The Ohio State University has a special and favorite event every spring called “Buckeye Grove.” It is about the tradition of planting of a Buckeye tree for each All-American football player who has been honored by the university in a grove near Ohio Stadium. The custom has become a great symbol of excellence, history, and pride for Ohio State University.

Urban Meyer, with his job as the head coach, brought a new idea to this old custom, which increased its importance even more. Let’s dive deep into Buckeye Grove’s original creation, its development, and the consequences of Meyer’s activity in the tradition.

Spring tradition of Buckeye Grove

The Ohio State University’s Buckeye Grove is a grove of buckeye trees dedicated to the school’s All-American football players. Since 1934, each Ohio State All-American has had a Buckeye tree planted in their honor. At the spring game, trees are typically planted during a pregame ceremony. The Buckeye Grove is presently situated in the southwest corner of Ohio Stadium, which underwent renovations in 2001.

It is one of the oldest football traditions, with the Gold Pants started in 1934. But you must know another fact about Buckeye Memorial Grove. And what’s that? So, basically, in 1929, the Buckeye Memorial Grove was established by the Scarlet Key. Now, what’s the Scarlet Key? You must be thinking about? It was a group of football team managers at that time, and they wanted to provide a sustainable way to honor elite players in college football.

And that’s when planting trees for each football player (who had done great that year) started. Initially, they planted 11 trees in a football formation. Since then, when Marvin Harrison, Jr.’s second tree is planted prior to this year’s Spring Game, Buckeye Grove will have 216 trees. When does the planting happen? Each Ohio State football player who was named an All-American the previous season had a Buckeye tree planted in Buckeye Grove as part of a ceremony held prior to the spring game.

Urban Meyer’s addition to Ohio State’s long ritual

Many years ago, American sportscaster and former college football coach Urban Meyer said, “I wasn’t going to take a job at a place where I had to go change the culture.” What change did Meyer make to the Buckeye Grove?

When Urban Meyer took over the program in 2011, he established a secondary tradition. And that was a bit interesting and inspiring at the same time. So, he announced that whichever team loses the Spring Game would be the ones to take care of Buckeye Grove and add mulch. Later on, spring games became more famous and loved by fans. What else?

He also introduced the black stripes concept, which made the move to Columbus. So, basically, freshmen players had black stripes on their helmets until they got the privilege to remove them and become full-fledged members of the team in a ceremonial fashion. How cool is that, right? But he also got hate for his work.

Senior Zach Boren said, “I think he is trying to implement some of his own traditions, but at the same time, he’s not going to do anything too drastic compared to what we’ve done before.” Whenever someone tries to make any change, people will love you or hate you, but you have to keep working forward.