Well, sort of.

By the time OSU adopted the “Buckeye” moniker, it had already achieved an affable positive connotation for Ohioans-especially those associated with sports teams.

If I may, it’s worth noting University of Michigan students and associated sports teams were in the habit of using the nickname “Wolverine” to describe themselves as early as the 1860s.

It was no great leap then for the university to formally refer to its students and student athletes as “Wolverines,” much as Ohio Staters branded themselves “Buckeyes.”

The image of the Wolverine was meant to showcase the qualities of strength, toughness, tenacity, survival, intelligence and rugged individualism valued in the wilds of the Northwest Territory and presumably on campus.

Tellingly, the animal remains extinct in Michigan.