for Ohio State, to say the least.

The last time the Buckeyes suited up on the best day of the week was 60 years ago when they traveled to Los Angeles in 1959 to take on USC for a night tilt. Jess Hill's 11th-ranked Trojans weren't nice hosts and spanked Woody's team 17-0 in the second game of the season.

Prior to 1959, Ohio State had played regular-season Friday contests on four other occasions – all of which came in the 19th century. The Buckeyes played on Friday twice in 1896, once in 1895 and once during the inaugural season of 1890.

Heading into the battle against Northwestern, the Buckeyes have a 2–3 record when playing regular season games on Friday. If everything is copacetic, the Scarlet and Gray should improve to .500 on the day named in honor of the Norse goddess Frigg.

Ohio State's 11 other Friday games occurred in bowl games between 1971 and 2017. After dropping the first three postseason games, Ohio State has won six of the last eight.

Most recently, the 2017 Cotton Bowl against USC was played on a Friday as Urban Meyer's squad beat the Trojans 24-7 in AT&T Stadium. Before that, Ohio State's Fiesta Bowl win over Notre Dame on New Year's Day in 2016 was played on a Friday, when the Buckeyes overpowered the Irish 44-28 despite a targeting call on Joey Bosa.

Friday has even delivered Ohio State a national title. That's right, the BCS National Championship Game on January 3, 2003 was played on a Friday.

Friday's been kind to the Buckeyes of late, and they'll have a chance to notch another win against Northwestern at 8:30 p.m. on Ryan Field.

*Will be 6 and 17 after playing Northwestern.
**Through the Michigan State game.