A Bellefontaine native and recent Ohio State University graduate will receive a special double honor in the upcoming weeks as a sousaphone player in The OSU Marching Band.
Connor Oppy has been selected for a prestigious role of dotting the “i” in the Script Ohio formation at two upcoming games, starting at the Saturday, Oct. 30, game at OSU Stadium when the Buckeyes take on Penn State.
Then Nov. 27, he again will dot the “i” at the Buckeyes’ away game against archrival Michigan.
A member of The OSU Marching Band since 2017 and a squad leader this year, Oppy is a 2016 Bellefontaine High School graduate who also had the chance to dot the “i” in Script “Chiefs” twice in his senior year at BHS, his mother, Shelly Oppy said.
She related the excitement the whole family is anticipating in the upcoming OSU Marching Band performances. Connor also is a son of Jeff Oppy and is a brother to Kyle Oppy and Jessy (Oppy) Bias.
“Each time the band performs Script Ohio, a different fourth- or fifth-year sousaphone player is chosen to stand as the dot in the “i” of ‘Ohio….It is considered a huge honor for the band members,” his mother said.
Oppy graduated summa cum laude from OSU in December of 2020 with a degree in engineering and a minors in Spanish and linguistics. He is now working as a software engineer at JP Morgan Chase in Columbus.
In 2020, the pandemic sidelined the OSU marching band’s performances at games, so instead, they performed shows that were available via YouTube.
The longtime tradition of Script Ohio was first performed by the band on Oct. 10, 1936, and has become “the quintessential formation of The Ohio State University Marching Band,” according to www.osu.edu.
Band Director Eugene J. Weigel based the looped “Ohio” script design on the marquee sign of the Loew’s Ohio Theatre in downtown Columbus and “created the most identifiable trademark associated with Ohio State football and the Marching Band.”
Today, toward the end of the formation, drum major and the “i”-dotter high-five each other. Then with 16 measures to go in the song, they strut to the top of the “i.”
When they arrive, the drum major points to the spot, and the “i”-dotter turns and bows deeply to both sides of the stadium.
On very rare occasions, exceptional non-band members are offered the invitation to be an honorary i-dotter in recognition of their service to Ohio State and to the band. Previous honorary i-dotters have included comedian Bob Hope (1978), former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes (1983), golfer Jack Nicklaus (2006), Sen. John and Annie Glenn (2009), retiring Marching Band director Jon R. Woods (2011) and former Ohio State football coach Earle Bruce, according to www.osu.edu.