COLUMBUS – Former Ohio State football coach Earle Bruce will dot the “i” in the marching band’s Script Ohio performance before homecoming this week.
Rutgers (2-2, 0-1 Big 10) at (2) Ohio State (3-0), Sat. Oct. 1, Ohio Stadium (Noon/BTN)
The university is honoring Bruce during the Rutgers’ homecoming game Saturday for his service to Ohio State and his support of the marching band.
The 85-year-old Bruce calls the opportunity to dot the “i” the greatest honor he has received. He said his love for the band dates to his freshman year in 1950 when for the first time he watched the band take the field.
“I was sitting in the stands with my fellow players when the band entered the field,” says Bruce. “They marched up and down the field, and the drum major threw his baton in the air — and I jumped up and said, ‘I’m a Buckeye!’ That’s when my love for the band truly began.”
Bruce was an assistant coach under Woody Hayes from 1966 to 1971. Bruce was head coach at Ohio State from 1979 to 1987.
Urban Meyer, whose first coaching position was on Bruce’s staff in 1986, was happy for his former boss and mentor.
“He’s like a father to me,” Meyer said. “There’s a lot of thing he taught us – myself, this program – about right from wrong, no gray area and do things the right way, and toughness, premium placed on education, all the things that I learned from him.”
Other “honorary i-dotters” in the history of Script Ohio, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this October include comedian Bob Hope (1978), former Buckeye coach Woody Hayes (1983), golfer Jack Nicklaus (2006), and Sen. John and Annie Glenn (2009).