By Alisha Gomez
There’s something to be said about Columbus.
The capital of Ohio until recently boasted of having the No. 1 college football team in the country,at least until I got there to watch the team lose to the University of Illinois on Nov. 17.
Columbus is a live and die Big 10 city, whose core seems to rise and fall with the Ohio State Buckeyes. Cold football games, the infamous horseshoe stadium, die-hard fans, a longtime Michigan rivalry, beer for breakfast, Brutus Buckeye and Jim Tressel rule.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, where college football is built around USC and UCLA, teams that don’t seem to know much about playing ball in the rain or snow, much let alone the cold.
Watching the Buckeyes play in Columbus was like a circus. Streets were closed down, people were tailgating all day, bars were filled and the young men’s choir was huddled together on campus singing the alma mater.
There are the crazies,those who paint their bodies and faces red and wear red wigs. They go shirtless no matter how cold it is.
Others go more modest, a la “Tressel style,” complete with ties and sweater vests. And the gals paste O’s with buckeyes on them to their cheeks. Get a seat up high in the horseshoe and all you see is a sea of red,just about everyone is wearing Buckeye gear.
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Columbus, which has about a million people, still has a quaint feel. In many ways it’s similar to Orange County and where I live,Long Beach,minus the smog, traffic and crowded feeling.
It boasts a theater for operas and plays, a zoo, aquarium, the Arena,where the Bluejackets hockey team plays,and a bustling convention center.
It’s a city that had been, until perhaps recently, known as a test market, with companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch Co., The Limited and Wendy’s International Inc. all headquartered there.
You know you’re not in SoCal anymore once you grab a burger at Max & Erma’s, a restaurant born in Columbus after two guys bought a bar from a couple named Max & Erma. We ordered what any good Midwesterner would: a cheeseburger.
“Do you put thousand island dressing on that?” I asked. My husband hates that.
“What, ma’am?” the waiter asked, confused.
He had no idea what I was talking about.
“You know, thousand island salad dressing,” I said.
“No, ma’am.”
“You see!” my husband jumped. “Only you Southern Californians mess up burgers with your thousand island dressing.”
Just good old mustard and ketchup here.
Another reminder: People wear their Buckeyes gear out to bars and dinner like those here who don Armani, Gucci or Louis Vuitton. Doesn’t matter that your once No. 1 team lost to the unranked Fighting Illini and has kissed an undefeated season and a chance for the BCS championship goodbye.
“They don’t care that the team lost,” my husband, a Buckeye, says. “They’re always behind them.”
It’s not about fashion for them,it’s about pride.
So onto the big one now, the match against the Wolverines. By the time you read this, the rivalry between the two will once again be put to bed,hopefully in favor of the Buckeyes.
