Alumni club cultivates community far from Ohio State campus

Captain Curt’s Crab and Oyster Bar is a normal seafood restaurant for about 95% of the year. It serves hungry customers like other businesses do on Siesta Key.

On Saturdays during the college football season, it becomes something else entirely.

Hundreds of Ohio State alums pack the place, prepared to honor their alma mater with resounding cheers and, in all likelihood, too many beers.

Brutus Buckeye, the university’s mascot, is the patron saint of their religion. The marching band performs their hymns.

The Ohio State Alumni Club of Sarasota-Manatee has orchestrated gameday watch parties for 25 years, uniting the school’s faithful through football. Over 6,000 people attended watch parties in 2025 with as many as 600-plus in attendance on one Saturday.

Scenes of considerable scarlet and grey crowds gathered around widescreen TVs will play out once again this fall. They’re a reflection of fandom at its very finest.

“You can become involved in the game,” said John August, president of the club. “As they (get) first downs, as they (go on) long runs, as they (score) touchdowns — everybody’s excited. It feeds on itself.”

Sunday was a rare gathering unrelated to football. Thirty or so people filled the restaurant’s back room for the club’s annual student send-off, where current Ohio State students from the Sarasota-Manatee area are presented with scholarships for the coming academic year.

Image courtesy of Joan Love

Sarasota High graduate Aubrie Roe and North Port High graduate Blair Jarvis were this year’s recipients. Roe is a rising third-year psychology major and first-generation student. Jarvis is a rising second-year biochemistry major who’s on track to graduate early next spring.

Roe and Jarvis received $21,000 and $18,000, respectively, to put toward their college tuition. Those funds came from the nearly $100,000 raised in the club’s 2025-26 membership year.

Over $77,000 of that revenue was raised at watch parties during the 2025 season, in which Ohio State football finished 12-2 and reached the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff.

“The favorite thing for men to do is to sit down, grab a beer and watch the Ohio State game,” Jarvis said. “I love that they get to do it together, and I’m not surprised that it’s grown so much.”

This club has cultivated community despite its out-of-state association. Its watch parties have become a destination for any local with passion and pride for their alma mater.

Considering how far Captain Curt’s is from the campus these scarlet and grey-clad patrons know and love, that’s all the more impressive.

The restaurant sits roughly 876 miles south of The Ohio State University, with three states separating Ohio from Florida. It’s not a short drive or flight away.

Distance, though, matters little for some fans.

“We have people that fly to Sarasota just for a game watch, and then fly home. It’s true,” August said. “(Tickets for) a big game… they probably can’t get them.”

Photo by Jack Nelson

Annual membership for the club is $25 per family. For lifetime membership, a one-time payment of $350 per family can be made. Membership is open not only to alums, but to all interested Ohio State fans.

It was 25 years ago when the club approached the Stewart family — owners of Captain Curt’s — with a request to use the back room of their restaurant for watch parties. At the time, only 60 to 75 people were part of the club, so that area accommodated them all with little issue.

There are now over 500 members entering the 2026 season. That back room is never enough space these days.

Without the sheer size of the Ohio State alum base in the Sarasota-Manatee area, such a community wouldn’t be possible.

“Their alumni community overall is just amazing,” Roe said. “Everywhere I go, (I’ll) always see someone with an Ohio State shirt on or wearing their hat and everything. You always get to meet new people everywhere you go.”

Mingling is part of the experience on game day at Captain Curt’s. From week to week and month to month, friendships develop from shared fandom.

Some people will arrive as early as 8 a.m. for watch parties to secure parking and the best seats they can get. That’s well before game time, which is usually between noon and 1 p.m.

Photo by Jack Nelson

All the noise among those in attendance crescendoes with every touchdown or big play by the Buckeyes. School pride is even present during commercial breaks, when all TVs are muted and recordings of Ohio State’s marching band are played.

There’s another quirk in how the Ohio State Alumni Club of Sarasota-Manatee runs the show — It never fails to unite the vast crowd of scarlet and grey.

“After the game — win or lose, by the way — we all stay and we all sing Carmen Ohio (the alma mater), just like the football team does,” August said. “The football team goes down to the end zone in the stadium, and they sing to the fans. It’s not the fans singing to them.”

The love affair between Captain Curt’s and the Ohio State Alumni Club of Sarasota-Manatee has endured, and will continue this fall for a 26th season.

It begins Sept. 5, when Ohio State hosts Ball State at 12:30 p.m. No shortage of TVs at the restaurant will be tuned into Big Ten Network.

You can bet on local Buckeye fans to converge on Siesta Key.

“I really hope that once I move to wherever I move to in the future, that I have something like that to be a part of," Jarvis said.