Ohio

One can drive to quite a bit of the country from Columbus, Ohio.

Alabama - Huntsville, Culman, and Florence and points north

Delaware - Northern county only, southern 2 counties require 9 hours

Georgia - In the middle of the night with no traffic, one might make it to Atlanta in 8 hours from Columbus. Anywhere north of that along the I 75 corridor, otherwise just the very northern counties can be reached in 8 hours.

Illinois - Entire state with the exception of the extreme northwestern tip

Indiana - Entire State

Iowa - Along the Mississippi from Burlington to Davenport and Clinton, along the I-80 corridor to almost to Iowa City

Kentucky - The entire state including the very western exclave is reachable in 8 hours

Maryland - Most of the state except the extreme southern coasts which requires 9 hours

Michigan - Entire Lower Peninsula and the I75 corridor of the Upper Peninsula

Missouri - Along the Mississippi from Hannibal to Cape Girardeau, and along the I 70 corridor to Columbia, not quite to Jefferson City

New Jersey - Western Half of the state. One can almost make it to Atlantic City in 8 hours in the middle of the night with no traffic. Cape May is 9 hours away.

New York - Not quite to NYC, but 9 hours will get you there. Up state NY is easily reachable in less than 8 hours including Niagara Falls (5½ away), the Finger Lakes, Syracuse, Binghamton, and all points west of I-81)

North Carolina - Anywhere west of Raleigh and the I74/73 corridor south all the way to SC.

Ohio -The entire state (and back)

Ontario - Toronto, Sault Ste Marie, South Bruce Peninsula are all well within an 8 hour drive. Passport control crossing the US/Canada border may add considerable time to the trip depending on the time of day, You also MUST have a Passport to re-enter the US.

Pennsylvania - entire state

South Carolina - Along the I 77 corridor almost Columbia and along the I 26 corridor to Spartanburg.

Tennessee - The entire state EAST of Jackson is easily reached in 8 hours. Memphis is 9 hours away.

Virginia - almost the entire state, west of I-95 and I-85). Virginia Beach is 9½ away.

Washington, D.C.

West Virginia - entire state

Wisconsin - beyond Madison to the northern I 90/94 split and along the I 43 corridor beyond Milwaukee to Sheboygan.

Drive times are based on a direct drive to the destination with only short refueling and comfort stops.

The original chant was done by sailors in WWII aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) to express their unbridled enthusiasm for the Ohio State University while the Lexington patrolled to block enemy raids in the Oahu-Johnston-Palmyra triangle in 1942. The chant began as O-H-I-O S-T-A-T-E sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat along with the accompanying arm motions that are now familiar to Buckeyes everywhere. Several of those original sailors later enrolled at Ohio State as undergrads in the fall of 1946. One of these sailors was Matthew Sidley.

As a student, Sidley later joined the Ohio State University cheerleading squad as a sophomore in 1947 and was a regular on the squad for all of the Ohio State home games. On November 1, 1947 the Buckeyes were losing at home to the lowly Indiana Hoosiers by a score of 7-0. The home crowd was mostly quiet as the Buckeyes were enroute to a disappointing 2-6-1 record so Matthew decided to teach the spectators the O-H-I-O S-T-A-T-E chant to get the crowd, and hopefully the team, back into the game.

He ran from section to section teaching the chant one section at a time until he had covered each section of Ohio Stadium. The chant moved smoothly through O-H-I-O but stumbled going through S-T-A-T-E. After several attempts to get the whole chant complete, the students decided to just chant O-H-I-O after becoming confused by the number of letters in the chant. Senior Linebacker Dick Flanagan later went on to say that it was a turning point in Ohio State football. Ohio State failed to make the comeback that day, but the chant has stuck ever since then and now it is a staple of the Ohio State University gameday experience.

During the 1982 football season, the cheerleaders at OSU tried to revive the original chant of O-H-I-O S-T-A-T-E during a 38-6 win over the Purdue Boilermakers. However, the Ohio State students encountered the same spelling difficulties as their predecessors.

The approximate driving time and mileage information -

Between: Dayton, OH

and: Toronto, ON, Canada

Driving miles: 451

Driving time: 7 hrs 45 mins

- is based on traveling non-stop in good driving conditions. Driving time does not take into consideration conditions which may extend travel time such as weather, road work, border crossings, and rush hour traffic in urban areas. Mileage denotes actual road miles covered as opposed to Point A to Point B linear distances on a map.