Confirming our report from earlier this week, the Ohio State football program announced this morning it will wear the road version of its “Heritage Stripes” throwback uniforms in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game against Notre Dame on Jan. 20 (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN).
Introduced as a tribute to the 1968 national championship team, the Buckeyes first wore the uniforms during their run to the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship, beating Alabama in the 2015 Sugar Bowl while wearing the road version and Oregon in the title game while wearing the home version.
The uniforms pair Ohio State’s traditional silver helmets with scarlet or white jerseys that feature a modified Northwestern stripes on the sleeves and traditional silver pants, whereas the Buckeyes’ standard home and road jerseys include stripes that match their helmets and pants.
The “Heritage Stripes” were a focal point of Ohio State’s uniforms from 1944-56, 1967-78 and 1988-2005, including their national championship seasons in 1954, 1968, 1970 and 2002. However, the program has worn the current striping pattern since 2006, when it changed due to the lack of sleeve space on Nike’s new uniform template.
The Buckeyes have been outfitted in the throwback uniforms in every subsequent playoff appearance, including the road version in a loss to Clemson in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl, a win over Clemson in the 2021 Sugar Bowl, a loss to Alabama in the 2021 national championship and a loss to Georgia in the 2022 Peach Bowl.
They also wore home version in a loss to Clemson in the 2019 Fiesta Bowl, bringing their playoff record in the home version to 1-1 and road version to 2-3. Additionally, the Buckeyes wore the throwback uniforms during select regular season games in 2015-16, though they featured a scarlet Nike swoosh on the jerseys and pants instead of the Diamond Quest Nike Swoosh like the playoffs.
There have been a few subtle changes to the throwback uniforms in recent seasons, as Ohio State replaced the Block “O” on the collar with its current primary logo in 2020. The Buckeyes also swapped the black TV numbers on the home version for white, which is why the program coined the phrase “Heritage Stripes,” since they cover multiple eras instead of being specific to the 1968 team that wore black TV numbers.
That said, Buckeyes surprised many when they wore their scarlet “Color Rush” uniforms in their first-round playoff win over Tennessee on Dec. 21, but as we reported at the time, that was the result of Nike no longer producing new uniforms for each of its playoff participants now that the field has expanded from four to 12 teams.
That honor – along with the new gold Diamond Quest Nike Swoosh that adorns the throwback uniforms – will now only be given to those programs that reach the national title game, which is why Ohio State wore its standard road look in the Rose Bowl victory over Oregon on Jan. 1 and standard home design in the Cotton Bowl win over Texas on Jan. 10.
Photo courtesy of @OhioStateFB on X/Twitter.
