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This article suggests how abstract ideas like "nation" are lived and situated by examining recurring features of American football as it is experienced by spectators in central Ohio. Football-an institutionalized drama formed by its inventors to address questions of national identity and social relations-is embedded within the generically complex event known as "game day" and is framed by ongoing social practices that stem from the sport's competitive structure. As a multifaceted event grounded in both historical contexts and live performances, this spectator sport provides an ideal case for highlighting connections among form, ideology, and identity. This article argues that as a celebratory complex, Ohio State University football enacts aspects of national identity (including tropes of competitive opportunity, mechanized teamwork, and homeland defense) in terms of shared experiences and expressions grounded in local affiliations. In particular, the muchanticipated and ritually structured performances of the OSU Marching Band guide fans in endorsing "America" and its attendant ideologies while simultaneously emphasizing local difference.
On Sunday, November 22,1998, the Columbus (OH) Dispatch carried articles about rioting in Indonesia, North Korea's arms race, and the assassination of a Russian Parliament deputy. Yet the paper led with news of the previous day's Ohio State-Michigan football game: "So Much for That Michigan Monkey: OSU Thumps Wolves to Claim Share of Title." In the Sports section, no less than fourteen follow-up articles and fifteen full-color photos contributed to local rejoicing over the win, which broke a three-year Ohio State losing streak in the university's annual rivalry with its Ann Arbor counterpart. At the time, OSU linebacker Jerry Rudzinski remarked, "I grew up in central Ohio ... and this is what you dream to do-to beat Michigan. So finally, finally" (Stein 1998a:2A).
In the late nineteenth century, British anthropologist E. B. Tylor argued that collective expressions were dying out and that new traditions were merely "feeble" and "spiritless [imitations], like our attempts to invent new myths or new nursery rhymes" (1889:90). Even as Tylor was writing Primitive Culture, however, a potent and enduring cultural enactment was being formulated in the United States: American football1 emerged on the playing fields of colleges around the nation. What might account for the creation and continued popularity of this game? And why does sixty minutes of "play"...