From The Dispatch:

‘Greatest location in the city’ helps Varsity Club reach milestone
By Amy Saunders

On a strip of land containing a parking garage, a gas station and a Big Bear grocery store, Don Swales saw an opportunity to create a social scene in Columbus. The bookstore on Lane Avenue — across from the recently built St. John Arena — struck him as a better spot for a bar.

So he purchased the building and, in 1959, bought his first and last advertisement (in the Jan. 23 edition of The Lantern) for his new business: the Varsity Club. “See you before and after the basketball games,” read the ad. Thus, an Ohio State game-day tradition was born.

On Friday, the Varsity Club will quietly mark its 50th anniversary as a pillar of the Buckeye universe.

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