When people outside the state hear “Ohio football,” they usually think of the Buckeyes. But down in Athens, Ohio University football has been building its own proud tradition since 1894 — and lately, the Bobcats have given their fans the best seasons in program history. This guide covers the program’s story, its stadium, its fiercest rivalry, and how to follow the green and white.
This is not a smaller version of anything elsewhere in the state. It is an old program in an old college town, in a conference it helped found — and that difference is the whole point of following it.
Ohio University Football at a Glance
- Team: Ohio Bobcats
- School: Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
- Conference: Mid-American Conference (MAC) — Ohio is a charter member, joining at the league’s founding in 1946
- Division: NCAA Division I FBS
- Stadium: Peden Stadium, opened in 1929 — one of the oldest stadiums in the MAC
- Colors: Hunter green and white
- Fight song: “Stand Up and Cheer,” dating to 1915
- Band: The Marching 110, nicknamed “The Most Exciting Band in the Land”
Ohio University itself was chartered in 1804 — the oldest university in Ohio — and its football program is one of the foundational names in Midwestern college football. Learn more about the university at Ohio University.
Almost everything here is older than people expect — the university predates the sport, and the conference membership goes back to the league’s founding in 1946. Ohio’s identity was settled long ago, which is why its best modern moments connect so clearly to that history.
A Short History of the Bobcats
Ohio fielded its first team in 1894 and grew into a regional power under coach Don Peden, whose name the stadium carries. Peden coached from 1924 to 1946 and built the program’s first great era. The Bobcats’ golden stretch came in the 1960s under Bill Hess: MAC championships in 1960, 1967, and 1968, and a perfect 10-0 season in 1960.
The modern renaissance belongs to Frank Solich, who coached Ohio from 2005 to 2020 and became the winningest coach in MAC history. Solich turned a struggling program into a model of consistency — 11 bowl appearances and four MAC East titles — and set the stage for what came next under Tim Albin.
The Peden Era: The Foundation
A first team in 1894 makes Ohio an early adopter of a sport still taking shape, built school by school and town by town. Programs that survived that period earned a permanence newer programs cannot claim. Under Peden — coach from 1924 to 1946, long enough to define an institution — Ohio did considerably more, and the stadium that opened in 1929 during his tenure carries his name. Naming a stadium for a coach states what a program values: in this case, foundation.
The Golden Stretch of the 1960s
If Peden built the foundation, Bill Hess built the memory that sustained the program for decades. A perfect season deserves reflection: it means that every week — through injuries, weather, and opponents treating your game as their biggest — you found a way to win. Teams do not stumble into 10-0. The titles in 1967 and 1968 confirmed the success was sustained, not one magical autumn. Nobody celebrating in 1968 knew it was the end of an era, though: the last conference championship Ohio would win for 56 years. They thought they were watching the middle of one.
The Long Wait and the Solich Renaissance
Ohio’s particular pain had a specific shape: five straight losses in MAC Championship Game appearances. Reaching that game means you have already had a good season — then, five times, the year ended one win short. Lesser programs might have lowered their expectations. Ohio kept building.
Solich’s achievement is easy to understate because “consistency” sounds like faint praise. Becoming the winningest coach in MAC history is about winning, season after season, more than anyone else who has done the job in this league. Eleven bowl appearances is the proof — one bowl season can be a fluke, eleven is a culture. His teams never delivered the title itself, but they restored the expectation that Ohio would compete every year: the stage he set for Tim Albin.
Ohio Football Timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1804 | Ohio University is chartered |
| 1894 | Ohio fields its first football team |
| 1915 | “Stand Up and Cheer” dates to this year |
| 1924–1946 | Don Peden coaches Ohio, building the first great era |
| 1929 | Peden Stadium opens |
| 1946 | Ohio becomes a charter member of the MAC |
| 1960 | MAC title and a perfect 10-0 season under Bill Hess |
| 1967 | MAC title under Hess; the Marching 110 takes its modern form |
| 1968 | MAC title under Hess; Tangerine Bowl appearance |
| 2005–2020 | Frank Solich coaches Ohio, becoming the MAC’s winningest coach |
| 2006 | Rufus the Bobcat debuts |
| December 7, 2024 | Ohio beats Miami 38-3 for its first MAC title since 1968 |
One date sits underneath the whole sequence: 1908, the first meeting with Miami — older than the stadium and the conference membership alike.
The 2024 Breakthrough: First MAC Title Since 1968
For 56 years, Ohio’s conference championship drought was the program’s defining frustration — the Bobcats lost five straight MAC Championship Game appearances. It ended on December 7, 2024, at Ford Field in Detroit, when Ohio dismantled archrival Miami 38-3.
The win was historic by every measure: the largest margin of victory in MAC Championship Game history, and the first title game in which a team was held without a touchdown. Quarterback Parker Navarro was the star — 235 passing yards and two touchdowns through the air, plus 73 rushing yards and two more scores on the ground — on his way to Offensive MVP honors.
Two weeks later, Ohio beat Jacksonville State 30-27 in the Cure Bowl, completing the program’s first 11-win season and its sixth consecutive bowl victory — a first for any MAC program. Head coach Tim Albin departed for Charlotte afterward, and assistant Brian Smith, who coached the bowl win, was elevated to permanent head coach.
Why That Day in Detroit Mattered
Some wins are just wins. This one was a release — starting with the opponent. Of all the teams Ohio could have beaten to end the drought, it was Miami, the oldest rival and mirror school. The rivals had already met once that season; the second meeting delivered the MAC championship itself. Fans scripting the ending could hardly have written it better.
The manner of it mattered too. A narrow, nervous win would still have counted, but 38-3 is emphatic: the largest margin in MAC Championship Game history, in the first title game where a team was held without a touchdown. After five straight losses in that game, Ohio did not sneak through the door. It kicked the door down. And Navarro’s line — passing and rushing, touchdowns both ways — is what a star performance looks like when a program’s biggest modern game finds exactly the right player.
The Bowl Win That Completed the Story
Championship teams sometimes exhale, and the bowl becomes an afterthought. Ohio did the opposite, beating Jacksonville State 30-27 in the Cure Bowl two weeks later. An 11-win season is a standard no Ohio team had reached; six consecutive bowl victories, a first for any MAC program, measures sustained excellence against the whole league. The transition that followed became part of the story rather than a disruption: Albin departed for Charlotte, and Brian Smith — the assistant who coached the bowl win — was elevated to permanent head coach. The man trusted with the bowl, who delivered it, was trusted with what came next.
The Battle of the Bricks Rivalry
Ohio’s defining rivalry is with Miami University — the Battle of the Bricks, named for the brick-paved campuses and streets of both Athens and Oxford. The series dates to 1908, making it one of the oldest rivalries in college football, and Miami holds the all-time edge in a series that has passed 100 meetings.
The rivalry burns hottest because the schools mirror each other: two historic Ohio public universities, two brick college towns, and two fan bases who genuinely measure their seasons by this game. The 2024 season gave it a new chapter forever — the rivals met twice, with Ohio’s second win delivering the MAC championship itself.
The best rivalries are about recognition, not strangers. Ohio and Miami see a version of themselves across the field — even the name is about sameness. Beating the school your classmates, neighbours, and family members may have chosen instead settles an argument that runs all year. Miami still holds the all-time edge. Ohio holds the day nobody in Athens will ever forget.
Game Day at Peden Stadium
Peden Stadium sits in the heart of campus along the Hocking River, and Athens on a fall Saturday is one of Ohio’s great small-town football scenes. Uptown Court Street fills with green and white, the Marching 110’s pregame show is a destination by itself, and Homecoming weekend — a point of enormous pride at Ohio University — turns the whole town into a reunion.
The geography is the experience. The stadium is not isolated in a sea of parking lots; arriving means moving through the university itself, in a crowd that is largely already there — students, returning alumni, families who live with this school all year. A big Saturday feels less like a show the town hosts and more like a ritual the town performs. Homecoming is that ritual at its fullest: part game, part walk down familiar brick streets among people who share the same memories of the place.
Tailgating centers on TailGREAT Park beside the stadium, where the team makes its pregame “Bobcat Walk” through the crowd — a small tradition with a large effect. Before kickoff, the players pass through their own people, and the distance between team and supporters briefly disappears.
The Marching 110: More Than a Band
The Marching 110 deserves its own mention: formed in its modern style in 1967 (the “110” honors the 110 original members), the band is famous for its high-energy drumline, dance routines, and halftime shows that regularly outshine the game.
At Ohio, the band is not an intermission. Its pregame show is a destination by itself, and the nickname — “The Most Exciting Band in the Land” — tells you how it sees itself: performance as spectacle, from an act that knows part of the crowd came to see it. Arrive for the pregame show and stay for halftime; you will understand the place faster than any guide can explain it.
Traditions and Notable Moments
Game day has its own cast of characters. The costumed mascot, Rufus the Bobcat, debuted in 2006 after a campus naming contest, and tailgating centers on TailGREAT Park beside the stadium, where the team makes its pregame “Bobcat Walk” through the crowd. Older fans still trade stories about the 1968 team, which capped its MAC championship season in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando — a wild 49-42 loss to Richmond that remains one of the highest-scoring bowl games of its era. And when the Victory Bell rings after wins and the Marching 110 pours onto the field, Peden Stadium produces a wall of green-and-white noise that belies its size.
These traditions layer generations into one afternoon: Rufus for younger fans; the Bobcat Walk as present-day ritual; the Victory Bell for the moment of triumph; and the 1968 stories, passed by elders to fans who never saw that Tangerine Bowl except through the telling. Tradition is not one old thing preserved unchanged — it is new layers added on top of old ones. “Stand Up and Cheer,” dating to 1915, ties it together: the newest student joins a song that was already tradition generations ago.
MACtion and How to Follow the Team
Ohio plays most Saturdays in September and October, then joins the MAC’s signature late-season experiment: MACtion, the run of Tuesday and Wednesday night conference games in November carried nationally on ESPN networks. Bobcat games typically air on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, CBS Sports Network, or ESPN+ streaming. Schedules, tickets, and roster news are posted through the athletics site, and bowl destinations are announced in early December.
So the season has two rhythms: traditional Saturday games and the full Peden Stadium scene in September and October, then November weeknights when the whole college football audience can find the Bobcats. Check the channel or stream each week rather than assuming, because the mix of networks changes once MACtion starts. And follow the Athens way, wherever you are: prize the Miami game, respect the band, value consistency — the Solich lesson, punctuated at long last by a day like December 7, 2024.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Ohio University football begin?
Ohio fielded its first team in 1894, growing into a regional power under Don Peden, who coached from 1924 to 1946 and whose name Peden Stadium carries.
When did Ohio last win the MAC championship?
On December 7, 2024 — beating Miami 38-3 at Ford Field in Detroit, the Bobcats’ first MAC title since 1968, ending a 56-year drought by the largest margin of victory in MAC Championship Game history.
What is the Battle of the Bricks?
Ohio’s rivalry with Miami University, named for the brick-paved campuses and streets of Athens and Oxford. The series dates to 1908, has passed 100 meetings, and Miami holds the all-time edge.
Where do the Bobcats play, and what is game day known for?
Peden Stadium, opened in 1929 and one of the oldest stadiums in the MAC. Game day is known for the Marching 110, tailgating at TailGREAT Park, the pregame Bobcat Walk, and the Victory Bell after wins.
What is MACtion?
The MAC’s run of Tuesday and Wednesday night conference games in November, carried nationally on ESPN networks, after the Saturday schedule of September and October.
Who is the Marching 110?
Ohio’s band, nicknamed “The Most Exciting Band in the Land.” It took its modern form in 1967 — the “110” honors the 110 original members — and is famous for its drumline, dance routines, and halftime shows.
The Bottom Line
However you find them, the Bobcats reward the attention. A program that waited 56 years for a conference title — and then won it by beating its oldest rival 38-3 — is easy to root for, and a big reason college football belongs on any list of what Ohio is known for. In Athens, they wouldn’t have it any other way.
