The Ohio State University (legal name), also known as Ohio State or OSU (Not to be confused with Ohio University), is currently the largest state University in the United States by population (with 50,995 students), consisting of the main campus in Columbus, Ohio, and branch campuses located in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Gibraltar Island (Stone Lab), Newark, and Wooster. The university was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university. The mascot of OSU is Brutus the Buckeye.

Campus

The Columbus campus is currently the largest single campus in the USA, there are 58,254 students enrolled. The university is noted especially for its linguistics department and colleges of business, education, and engineering. The medical school is home to the James Cancer Hospital , a leading cancer research institute. The university also holds the honor of being the best public university in the state of Ohio as compiled by the U.S. News and World Report magazine in their annual college rankings special issue. The Columbus campus is also home to the renowned Wexner Center for the Arts. The current president is Karen A. Holbrook, and Barbara R. Snyder is the Provost.

History

The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, built in 1870 in accordance with Lincoln's 1862 Land-Grant Act, first opened its doors for students during the September of 1873. Initially, President Stanton of Miami University through the Morrill Act was trying to receive more state funding in the late nineteenth century and was instrumental in the founding of the Ohio State University. The school was initially situated within a farming community located just on the outlying borders of Columbus, and was intended to matriculate students of various agricultural and mechanical disciplines (as the name suggests). After a vote passed in favor of instating a broader spectrum of educational offerings, the college subsequently changed its name in 1878 to the now-familiar "The Ohio State University".

Ohio State operated The Big Ear, the largest and longest running radio telescope SETI project in the world until 1998.

Organization

The Ohio State University is comprised of the following colleges:

• School of Allied Medical Professions
• Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture
• College of Arts
• College of Biological Sciences
• Fisher College of Business
• School of Communication
• College of Dentistry
• College of Education
• College of Engineering
• College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
• Graduate School
• College of Human Ecology
• College of Humanities
• Moritz College of Law
• College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
• College of Medicine and Public Health
• School of Music
• School of Natural Resources
• College of Nursing
• College of Optometry
• College of Pharmacy
• College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• College of Social Work
• University College
• College of Veterinary Medicine

Sports, clubs, and traditions

Ohio State's intercollegiate sports teams are called the "Buckeyes" (after the state tree, the Buckeye), and participate in the NCAA's Division I-A in all sports and the Big Ten Conference in most sports. (The men's hockey program competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, and its women's hockey program competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.) The school colors are Scarlet and Gray.

The Buckeye football team, which plays at Ohio Stadium (a.k.a. the Horseshoe or simply The Shoe), won the 2002 college football national championship at the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. It was the fifth national championship for the football team, which also topped the nation in 1942, 1954, 1957, and 1968.

The Buckeye football team also boasts 5 Heisman trophy winners including the only two time winner: Les Horvath (1944), Vic Janowicz (1950), Howard Cassady (1955), Archie Griffin (1974 & 1975), and Eddie George (1995).

Ohio State is known for its intense athletic rivalry (particularly in football) with the University of Michigan, to which OSU has an overall record of 38-57-6.

The Makio is Ohio State's annual/yearbook. The Makio ran into financial problems during the early 1970s, and the organization went bankrupt and stopped publication during the late 1970s. The book was revived from 1985 to 1994, and has been revived again since 2000.

OSU's "Buckeye Bullet" electric car broke the world record for the fastest speed by an electric vehicle on October 3, 2004 with a speed of 271.737 mph (437.3 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The vehicle also holds the US record for fastest electric vehicle with a speed of 314.958 mph (506.9 km/h), and peak timed mile speed of 321.834 mph (517.9 km/h). The vehicle was designed, built and managed by a team of engineering students at the university's "Center for Automotive Research-Intelligent Transportation" (CAR-IT).

OSU operates a public television station, WOSU 34. Two public radio stations, WOSU-AM (NPR) and WOSU-FM in Columbus, both with the call letters WOSU. In 2003, the television station began broadcasting in HDTV format. There is also an internet only, student-run radio station called The Underground and a student run cable channel, Buckeye TV. The school newspaper is called The Lantern.

In 1926, the student body overwhelmingly elected Maudine Ormsby Homecoming Queen. That Maudine Ormsby was not a student at the Ohio State University was a bigger problem than the fact that she was a dairy cow. Still, she took her throne at the homecoming football game that year but passed on the homecoming dance.

The school is often referred to as Ohio State University. The proper name, when used as a noun, is The Ohio State University.

Famous Ohio State University Alumni/Attendees

Please note that the names listed may have only attended the University at one point and not have necessarily graduated.

• Berenice Abbott, photographer (briefly)
• George Wesley Bellows, painter (1905 (attended but did not graduate)
• Jack Buck, longtime voice of the St. Louis Cardinals, NFL football announcer journalist
• Thomas Carper, United States Senator (1968)
• Milton Caniff, cartoonist (1930)
• Maurice Clarett, controversial college football player who sued the NFL challenging its age restrctions (attended but did not graduate)
• Dan Crippen, former Director of the Congressional Budget Office
• et healthcare
• Nancy Currie, astronaut (1980)
• Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer (attended but did not graduate)
• Vince Doria , VP of ESPN and director of SportsCenter (1970)
• Harlan Ellison, Science fiction writer (attended but did not graduate)
• William Fowler, Nobel Prize Laureate
• Eddie George, Heisman Trophy winner, NFL football player
• Archie Griffin, only two-time Heisman Trophy winner, current president of The Ohio State University Alumni Association
• John Havlicek, NBA basketball star, Basketball Hall of Famer
• Eileen Heckart, actress (1942)
• Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN sports analyst
• Patricia Heaton, actress on Everybody Loves Raymond
• Les Horvath , Heisman Trophy winner (1943)
• David A. Huffman, computer scientist (1944)
• Melina Kanakaredes, actress, star of Providence and CSI: NY (attended but did not graduate)
• Clark Kellogg , basketball star, TV sports analyst
• George Monnett Kling (aka Saxon Kling ) Broadway actor, playwright and member of the Washington Square Players.
• Maurice Koblentz , former State Commissioner of Prisons (Ohio) and expert in Penal Reform Issues.
• Bobby Knight, basketball coach
• Jerome Lawrence,
• Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force general (WWII and Cold War)
• Dante Lavelli , Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee (1945)
• Richard Lewis, comedian, actor, writer
• Roy Lichtenstein, artist (MFA 1949, honorary doctorate 1988)
• Jerry Lucas, NBA basketball star, Basketball Hall of Famer
• Erin Moriarty , CBS news correspondent (and commencement speaker Spring Quarter 2004)
• Jack Nicklaus, often considered the greatest golfer of all time (attended but did not graduate)
• Jesse Owens, four Olympic gold medals in 1936
• Roy Plunkett, inventor of teflon (Ph.D., 1936)
• Clayton Rawson, mystery writer
• Gigi Rice, actress
• Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia (Ph.D., 2000)
• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., historian
• Frank Schmalleger, professor and author (Ph.D., 1974)
• Fred Silverman, television executive
• J. K. Simmons, actor
• R. L. Stine, children's author
• James Thurber, author
• Leslie Wexner, CEO and chairman of the Limited Brands corporation
• Dwight Yoakam, country musician (attended but did not graduate)

External links

• Official site
• Official athletics site