By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COLUMBUS - At the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., the Ohio State Buckeyes wouldn't settle for anything less than coming home with a national championship trophy.

But Saturday morning, thousands of the Buckeyes' fans, half-groggy and half-giddy from their team's late-night victory over the Miami Hurricanes, were willing to settle for a T-shirt.

The partying on and around the Ohio State University campus here had barely died down from the night before when eager but bleary-eyed fans began lining up in the morning cold outside the campus gift shops and bookstores for a chance to buy the official NCAA-licensed National Championship T-shirts that local firms cranked out early Saturday morning.

"Man, I've got to have it," said Mike Williams of suburban Whitehall as he stood near the end of about 30 people at Long's Bookstore on High Street, across the street from OSU's Mershon Auditorium.

It was 8:20 a.m. - nearly eight hours after the Buckeyes' championship ended and about 40 minutes before the campus bookstore's doors were to open.

For Mr. Williams, the Buckeyes' victory was especially sweet. In the early 1970s, he was a backup wide receiver for the OSU squad, playing under legendary coach Woody Hayes.

"I just missed the last championship, back in '68, and it has been a long, long wait," he said. "At long last."

Most of the 48,000 student body and much of the city population aren't old enough to remember the season 34 years ago when Coach Hayes and quarterback Rex Kern led the Bucks to their fourth national championship.

So it was not surprising that Buckeye fans spilled out of the bars and restaurants and took their celebrating to the streets around campus, where car horns honked, air horns blasted and people screamed themselves hoarse.

Police were concerned that the celebration might turn into the kind of violent rioting that followed OSU's Nov. 23 victory over Michigan, when about 60 people were arrested, cars were overturned, and Dumpsters and couches were set on fire.

Police in riot gear were out in force after the game, making 20 misdemeanor arrests.

But by early Saturday morning, the only signs of celebration were thousands of paper cups and beer bottles littering High Street and Lane Avenue.

Those who were still on the streets were waiting to acquire souvenirs.

At the College Traditions store on West Lane Avenue, in the shadow of the football stadium, dozens of Buckeye fans crowded into the aisles of a store darkened by an early morning power outage.

Clerks worked by the only light available - two small camping lanterns - and took cash from the customers lined up at the temporarily useless registers to buy the most popular item of the day, a Nike national championship T-shirt that sold for $19.99.

"It's crazy, but we're doing the best we can," said clerk Lisa Heider, sorting by size some of the 1,200 T-shirts that arrived before dawn. She stood near a window so she could read the shirt sizes by the morning light. "There hasn't been any power down here since 1:30 this morning, but people want the merchandise, so we're getting by in the dark."

At the Official Team Shop, the power was on and more souvenir-hungry fans were lined up outside when the doors opened.

Mark Leman, a 32-year-old Buckeye fan from Upper Arlington, ran straight for a rack of national championship T-shirts and grabbed six XXLs for himself and friends.

"We were over at the Buckeye Hall of Fame CafÈ last night; it was a great scene," Mr. Leman said. "We were up and down all night like a yo-yo. Bucks up; Bucks down. Bucks win!

"I'll never forget it, if I live to be 100."

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com