Follow Eleven Warriors' journey through great to odd moments in Ohio State history with our new series, Remember When?
Woody Hayes once said to a recruit, "You can go become a tiger, a bear, lion, or any other animal that is the mascot of schools across the country, but there is only one place you can be a Buckeye. Are you ready to be a Buckeye?"
Ohio State didn't officially adopt the Buckeye name until 1950, though its athletic teams carried the moniker for years prior to the christening.
But it never would have gotten to that point if a cabal of wayward Ohio State students had their way in 1930. When asked by The Lantern, the voice of OSU students, 72 percent of those polled were dissatisfied with the name because it wasn't ferocious enough.
Of the students polled, only one offered a replacement—The Ohio State Fighting Buckeyes, which was bad considering it ignored the obvious alliteration of "Battling Buckeyes."
From the Nov. 24, 1930 edition of The Lantern:
Thankfully, disaster was averted because The Ohio State Meadow Voles, The Ohio State Eastern Fence Lizards, or The Ohio State Field Sparrows wouldn't be as iconic as The Ohio State Buckeyes.
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