Buckeye Nation reached full-term 20 years ago, fathered by a vest-wearing motivational maestro and delivered by a team of success-starved players who coalesced into what may be the most beloved Ohio State football team ever.
Before 2002, Ohio State fans shared no organized identity beyond an alumni club and obsession with the scarlet and gray. A search of media documents shows several 1990s references to “the Buckeye nation,” but “Buckeye Nation” was only a twinkle in OSU President Gordon Gee’s eye until Jim Tressel arrived in 2001, when the unofficial, and some would say overused, title was first conceived.