When I moved to suburban Columbus Ohio as a 4th grader. Up until that point I had no idea that college football was a thing that anybody cared about. I remember Michigan week quite well. It was absolutely insane, even in a random elementary school on the outskirts of town. It was John Cooper's first season as HC. 1988.
The following year, 5th grade, we had DARE class. Every week they would hand out an OSU Football card to the kids in the class, and boy did we collect the hell out of them. Greg Frey, Bobby Olive, Jeff George, Carlos Snow. I can still remember most of them to this day. The kicker was Pat O'Morrow. I remember that one well because I was absent that week, and it took me a month to find someone who was willing to part with that card. In the meantime, it was my White Whale. They also had a few cards that were just filler; the schedule, Brutus Buckeye, Woody Hayes, etc.
I really got into it there for a while, but once I hit my surly teens I quit paying attention for the most part. So I sorta missed the Eddie George years. But then when I enrolled at OSU, I was all in. My Freshman year was the 1998 season where they beat everyone except Michigan State. My final year was the 02 National Championship. So it was a great start and finish; book ending the Steve Bellasari nightmare that included a pair of Outback Bowl losses to S Carolina, where my brother was enrolled in the Strom Thurman Law School at the time. So he really enjoyed those two seasons at my expense.