What’s on Ohio State’s helmets? What is a buckeye? Everything to know

On By Littum

The Ohio State Buckeyes football team has a history of outscoring its opponents (even when it comes to uniform combinations).

If you’ve watched any Ohio State football games, you’ve probably noticed the players’ uniforms, especially their gray, sticker-filled helmets. But what’s on those stickers? And what do they mean?

The answer is simple.

What are the stickers on Ohio State’s helmets?

The small white and dark green decals depict a buckeye leaf. The stickers, roughly the size of a quarter, are “applied to Ohio State football helmets for big plays and consistency on the field,” according to The Ohio State University website.

What’s important about Ohio State’s buckeye stickers?

Ohio State has a deep and rich history when it comes to football and its sleek uniforms, specifically the team’s shiny silver helmets and accompanying stickers.

Generally, the buckeye leaf stickers are meant to denote an achievement, either by the team or an individual player. In 2019, former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer revealed to a young fan that each sticker means “the player did something really good to help Buckeyes win!”

Players start each season with a clean helmet with no stickers. The team collects more stickers for each victory. For Big Ten wins, the team receives two stickers. If OSU beats Michigan in The Game, players receive three stickers.

According to one 2022 ESPN articleOhio State orders about 7,500 stickers each year.

When did Ohio State first add stickers to its helmets?

The long-standing tradition dates back to 1967, when legendary coach Woody Hayes led Ohio State, but it wasn’t his idea to award the buckeye leaf stickers.

Instead, former head athletic trainer Ernie Biggs convinced Hayes to celebrate big plays with the stickers, That’s what ESPN writes.

The first stickers were distributed on October 7, 1967, the Buckeyes’ second game of the season. Jim Nein returned an interception 45 yards, sealing Ohio State’s 30-0 victory over Oregon. That play became the first sticker-worthy performance in OSU history.

“Three stickers would fill the entire side of your helmet, that’s how big they were,” Nein told ESPN. “They were tennis ball sized stickers.”

What is a buckeye?

Not to be confused with the popular chocolate peanut butter dessert, these brown and tan nuts are poisonous and cannot be eaten.

The nuts come from beech trees (Aesculus glabra). In late summer and early fall, buckeye trees bear a fruit that contains a large nut – the buckeye. The fruit will eventually fall to the ground as greenish-gold leathery husks.

“According to folklore, the buckeye resembles the eye of a deer, and wearing one brings good luck,” the university’s website states.

Why is Ohio called the Buckeye State?

Historian SP Hildreth reported the story of the first use of the buckeye nickname in 1788 when Colonel Ebenezer Sproat arrived in Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory. Sproat appeared in his refreshed military uniform and cocked hat and impressed the Native American traders, who called him “hetuck,” the Shawnee word for “eye of the buck deer” or “Big Buckeye.”

Early pioneers in the Ohio Valley were already known as Buckeyes when Dr. Daniel Drake, a Cincinnati physician and historian, presented a speech on December 26, 1833who extolled the virtues of the buckeye tree and advocated it as the symbol of Ohio.

The buckeye tree was found naturally in the Midwest and its soft wood was ideal for building log cabins or hollowing out troughs to create spoons, bowls and cradles.

But, as Drake recounted, settlers who arrived later were dismissive of the native Ohioans, finding them “uneducated, awkward,” comparing them to buckeyes—native and soft.

“Buckeye was therefore initially a nickname – a term of derision,” Drake said in his speech. “These kids have raised it to an honorary title though!”

After spelling out the metaphor—buckeyes were valuable as resources, pleasing to the eye, and difficult to kill—Drake concluded that the buckeye was an appropriate symbol, saying:

“Every native of the Ohio valley ought to feel proud of the appellation which from the infancy of our settlements has been bestowed upon him; for the Buckeye has many qualities which may be considered typical of a noble character.”

William Henry Harrison of North Bend, Ohio, was the guest of honor when Drake delivered his speech. A few years later, in 1840, Harrison made the buckeye part of his “log cabin” persona during a successful campaign for the presidency.

Despite the fact that Harrison was born in Virginia and the son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Whig Party cast their candidate as a frontiersman and Indian fighter, using log cabins and hard cider to represent his “frontier values.” Supporters carved sticks out of buckeye wood and strung buckeye nuts together into necklaces as campaign souvenirs.

Ohio was forever associated with the Buckeyes.

It wasn’t until 1953 that Ohio adopted the buckeye tree as its state tree. The Ohio State University adopted the Buckeyes as its mascot in 1950.