What is a buckeye?
A small, shiny, dark brown nut with a light tan patch that comes from the official state tree of Ohio, the buckeye tree.
According to folklore, the Buckeye resembles the eye of a deer and carrying one brings good luck.
The first recorded use of the term Buckeye to refer to a resident of the area was in 1788, 15 years before Ohio became a state. Col. Ebenezer Sproat, a large 6’4″ man with swashbuckling mannerisms, led the legal delegation at the first court session of the Northwest Territory in Marietta. The Indians in attendance greeted him with shouts of “Hetuck, Hetuck” (the Indian word for buckeye), because they were impressed by his stature and manner. He proudly carried the Buckeye nickname for the rest of his life and it gradually spread to his companions and to other local settlers. By the 1830s, writers were commonly referring to locals as “Buckeyes.”
Here's a family story of a WWII Buckeye...my father-in-law was stationed on the island of Espirtu Santo in the Pacific. He was an air gunner and also worked in a CASU, a Combat Air Service Unit, to maintenance the airplanes. There were a number of CASUs on Espiritu Santo and the neighboring islands. When a bunch of guys had down time, they played basketball in a CASU league.
Dad's team called themselves the Buckeyes because all of his teammates were from Ohio.
A team member, Tom Grucella from Akron made the uniform. The basketball trunks were made from satin toe targets lined with parachute silk. The warm up jacket is a converted Navy undress jumper (shirt). The jersey is just a t-shirt stenciled with BUCKEYES. They wore field boots, the only footwear available.
These Buckeyes lost a total of 3 games in 16 months. They were the CASU champs in 1945.
Also, today would have been my father-in-law's 98th birthday. He was proud of his service and always proud to be a Buckeye.
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