City workers paint over graffiti when it appears in uptown Athens. But for 41 years, graffiti on a wall by Bentley Annex has only been covered by more student artwork.

The tradition of painting on the wall began in 1967, when members of the Metro A.C.’s, a student athletic club, painted a wall near Bentley Hall to prove their loyalty to the organization.

“We had guys stationed on every corner in case a cop car came by, and we painted Metro A.C. on the wall,” said Chet Nolan, who graduated from Ohio University in 1970.

What they didn’t expect was for members of the hockey team to paint something a week later.

“After that it was used like a billboard,” Nolan said, “The university would paint completely over it and then somebody would start all over again.”

Eventually, OU stopped painting over the graffiti and a tradition was born.

Over the years, the wall has become a place for many different types of expression. During the Vietnam War, it was not uncommon for the wall to be covered with statements of protest.

Gary Olix, a 1974 alumnus, remembers one scrawling that read, “Pull out Dick — your father should have.”

Besides protests, the wall has seen marriage proposals, birthday wishes, event announcements and dedications.

In 2007, when OU student and soccer player Sarah Merritt died after falling from the balcony of her hotel room, her friends expressed their sorrow through the wall.

“We decided to paint the wall to remember her and after the paint dried, other people and students used Sharpies to write messages to Sarah about how much they missed her,” said former teammate Kate Fledderjohn, a junior interactive multimedia major.

Later that year, when OU cut four sports teams — women’s lacrosse, swimming and diving, and indoor and outdoor track and field — students reacted by turning to the wall.

“The graffiti wall was a good way to voice our opinion and to say something on a larger scale,” said junior Meredith Post, a former member of the women’s lacrosse team.

Although the wall was torn down for part of 2002 while Bentley Annex was being built, OU included a new graffiti wall in the plans for the annex, said Rich Carpinelli, associate vice president for Budget and Operations.

“(The wall) gives folks an outlet for graffiti, so we typically don’t see much around campus,” he said, adding that the university only intervenes when a message is threatening or maligning.

An April 2007 university news story stated that members of the Theta Chi fraternity painted a derogatory image and message on the wall and faced disciplinary action from the Interfraternity Council.

The wall seems to have some rules that aren’t enforced by OU.

“It’s rare that we see someone go out there and spend a lot of time on a really nice piece, and then someone comes and throws paint all over it,” Carpinelli said. “There is this sort of informal respect that students have for one another.”

Regardless of what is on the wall, Carpinelli said it has become an essential part of OU’s culture — something that residents see daily and visitors look for when in town.