Please patronize our advertisers to help
keep theOzone.net free for everyone.

The-Ozone.net Mall

Interesting, Fun companies with interesting, quality products - and the-Ozone gets a piece of the action!

Football
Here We Go Again: Buckeyes to Wear Pro Combat Uniforms in “The Game”
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS — “The Game” continues to take on a different look.

With all the talk of Ohio State and Michigan being split into different divisions as a result of Big Ten expansion, it’s possible college football’s greatest rivalry may never look the same again.

It certainly won’t in 2010.

Terrelle Pryor in the 2009 Nike Pro Combat Uniform before last year's Michigan game.
Photo by Dan Harker

There had been rumblings about it for some time, but Nike made it official Wednesday that Ohio State will wear the contemporary Pro Combat uniforms against Michigan for the second straight year. 

“Ohio State is one of 10 of the top college football programs that will wear uniquely designed Nike uniforms for at least one game during the 2010 season,” Nike said in an official release Wednesday.

According to the release, that one game is not just any game, it is “the game.”

For the first time in the Jim Tressel era, the Buckeyes and Wolverines will meet two days after Thanksgiving, and when they do, Jim Tressel’s team will look different than ever before.

They will also look eerily similar.

The 2009 Nike Pro Combat uniforms worn in Ann Arbor last season were designed to pay tribute to the school’s 1954 national championship team and the 2010 version will likely do its best to honor an Ohio State team from the past, possibly even the ’54 team.

Dressed in white uniforms with scarlet numbers, gray pants and white helmets bearing the player’s number in black, Ohio State came out of the tunnel at Michigan Stadium with a new look last November. Some were concerned the attention over the new uniforms would leave the heavily-favored Buckeyes vulnerable to an upset, but it didn’t. The Buckeyes took care of their archrivals 21-10 for their sixth straight win over the Wolverines.

The exact look for this year’s alternate jersey’s won’t be announced until Sept. 1—the day before Ohio State opens the 2010 season against Marshall—but there is strong probability it will be nothing more than the Scarlet, or home, version of the last year’s 1954 tribute. Especially considering photos of a Scarlet version have been circulating since before last season’s Michigan game.

Led by Heisman Trophy winner Howard “Hopalong” Cassady, the ’54 team used a goal line stand to defeat Michigan en route to capturing the school’s second national championship, and the first under Head Coach Woody Hayes.

With the game tied 7-7 in the fourth quarter between undefeated Ohio State and one-loss Michigan, the Buckeye defense stuffed the Wolverines four straight times inside the five yard line, leaving them six inches shy of the goal line. The Buckeyes marched 100 yards in the opposite direction and went on to win the game 21-7.

Along with Ohio State, a number of college football’s top programs will join them in wearing the uniquely designed uniforms, including Miami (Fla.), who will play at Ohio Stadium in week two.

Donate by Check :

Ozone Communications
1380 King Avenue
Columbus, Ohio

Help us bring you more Buckeye coverage. Donate to the-Ozone.

Click here to email this the-Ozone feature to a friend...or even a foe.

(c) 2010 The O-Zone, O-Zone Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, rebroadcast,rewritten, or redistributed.