This Month in Ohio History
OCTOBER

First Game Played in Ohio Stadium (October 7, 1922)
Ohio State took on Ohio Wesleyan for the first game played in newly-built Ohio Stadium. One of the earliest stadiums built of reinforced concrete, it cost about $1.3 million. At the time, Ohio Stadium was the largest stadium west of the Allegheny Mountains. Officially, when it first opened it could hold 66,210 fans, although it was routinely filled beyond capacity – 71,385 fans attended the dedication game, Ohio State University versus the University of Michigan, on Oct. 21, 1922.

Deadly Lake Erie Gales (October 20, 1916)
The deadliest winds known on Lake Erie took the lives of 58 sailors on four vessels on Oct. 20, 1916. The winds began as a hurricane that struck Alabama on Oct. 18 and moved north to near Chicago by the 20th. Although no longer a hurricane, it remained a very strong low pressure storm center and gave several hours of winds of 60 to 75 mph over Lake Erie. Storm warnings had been issued that morning for the Great Lakes, but some vessels continued their work. The James B. Colgate, heading west out of Buffalo carrying a load of coal, went down off Long Point, Ontario, northeast of Ashtabula. Of the 26 men on board, only the captain survived. In the same area, the freighter Merida was bound for Buffalo with a load of iron ore when it went down with the loss of 26 men. At the western end of Lake Erie, the schooner D.L. Filer sank off Bar Point near the mouth of the Detroit River with the loss of six of the seven men on board. On the barge Bell, a man was swept overboard and drowned off Bar Point. On shore, strong winds caused damage to property and communication across northern Ohio. An early snow fell as the storm departed that night.