Surviving Ohio State (2025) Movie Script

HBO SPORTS DOCUMENTARIES PRESENTS
Growing up in Ohio,
everyone wants to be a Buckeye.
A 101 & SI STUDIOS PRODUCTION
Ohio State is an identity of winning,
and that's what we're about.
A SMOKEHOUSE PICTURES PRODUCTION
The impact of Ohio State's
athletic department
cannot be exaggerated.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER JON WERTHEIM
It's such a point of pride.
-O-H.
-I-O!
-O-H!
-I-O!
-O-H!
-I-O!
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY NICK HIGGINS
It was and still is
one of the best equipped,
most well-funded,
most lavish athletic
departments in the country.
It's the gold standard
for college sports.
PRODUCER DAVID GLASSER p.g.a.
If you're a Buckeye athlete
at Ohio State,
you are a superhero.
I was so proud to be a Buckeye.
It was a big, big deal.
PRODUCERS GRANT HESLOV, p.g.a.
AND GEORGE CLOONEY p.g.a.
We were like, "We are
Ohio State athletes here."
That was what it was all about.
PRODUCED BY EVA ORNER p.g.a.
We bled OSU.
The Buckeyes are a religion.
We believed
in The Ohio State University.
We believed
in the scarlet and gray...
until we learned the truth.
DIRECTED BY EVA ORNER
SURVIVING OHIO STATE
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
COLUMBUS, OHIO
Sexual misconduct allegations,
40 years in the making
at The Ohio State University.
Ohio State is investigating
a former trainer
for the Buckeye wrestling team.
The trainer, Dr. Richard Strauss.
Tonight, only on 4,
the victim who says
he's one who sparked
the investigation
and is opening up
about those allegations.
When I started reporting
on the initial story in 2018,
it focused on one man,
a wrestler
at The Ohio State University,
who alleged he'd been abused
by a team doctor.
My initial reaction was,
"Can that be true?
I wonder if that's true."
But what he was saying
was so incendiary,
that a university doctor
had sexually molested not just him
but other athletes as well,
and this had gone on for decades.
And, sure enough, others
started coming forward.
Another former
Ohio State student has...
Two more former Buckeye
wrestlers have come forward...
More victims coming forward
with allegations against a...
And that just opened
the floodgates for me.
New details tonight about the alleged
sexual misconduct involving
an OSU wrestling team doctor.
Who was this accused doctor?
I had trouble finding
any information about him.
It's very difficult
to find a photograph
of this Dr. Richard Strauss.
The university itself
doesn't have a lot
of photographic evidence of this man.
He's like an enigma.
It's weird.
It almost felt like it was by design.
And that made this
all the more troubling.
You know, we've always been
proudly a Buckeye family.
When I dropped my son off at a dorm
at The Ohio State University
when he was 18 years old,
my first one to leave the nest,
I cried after I left the dorm,
but I thought,
"Well, at least he's in good hands.
He's at The Ohio State University."
All of these men
were dropped off at Ohio State.
I want to know why
this happened to them,
how a sexual predator
could've been allowed to be on campus
for 20 years.
How did it happen?
When the Ohio State scandal broke,
my first thought was,
"I don't know if I want
to go into this.
You know, this is... this is
going down a rabbit hole
I'm not prepared for right now."
And so I left it alone.
I'm a public school teacher,
and one day,
I'm-I'm sitting in-in...
in our teachers' lounge,
and some of the other guys
are talking about it.
And one of the male teachers,
an older guy,
he said, "Well, I can't
believe that. Man, if...
You know, if I was there,
if this happened to me,
I'd kick that guy's ass."
And I'm thinking, "Man,
you have no idea
what you're talking about."
And the next thought was,
"I'm gonna have to talk about this.
Oh, shit. Here we go."
For the Buckeyes,
it's gonna be Dan Ritchie.
-Get up!
-Up, up!
Stay on the leg!
Don't come across the back!
Initially, I got into wrestling
because my dad thought,
"This is a great sport for him.
You know, he can get stronger
and get in shape."
At the time,
I was kind of a scrawny kid.
But there was something
about wrestling,
and...
I just grew with it.
It became part of me.
It was pretty amazing.
I liked being out there
by myself, relying on myself.
I know if I put the hard work in
and I win,
it's because I did the work.
And I did the work.
And I won.
My high school coach,
at the beginning of the season,
he showed me the rankings and said,
you know, "You're ranked
number one in the state."
I'm like, "What?" I was like...
You know, and for me,
that was amazing.
Ritchie, despite coming
from a downstate school,
a lot of people doubted his ability
for that reason,
but he's been dominant all year.
The entire season, went undefeated,
and I won the state tournament.
And the 1988 state champion
at 167 in AA,
Dan Ritchie.
Dan Ritchie...
And that is what got me
my scholarship to Ohio State.
When I got there, it was 1988.
My hometown, the population
was 32,000 people.
The population of Ohio State itself
was 50,000.
So it was overwhelming,
but I figured, if I have wrestling,
I have a group of guys
that I can hang out with.
And I met my roommate, Mike Schyck,
another wrestler,
and we hit it off immediately.
The first time I ever met Dan,
you know, he's got
the Vanilla Ice, like,
shavings in his head.
I'm like, "This is my...
my roommate? Oh, no."
But, you know, soon enough,
we became best friends.
We both loved wrestling,
more than loved wrestling.
Wrestling was everything for me
and had been since I was a kid.
Come on, Mike!
Growing up, I was kind of scrappy.
Well, if we keep working together,
we can make it to state.
My eighth-grade year,
I ended up beating a senior.
I made it to state.
I was the first person
that was an eighth-grader
that made it to state.
I was in the state finals
my freshman year,
took second.
My sophomore year, took third.
Mike Schyck.
And I won it my next two years.
At 152 pounds, our champion,
Mike Schyck.
I got a lot of schools
that were sending me letters
and recruiting stuff all the time.
I even got personal notes
from the head wrestling coach
at Ohio State, Russ Hellickson.
Russ Hellickson
was a two-time Olympian,
and he was one of the best coaches
in the country.
Fellas, I sit over there
in the corner
as a wrestling coach.
I don't see enough fight.
Russ was just starting
as a new coach at Ohio State,
and he promised to make winners.
That's what I wanted.
I didn't want excuses.
Fellas, you know, if-if nothing else,
by the time you get back,
you will be in the best shape
of anybody on this planet.
And Hellickson came
with his assistant,
Jim Jordan,
and Jordan was a legend.
I watched him win
his first NCAA title,
and then this guy wins
a second national title
the following year.
I mean, it was unbelievable.
I didn't choose Ohio State
because of Ohio State.
I chose Ohio State
because of Russ Hellickson
and Jim Jordan
and the program they were developing.
They were gonna go all the way.
I'm like, "I want to do that."
That Ohio State team,
it was gonna give me a chance
to live my dream
of not only becoming
a national champion,
but I had big dreams.
I was gonna be an Olympic champion.
Russ Hellickson, Olympian,
he could've helped
that dream come true.
And everybody knew
who Jim Jordan was.
This guy was an animal.
Very religious,
honest.
He was the good guy.
And at the same time,
he could whup some ass.
Just the perfect... perfect man.
After a pretty tight match,
Jim came up to me, was like,
"Man, that was...
that was like a great match.
You know, I think we're
gonna let you on the team."
And I was excited to be
on the team. Really excited.
I saw such potential at Ohio State.
You're looking around,
your first thought is,
"National champions."
Let's do this.
So, leading into the beginning
of the school year,
we had to get our physicals.
I've had to do physicals
in high school
with your family practitioner
doing minimal stuff,
and you're in and out.
This was a different thing.
They had mass physicals
where there was different stations,
and you would go to one station
and they would fit you
for a mouthpiece.
You'd go to another station,
they'd take your blood pressure,
go to another station,
they'd check your reflexes.
Finally, we made our way to a line
that was right in front of a door.
That line, it was kind of backed up.
And some of the upperclassmen
were commenting,
"Hey, this is gonna take you
a while."
They were saying,
"Oh, Doc's gonna like you."
And they just kinda chuckled
and laughed a little bit,
and I had no idea what they meant.
Next thing you know, it's my turn.
You walk into a room,
and Doc's across the room.
He had frosty white hair,
and he just made you feel at ease
because he was a nice guy.
Doc Strauss was presented to us
as the esteemed Doctor
of Sports Medicine at Ohio State.
Dr. Richard Strauss
is an internal medicine
and sports medicine specialist
at Ohio State University.
He is also editor
of the medical journal,
Physician and Sports Medicine.
He was Dr. Richard Strauss
from The Ohio State University,
and he had the badge
on his left chest to prove it.
He did the entire body check.
Checked our skin.
Because with wrestling, skin issues
might keep you off the wrestling mat
because they're contagious.
He checked under our arms,
checked our vitals.
And then he tells me
to turn the lights off.
And he got down on a stool
and tapped the side
of your legs and say,
"All right, drop 'em."
And it's dark.
Can't even see anything, you know?
And I'm looking over at him,
and he's got... a light pen.
And I'm standing there,
you know, looking down on a man
who has a flashlight in his mouth
at my groin level,
and I'm seeing the top of his head.
It-It's just really weird.
And...
from that point, he would grab--
grab your penis,
and he's moving it around,
moving it around.
I was speechless.
The entire time, you're just
sitting there trying to...
talk yourself out of getting
an erection. I'm not gonna lie.
Like, that is the one thing
you're just--
Like, I am not-- Like...
Now you're questioning
your sexuality or something.
You're like, "What is--"
And he would catch you
right before you say something.
He said, "I'm just being thorough."
And when you come out,
we all kind of make this...
You know, we kinda joke
because we didn't know
what we were going through.
And I'm sure I had
the same look coming out like,
"What-- What was that?
I don't get it."
And everyone's making fun of you.
It didn't feel right,
but I just... accepted it.
And it's not something
we're gonna sit around
and have a-a bunch
of conversations about.
Now run a mile.
I want you to run as hard as you can.
I want you to remember your time.
And the coaches acted
like everything was normal.
They didn't make anything of it.
Their focus was on training.
Ready, go.
I came from a conservative family.
You know, do what you're told.
Do this. Okay.
Coach tells you to do this. Okay.
Coach tells you to go here.
Go, "Okay."
I didn't know what that was.
But we are here to wrestle.
- O-H!
- I-O!
And as we progressed
through the wrestling season,
Russ and Jimmy beat
the living tar out of us.
Three things
will be the key to success.
We're gonna concentrate today
on self.
They brought me
from an average wrestler
to a really good wrestler.
I was having a great career.
I was winning everything.
There's a beautiful roll and a Granby
by Schyck. He saved the position.
Now he's gonna try
to get the takedown.
-He got it.
-He does! He wins!
And most of my other teammates
were awesome.
And there it is.
The junior from Ohio State
is the champion.
Did Dr. Strauss make me angry?
Yes. But I was under the impression
that anger helped me do better
and get things accomplished.
I felt like the anger
was just needed.
Like others,
when I stepped onto the mat,
I was there. I was there.
Worries about grades,
worries about girls,
worries about Dr. Strauss,
or worries about anything went away.
Ritchie,
21-9-2.
Quite a record for a freshman.
I was able to compartmentalize it,
put it in a place where
I didn't have to think about it.
And that worked for a while.
But it just got worse.
Dr. Strauss was our team doctor,
and that's what we had.
I mean, if we had an illness,
he's the one we went to.
If we needed medication
for something,
he's the one that we went to.
If we had an injury,
he's the one that we went to.
And each and every time,
it was a full body check
that resulted in
a genital check, without fail.
And the man never wore gloves.
It was always skin on skin.
With one hand, he would,
like, grab your testicles,
and the best way to describe it
is like those...
Chinese balls that you twist
for stress,
and he's asking me
how I'm doing on campus
at the same time, you know.
If I have a girlfriend,
if I'm sexually active.
And it wasn't just
he would be like this.
His face would be in,
where you could feel his breath
on your dick.
I felt like
there was something wrong,
but I was a naive kid
going into college.
And wrestling in college is not easy.
We're taught to deal
with the hard stuff.
And so I-- I mean,
I never complained.
But, I mean, I was always in there.
My-my-my file,
by the time I was done,
was a couple of inches thick.
Hundreds of times, easily.
I mean, every time
I wrestled, I was injured.
Wrestling is a brutal sport.
It's basically a street fight
with rules.
You get bruised and banged up a lot.
I-I remember I had
a high ankle sprain,
and Doc Strauss would hold up
the X-rays and look at 'em,
and then after that,
he would ask me to stand up,
disrobe.
He would grab the stool,
go up to me,
and perform the same genital exam,
telling me, "We gotta make sure
you're healing right,"
and, you know...
"that your lymph nodes
are not enlarged."
He always said, "It's like
you have a thoroughbred horse.
We gotta keep you running,
and the only way I can do that
is to do these thorough exams."
But I've never looked
at myself like a victim.
I mean, I come
from the athlete's mentality where,
if it's bad, you problem-solve
and you fix it.
And the way I think
we kind of fixed it
as athletes,
you kinda made light of it,
and it was out in the open
like that, making light of it.
Guys would joke all the time, like,
"Hey, I need to go see the doc,"
and if there was a group of us,
they'd say, "Hey, watch your nuts."
We had nicknames for him.
Strauss was Dr. Jelly Paws
or Jelly Fingers.
I heard someone else
call him Dr. Fun Boy once.
But it just got more direct, like,
"This dude, man,
what is up with this dude?"
It was a dirty little secret
that we all just tiptoed around,
and we just dealt with it
'cause we're Buckeyes.
You would be hard-pressed
to find a more macho culture
than Midwest athletes and wrestlers.
I mean, there is so much
macho dimension to this story.
I've written several features
for Sports Illustrated
on The Ohio State University.
Buckeye Nation is a real identity
for millions of people.
And the core of that identity
is about being Midwest tough.
For men, that means emulating
the archetype of the warrior.
It's about you being
indestructible and dominant,
and if you're a male athlete,
so much more so.
And anything less than that
is rejected with anger.
I see people whining and bitching.
I see this wimpy little look
on a lot of people's faces
'cause somebody else
took something away from them.
Fellas, this is a tough sport.
This is a tough sport!
If you don't want to be a part of it,
then get the hell out of it!
So view the situation with Strauss
through that lens.
But what happened?
Somebody physically dominated you.
Well, if you're wrestling and someone
physically dominates you, you lose.
And now,
what if he's half your weight?
In sports terms,
it's a mismatch, right?
In this kind of world,
what kind of a man are you then?
And now,
what if he's sexually molesting you?
Are you willingly gonna talk
about that?
Are you going to admit that?
And if you do,
are those men around you
even gonna be receptive
to hearing about it?
My mom said this to me one time.
She asked me if Russ or Jim,
"Did you tell them the stuff
that we're finding out now?"
And I'm like, "But telling them
would imply that they didn't know."
Our coaches knew.
We had guys complaining
about Dr. Strauss
to Jim Jordan.
One of the wrestlers said,
"Dude, why does this guy
have to constantly check
our nuts, check our dick?"
Jim Jordan's response:
"If he ever did that to me,
I'd snap his neck like a stick
of dry balsa wood."
So he knew about it.
And Russ knew.
You know, the extent
of what Dr. Strauss
might have been doing
during physicals
or doing medical checks with athletes
when they had injuries
appears to be beyond the pale
but was never really told to me.
I just sensed that he was a little
bit too invasive, you know?
He was always too hands-on
with athletes when we had weigh-ins.
He was always grabbing the guys
and turning 'em around,
you know, he'd grab 'em
by their midsection and turn 'em.
Then when he was checking for skin,
he'd always be touching it.
I told him one time, I said,
"Doc, you're much too hands-on."
He'd just say,
"Ah, I'm being thorough."
And I said, "You know,
it bothers some athletes.
Some athletes
are very, very sensitive
to that sort of thing,"
and he kinda shrugged it off.
One small talk,
and nothing changed.
Men at that time didn't talk
about their sexuality
and their feelings.
And I think the coaches were probably
uncomfortable with it
and might have turned a blind eye.
Russ Hellickson
is your surrogate father
while you're in Columbus, Ohio.
If he doesn't deem it
important enough
to get rid of this guy,
you take your cue from that.
There's some guys
that were able to achieve like that.
I was not one of those guys
achieving in that environment.
And it was some problems
internally for me
that I wasn't able to do the things
that I knew I could do athletically.
So, for me, there was a lot of shame
for not being tough enough
to take it.
You know,
after people hear these stories,
there's a lot of guys
that talked to us about,
"Oh, I would've beat him up,"
or, "I would've done this,
I would've done that."
"What do you mean, he touched you?
Why didn't you just whup his ass?"
The way Strauss did it,
this man never had a nurse
or another trainer in that office
when we were in there
one-on-one. Never.
So it was always his word
against your word.
And, yeah, I could've
smacked him upside the head,
and then what would've happened?
Imagine I'm walking out
and then this old white man
is knocked out in there,
and this guy has been, mind you,
been around this university
since 1979.
So what am I gonna do?
What they're gonna do is
kick me out of school.
He'd have his job and he'd still
be doing what he's doing
and I'd be out of my scholarship.
We had so much to lose.
I wasn't rich.
I wasn't blessed with a ton of money.
So the-the scholarship was critical.
We were powerless,
and all's I knew
is that I wanted to be
a national champion,
and I wasn't gonna stir
the fucking pot
with The big-time
Ohio State University.
And, quite honestly,
what he's actually doing to me,
I didn't-- I didn't even think it--
Maybe it wasn't even wrong.
I didn't know.
This is a credentialed doctor.
He's got the Harvard diploma.
He's been at Chicago,
University of Pennsylvania.
He's been in the military.
He's publishing
these scholarly articles.
Whatever you say,
he's got a quick riposte ready.
And you're an 18-
or 19-year-old naive kid.
But more than that,
he was in such a position of power
because if he didn't approve
their physical,
if they didn't go through his exam,
they did not compete.
He had all the power.
All the power.
And they did nothing.
So Doc Strauss,
he got more emboldened.
You know, we would come down
from the wrestling room,
and most of us were worrying
about making weight,
so we'd come down,
sit in the sauna for 20, 25 minutes.
And, sure enough, there's Dr. Strauss
sitting in there with us.
Next thing you know, he'd go right
into the showers with everybody.
And Strauss would be facing out.
You know, if, like, this microphone,
when you shower,
this is the shower head,
you shower like this.
He would shower like this, facing...
He'd be shower-facing,
so he'd be looking at us.
And he'd be the first one in,
last one out.
Then, he'd come out,
he'd see another group
of guys coming down,
and it's like,
"Oh, I forgot to clean this.
I need to go back into the shower."
And he'd go right back
into the shower.
Russ even allowed him
to have a locker
in our locker room.
So Strauss was in there all the time,
watching all the guys
getting undressed,
drying off, getting dressed.
He didn't do anything.
He didn't go out running.
He didn't work out.
And he's taking showers
multiple times a day
with male athletes.
It was that blatant.
He was getting aroused
while he's watching everybody.
It was-- It-- It was--
I mean...
It's not something
I really want to...
remember or pull up.
I mean, I didn't...
Storing stuff like that is not...
I said,
"Doc, you make the guys nervous
that you shower with 'em,"
and his response was,
"Coach, you shower
with your guys all the time."
I said, "Yeah, not for an hour, Doc."
It was obvious, you know,
Doc-- Dr. Strauss liked to be
in the shower room a lot
with the athletes,
so he was doing a lot of showering.
And we are set for action here.
Our referee today is Fred Feeney.
Fred Feeney
is one of the top officials
in the state, from the Columbus area.
He's been around for a long time.
Wow, what a match!
One time, I'm doing this match,
and once the match is over,
you sign the book and leave.
You don't hang around.
You don't high-five people.
You get the hell outta there,
nothing good's gonna happen
'cause somebody's pissed off
about something.
Just get the hell out.
And I walked in,
and, you know, you get undressed
and you go take a shower
and you leave.
It's that simple.
And as I was in there,
Dr. Strauss walks in.
And I knew Dr. Strauss
from just being around
Ohio State University.
I've known him for years.
And, "Hey, Dr. Strauss. How are you?"
He goes, "Good, Fred. Nice match."
And that-that small talk.
And he starts getting undressed
right beside me.
And yet there's all this room
over here
that he could've went to
to get undressed.
And I just kinda looked,
"Doc, what are you doing?"
He goes, "Well, there's
somewhere I want to be tonight,
need to be,
and so I'm gonna take a shower."
Okay. You know?
So I finished getting undressed,
I put a towel around me,
and I went into the shower.
And then, within
a very short period of time,
Dr. Strauss walks in the shower.
He could've went anywhere,
but he stood right beside me.
The shower, I'm here, he's here.
Okay. You know?
And the next thing I know,
I look over and I realize
he's not washing himself.
He's masturbating.
He's beside me masturbating.
And I'm thinking,
"What the hell are you doing?"
He goes,
"Well, Fred, I'm just washing."
Well, that's kind of a weird-ass way
to do it, you know?
And I remember,
I kinda turned a little bit,
and the next thing I know,
I'm feeling his hand on my butt.
And...
A-And I can't explain to you
why that affected me
the way it affected--
It affected me so bad
that I didn't even respond to him,
where I should've knocked him
on his ass
at that point, at that time.
But I didn't.
I walked out.
And I went back to my locker,
and I started to get dressed.
Strauss walks out,
and he has a towel around him,
he has an obvious erection
right there, and I just,
"What are you doing?
What the hell were you doing?"
He goes, "There's nothing wrong.
You got a beautiful butt."
He goes,
"You got a great penis. You got--"
He goes, "You should be proud
of that," and, again,
I was so overcome
with how asinine this was,
I got dressed,
didn't say a word to him.
As I'm walking out,
at the very end of that walkway,
Russ Hellickson and Jim Jordan
were both standing there,
and I looked at both of them, I said,
"Hey, Strauss is in there
masturbating
beside me in the shower."
And both of them looked at me,
Jim Jordan looked at me
straight in my face and said,
"It's Strauss.
You know what he does."
And Russ agreed.
I-I think, as I walked out,
I-I started to take that
and just started pushing it down
and down and down and down and down.
It was just something
I couldn't deal with,
and I didn't deal with it.
And what you'll come to learn
is that this isn't just
happening with the wrestlers.
The male gymnasts,
their facility was in Larkins Hall,
which is where
our wrestling room was.
He had a locker in their locker room.
He had a locker in the fencing room.
He had a locker in the football room.
I heard he had a locker
somewhere where the swim team was.
Fifteen, sixteen sports,
I mean, that-that's insane.
He's everywhere.
Hockey was just, you're Canadian,
and you just want to be
a hockey player.
That was the goal.
That was the dream.
I'd go to the rink, you know,
early in the morning.
I-I was-- They called me a rink rat.
And I just loved the game.
And I was fortunate enough in 1985
to win a national championship
in junior.
I was recruited by a lot of schools.
I was recruited by North Dakota,
which was an absolute powerhouse.
But Ohio State
was a better fit for me.
I had the opportunity
to come in and start right away.
My goal was to...
get to Ohio State,
develop for four years,
and step in to play pro hockey.
Ohio State offering me
a full scholarship
was pretty incredible.
Everything that I had hoped
for to happen,
to that point, had happened.
So I was very excited.
My first encounter
with Dr. Strauss was
ten days after I landed here
at Ohio State.
We went to the hall,
and we had medicals done.
He was kind and he was nice
and he, "Where are you from?
Welcome to Ohio State."
And he said, "Have you ever had
a physical before?"
And I said,
"Not that I can remember."
"Have you ever been checked
for a hernia before?"
And I said, "Nope."
You know, and he said,
"Can you drop your shorts?"
And I didn't know
what a hernia check was.
I didn't know... I didn't know.
I didn't know what I didn't know.
I remember leaving
and going, "Wow, that was...
That was very odd."
I sort of-- I dis--
sort of disassociated myself.
And then, whoever said,
"Oh, you know,
you must have a big...
penis," in-in other terms,
"'cause you were in there
for quite a while. Attaboy.
Oh, you know, good for you."
And you're like, "Oh, okay.
I'm not sure what that means, but...
okay..."
And I left.
I should've asked somebody,
"Is that normal?
You know, why does all that
have to happen?"
But I trusted Dr. Strauss
'cause he was the team doctor
and it's his job.
That's what they've hired him to do.
And, you know, you're so excited
to be at The Ohio State University
playing the sport that you love.
This is it.
You're where you want to be.
So, yeah, I saw him
a few times, and every time,
he would check you for a hernia.
Once, I got a slap shot off my foot.
First thing he did was,
"Drop your trousers."
He'd check me for a hernia.
I'm thinking, "My foot...
My foot's sore.
My foot is sore."
But he was our doctor.
This has to be "normal"
because no one has said anything.
But it really affected me.
So I went to see Coach
after Christmas
and tried to tell him,
"Something's not right
with the doctor.
You know, he's...
He's a little different,
and, you know,"
and...
He just said to me,
"Don't worry about the doctor.
You worry about you-- your playing."
My mother was the only female coach
of a men's team
at Ohio State University.
She coached women's
and men's fencing.
Very soon after my mom
took over the men's team,
she started hearing
from the male fencers
that there was definitely
something off
about Dr. Strauss,
that he would ogle the men
who were taking showers,
and he seemed to be around
more than seemed normal.
I remember one incident very clearly.
Uh, my boyfriend at the time,
it was at the end of practice,
and his ear was bleeding.
My mom's first,
"Go down to the trainer's room
and go see if there's anything
that they can do for you."
I went down there with him,
and Dr. Strauss was there.
As soon as he saw my boyfriend,
"Sure, come on in! Come on in!"
And then the door was closed.
Immediately after he was seen,
he came right out and said,
"I got in there,
showed him my bleeding ear,
and the first thing
Dr. Strauss asked for
was to drop my shorts."
He let my mother know
that this happened,
and so she went to discuss
the situation with her boss.
OFFICES OF THE OSU ATHLETIC
DEPARTMENT ST. JOHNS ARENA
The fencing coach says,
"Listen, I have real concerns
about this inappropriate behavior."
It's clear she doesn't know
the half of it.
She knows it's inappropriate, though,
for a team doctor to be
showering with the athletes.
She knows it's inappropriate
for him to be pawing athletes
for having nothing to do
with their groin area.
And so she launches
her first complaint.
Their take on it was it's hearsay.
You know, "Show me proof.
Till I have proof,
I can't do anything."
Her response back
to the male athletes was,
"We need proof. We need someone
who's willing to come forward.
I'm glad to come and stand with you.
I will support you and talk."
But she did not find any takers.
And so, alone, my mother complained
to the directors about Dr. Strauss.
She would specifically go
and meet with them
on a regular basis
because they were her boss.
She complained about Dr. Strauss
year after year
because fencers would be there
for three, four years,
and then there'd be a new set.
It was not a one-time occurrence.
It was regular and ongoing.
And nothing was done.
Sir, what dates were you
Director of Sports Medicine?
-1990 to 2004.
- Okay.
And in that role,
were you responsible
for supervising employees?
Yes.
And were you ever in charge
of supervising Richard Strauss?
Yes.
In 2019, as part of a lawsuit against
Ohio State by victims
of Dr. Richard Strauss, attorneys for
the plaintiffs conducted depositions
with former school employees.
Dr. John Lombardo supervised Strauss
in the Department of Athletics
from 1993 to 1995.
It's your job to keep
male student-athletes safe
from being sexually abused
by a team physician, right?
Yes.
The fencing coach
has sufficient stories
and evidence and she's ready
to go to her superiors
and does so, repeatedly,
over the course
of different administrations.
All right, I'm gonna show you
a one-page letter from you
dated November 7th, 1994.
And what does the school do?
The same thing that John Lombardo
does in 1994.
From the first sentence, it says,
"I have investigated
the concerns raised
by the fencing coach,
Charlotte Remenyik,
concerning her athletes
and the medical care system.
I have spoken with her
and her concerns
are based on rumors
which have been generated
for ten years with no foundation."
She's effectively clapped back,
"Oh, you're just basing this
on hearsay and rumor,"
and you want to say,
"Well, that's what we've got to go on
because of your,
at best, ineptitude."
Have you ever spoken
with any fencer on-- at OSU
about alleged misconduct
by Dr. Strauss?
No.
It's not like people have phones
and they're videotaping this.
It's not as though the school
has been remotely responsible
in handling the welter of complaints
that came before this.
My mom would detail
the stories that she had heard,
and the only response back was,
"Give us some kind of proof."
Did anyone at OSU, to your knowledge,
ever reach out to students
about Dr. Strauss?
Not that I'm aware of.
Rumor and innuendo?
What else could it possibly be?
Yes, it's rumor and innuendo,
and you have failed
to document anything effectively.
Did you ever ask
any trainer whether Strauss
had behaved inappropriately
with a student?
-Not that I remember.
-Did you ever ask a coach
whether Dr. Strauss
had behaved inappropriately
with a student?
Not that I remember.
The school leaves him alone.
But finally, it creates
enough of a stir that Strauss says,
"Fine, I won't be the doctor
for the fencing team."
He's got plenty of other teams.
I truly do not know
that it was her ongoing request,
but I definitely know
that it also took
quite a bit of time,
well over a decade,
for that to happen.
Charlotte Remenyik was the lone wolf,
the one voice who said,
"This cannot go on,"
but even after a university coach
came forward and refused to allow him
to see her athletes,
nobody stopped him
from doing it to everybody else.
Let's just think about this.
The female fencing coach
has these concerns
based on what she's hearing,
she's not in the men's locker room,
but she's heard enough
that she's sufficiently upset
to take this to her superiors.
How in the world
did this continue to go on,
and why did no one say anything?
Maybe it was that the OSU teams
were dominating.
What a match!
Randleman wins it for Ohio State.
Rex Holman.
And no one wanted
to befoul that with a scandal.
But not all the teams
during those two decades were good,
and still there was silence.
And then something clicked.
Richard Strauss,
apart from being this team doctor,
was an absolute pioneer in steroids.
He published article after article
about anabolic steroids.
1980s, when we're just learning
about this intersection
between steroids
and athletic performance
and performance-enhancing drugs
and what they can do,
Richard Strauss is at the forefront.
One pro football player said
competing against athletes
who took steroids
was like giving them
a three-yard head start
in the 100-yard dash.
It is a powerful incentive
to play Russian roulette
with a very powerful
and potentially dangerous drug.
We're going to talk
with a sports physician
who has done research on steroids.
The question of anabolic steroids
hasn't been very important
to the general population
because most people
have not known much about 'em.
Multiple sources told me
they got steroids from Dr. Strauss,
and multiple sources told me
he was distributing steroids.
I talked to one former trainer.
One of his jobs was distributing
the steroids to the athlete.
That was when people
were starting to figure out
how you were gonna
be able to game the system.
And Strauss was viewed as the expert.
It was a small office
that served as an exam room,
and then he had a medical cabinet
that he had there that was locked.
It was-- Only he had a key to it.
Anabolic steroids were in there.
Strauss knew about the testing
and all that stuff.
They brought us in,
like, to do B12 shots, they said.
I mean, I'd done B12 shots before,
but this was different.
It was right before, like,
Big Tens and nationals.
I remember they gave us
a pretty big shot.
They said it was B12,
but I don't think it was B12.
I thought it might've been
some testosterone.
Did it make you feel any different?
I felt good.
I felt real good.
I just felt energy
and just recovery was quicker.
I don't think B12 does that for you.
There was this container
we had that said,
"For animal use only."
And we used to call it
the animal juice.
Did it come from Dr. Strauss?
Yeah.
And I don't know.
It seemed that a lot of people
were getting big at Ohio State
in the late '80s and early '90s.
As if the decks
weren't stacked enough
in his side, this gives
Richard Strauss another piece
of potentially compromising
information.
If he were to say,
"Oh, that guy's just blowing
the whistle on me
because I was giving him steroids,"
that's enough to get
your scholarship taken away.
And obviously, think about it,
if you're the coach
and you know that the doctor
is distributing steroids
to your athletes,
or if you're the athletic director,
wouldn't you be reluctant
to turn on that team doctor?
And, come of it what may, and perhaps
the team doctor, uh, plays dirty.
At some level, you wonder
who did the calculus of,
"You know what,
it's better to be quiet
because if we do the right thing
and we get rid of this guy
and this goes public,
it's gonna be a mess."
But I also think this story is
more complicated than steroids,
and it's not the sole or main reason
people didn't talk about it.
People could not,
and I-I use past tense,
I think, to some extent,
still cannot wrap
their brains around,
how could this have happened?
How could these guys,
18, 19, 20-year-old athletes,
how in the world
could they be the victims
of sexual assault?
And so we return
to that foundation of shame.
We don't like to look at men
as being victims in this way,
and that has hurt them
not only in the way that
what people believe about them,
but in what they believe
and believed about themselves.
Richard Strauss used that
to his advantage.
Strauss didn't abuse everyone.
He had a way of honing in
on these young men
who were mostly
from rural communities,
who probably spent all
of their time in high school
focusing on athletics,
who were inexperienced sexually,
and naive.
A lot of them,
first time in their family
that someone made it to college,
and they were totally dependent
on this athletic scholarship.
He knew how to hone in on those men,
and he would groom them for more.
He was always being nice to you,
being complimentary.
He was totally manipulating you.
But you had no concept
that that's what's going on.
At the time, when you're 18,
19, 20 years old,
you don't, you've never heard of...
of predators.
You never heard of grooming.
Especially the term "grooming."
I don't--
Never heard of that before.
And that's exactly what he did.
He ingratiated himself with you.
He became your friend.
He would take photos of guys.
He would give you his card
and tell you
he can start
a modeling career for you.
I mean, we'd often see him
around with a camera.
He took pictures of Jim Jordan
for Russ Hellickson's book.
Oh, Doc takes photos?
And the weird thing,
you hear that he's, like,
really good at it, he takes
really good black-and-whites.
And we heard this one wrestler
got a photo shoot
and... and it got
some modeling stuff out of it,
got a modeling contract,
and he started having success
as a model.
You know, made money.
And it was like, "Wow.
Okay." You know?
During the summertime,
I was trying to get
into some modeling stuff
just to make some extra money.
And Dr. Strauss said,
"If you need shots, I can do it.
I-I'm a photographer."
I'm like a-- I'm a poor
college student, you know?
I'm like, "How much is it gonna be?"
He goes, "Don't worry about it.
I-I do this for--
just for the fun of it."
So, I went to his house.
He... he had his little studio set up
in one of his rooms, and he goes,
"Let's take some shots
without your shirt on."
And I took a couple shots
without my shirt on.
And then he's kinda putting
his hands on me.
And he starts pulling
my pants down and...
I'm like, "No. Not doing that."
He... he brought out
the-the negatives and said,
"Hey, let's, you know,
what about these pictures?"
So we got back to the pictures and...
You know, I look back
on a situation like that,
I'm like, I put myself
in that position, you know?
Why would I do that?
I mean, I know how this guy is,
and I put myself in that position.
So, I'm like, am I bringing
this on to myself?
Am I-- You know?
Why did I put myself
in that position?
But I did.
I started being told many times,
"You're Dr. Strauss's favorite,
aren't you? He is.
You're Dr. Strauss's favorite."
And just like that,
Dr. Strauss was always there.
So, yeah.
Shit, man!
Push him, Dan, push him!
He was always there.
You'd come off the ice,
and he's there.
And, of course, if anything happened,
he would check you.
You didn't have a choice.
At that level, you're supposed
to compartmentalize,
put your shit away,
you're on the ice doing your job.
And I just couldn't.
I just could never get
my shit together.
In practice, you're like,
"What was that all about?"
You run drills in practice,
and I was having trouble
remembering what the next thing was.
I mean, I was a mess.
I was focused.
I mean, I was a machine
coming here, and then
the-the wheels came off.
Another fight, Al Nova-- Novakowski.
You've got no one to talk to
'cause you don't know
that you're the only one
this is happening to,
and it just continued to spiral.
I was never the same person.
I remember
it was Sunday morning,
and I slept in.
You don't sleep in.
You don't miss practice.
And I remember getting there
and going, like,
"Oh, my God, I'm in so much trouble."
I went to the coach's office
and said, "Look, I'm--
I'm really sorry, you know?"
He said, "You're done."
Said, "What do you mean I'm done?"
He goes, "You're nothing
but a fucking cancer
to this hockey team."
And my whole body just kinda--
just kind of...
He just ended my dream.
My whole world has just exploded.
I didn't know what to say to him,
and I got up,
and... I left the rink
and I never went back.
I remember, during practice,
I separated my shoulder,
and Russ said, "Go have Dr. Strauss
check out your shoulder."
"Okay. Here we go."
And I'm standing there
naked in front of this man.
Does the same exam.
You know, rubbing
behind your-your testicles,
and then pulling on my-my penis,
and kind of giving it some pulls.
And I'm-I'm tense,
and I'm staring up
at the ceiling like,
"Please let this end,
please let this end,
please let this end."
He kept going,
and I'm looking down
at the top of his head.
That's how close he was.
He leans in
as he's doing this,
and when he does,
I start pulling away.
I pull my hips away,
and then he leans back and says,
"All right, pull 'em up."
I pulled them up, didn't say
two words to him, I left.
I didn't go to practice.
I vanished for a couple weeks.
Finally, I went into Russ's office.
And I said, "Russ,
I'm done.
I can't do this."
And he said, "Well...
if you want to come back,
you can always come back,
but all right then."
And that's what I got from him.
After wrestling for three years,
that was the extent
of the conversation.
And that was the last time
that I was on that team.
I walked away from wrestling
at Ohio State,
and I dropped out of school
because I didn't have
my scholarship anymore.
And the state champion, Dan Ritchie.
My dad was so angry.
My dad was like,
"You have a year and a half left.
Why can't you do it?"
And I couldn't tell him.
I didn't know how.
I was not strong enough or able
to explain to him that...
this is...
This is what happened.
And I can't-- I can't deal with it.
And I think...
I think the inability of that...
it did put a negative, uh...
Our relationship hasn't been
the same, I think, since.
Did you tell your parents?
Did I tell my parents
my scholarship was pulled?
No. No.
No.
What's-- What's--
What's--
What's the next question gonna be?
"Why-- Why are you
kicked off the team?"
Um, telling your parents,
who are, you know, they're-they're...
Ah, I mean...
No, I did not tell my parents
I was kicked off the team,
and I did not tell them
I lost my scholarship.
Told some people
I wasn't playing anymore,
and they said, "Well, how come?"
I just told them
I wasn't good enough.
Had some people going like,
"What are you talking about?"
Especially some of the guys
who knew me,
some of the old coaches,
guys who'd watched me play junior.
Like,
"What are you... talking about?"
And I would just avoid the question.
But I-I internalized
that lie, I guess.
I started drinking quite a bit
and descended into depression.
Meanwhile, Dr. Strauss is ascending
and expanding.
So imagine this, here's a guy
who has this welter of complaints
going back more than a decade,
and what does Ohio State do?
They promote him.
He becomes the main physician
at OSU's general health center.
You say, "Wait a second. What?!
Everyone knew this.
The team doctor showers
with the athletes over and over,
and you promote this guy?"
But that's bafflingly
exactly what Ohio State does.
And so, Dr. Strauss continues
what he's been doing
for the last decade-plus,
which is assaulting college-age males
under the guise of being
a medical professional.
I had a lump on my chest,
so I decided that I needed
to go get it checked.
So I looked up
in the student directory
and saw that there
was a medical center and went there.
And they said, "We're gonna
give you to Dr. Strauss."
This physician walks in,
he was kind of a smaller type guy.
Seemed polite enough.
And he started asking me,
you know, questions
about what had happened,
and, you know, what I was there for,
then he started to get
into some really weird questions
about if I was gay
and just all kinds of stuff,
and it was just really odd to me.
And then he made me de-clothe.
He had me get completely naked,
which just seemed very weird
to me as well,
but again, he's a medical doctor,
I was a kid, you know?
I-I thought I gotta listen
to whatever this guy says to do.
And he proceeded to give me
a genital examination.
And I don't remember
any gloves being used.
And I can remember his breath.
Like, I can remember
his breath on my genitals
when he was examining them.
Then he asked, you know,
if I ever wanted to sleep
with more than just one person.
At that point, I was starting
to get really uncomfortable
because I understood
something wasn't right.
Then he was holding my chest
and he was like massaging it,
and that's when he started
to thrust his pelvis into my side,
and I-I could tell
that he had an erection,
and then I was just mortified
'cause I just didn't know what to do.
Then I'm trying to get
out of the situation
the best that I could.
And I left.
And I remember, I was so angry.
I called the next day,
and I got Ted Grace on the phone,
the head of Student Services.
He said, "Well, you know,
if you want to come in here,
we can try to talk about this
and sit down with Strauss."
I think it's really relevant
that what is, in effect,
the first whistleblower
is not an athlete.
Steve Snyder-Hill
doesn't have to worry
about the power balance
that comes with,
"Hey, I could lose my scholarship,"
or the shame in the locker room.
So he has that power.
Raise your right hand, please.
Do you swear the testimony
you're about to give will be
the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth?
-I do.
-Thank you.
- Morning, Dr. Grace.
-Good morning.
My name is Ilann Maazel.
In 2019, as part
of an ongoing lawsuit filed
by victims of Dr. Richard Strauss,
attorney Ilann Maazel deposed
Dr. Ted Grace,
Strauss former supervisor
at Student Health Services.
My firm is most well-known
for taking on
powerful interests,
the city, the state,
the United States government...
ILANN M. MAAZEL
CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY
lots of big companies,
lots of important, powerful people,
and speaking truth to power.
That's what we do.
Dr. Strauss was under your command
at Student Health, correct?
Correct.
Dr. Grace, I would say,
was the only person at OSU
who ever did anything
about Dr. Strauss.
And the scary thing is,
I think that's true.
He's the one and only person
who ever did anything
about Dr. Strauss for 20 years.
And it began, finally, in 1995.
You attended a meeting
with Mr. Snyder-Hill
and Dr. Strauss, right?
Correct.
So I walked in,
and there was Dr. Strauss.
Dr. Strauss was really cordial,
but then when I said the part about
where he pushed
his erection against me,
he slammed down
on the table really hard
and screamed, "You're just
trying to ruin my reputation!"
I remember just being frozen
'cause, you know, I was a kid
and I looked
at these doctors in the room
and I-I was like, "I don't know
what to say right now,"
and neither did they.
They were just all in shock.
You know, you doubt yourself
because you're sitting here
thinking, "Well, maybe he had
a wallet in his pocket.
Maybe I was confused and mistaken."
And so, after that,
you know, I went out,
and I was just upset at the time.
Left. Ted Grace called me later
and he said, "What can we do
to make this right?"
And I said, "If you tell me
I'm confused and mistaken,
I will believe you if you can tell me
it never happened to anybody else."
And then that's what he said,
you know,
"I promise you it's never happened."
And so then I said, "Great,
then put it in a letter to me."
And there was silence on the phone.
Like, I could tell that bothered him.
But a couple days later,
I got a letter from him.
This is a letter you wrote
Stephen Snyder-Hill
on January 26th, 1995.
-Correct?
-Correct.
And you wrote, quote...
"I want to assure you that
we had never received a complaint
about Sr. Strauss before,
although we had several
positive comments.
Close quote.
Now, that was actually
a false statement.
-Correct?
-Correct.
Now I find out 24 years later
that a kid complained
three days before me.
Three days before me.
Did you ever tell Stephen Snyder-Hill
about this student's complaint?
I don't believe I did.
I, by the way, would like to add this
to the record, if you don't mind.
-Go ahead.
-I didn't realize
that-that I had made a misstatement
until recently.
But you wrote this letter 23 days
after this student's
complaint, right?
I know.
But it-it-- it was--
I don't-- I'm guessing
that I didn't yet know
about the first complaint
when I wrote this 'cause there's no--
I would not have-- I be--
No, you don't know me,
but I wouldn't intentionally
lie to Stephen Hill.
There's no reason to.
Well, Stephen Hill told you
that if there had been
any prior complaints
against Dr.-- let me finish--
against Dr. Strauss,
he was not gonna
drop the charges, right?
That's what he told you.
And what does--
What does "drop the charges" mean?
Can you answer that question, please?
He told you, "You need to tell me
there's never been a prior complaint,
or I'm not dropping the charges."
That's what these notes say.
And we're talking about charges
of sexual misconduct
and sexual assault
against your doctor,
Dr. Strauss, right?
That is-- That is correct.
I mean, I-I wanted to get that
on the record.
I made a mistake
when I told him that.
They lied to me. They told me
what to believe and I believed them,
and I-I took their word for it.
And so, I went about my life
believing I had been wrong
about this man.
And it was so beyond what I imagined.
So beyond.
One evening, I wasn't feeling great
and I was having trouble swallowing.
I think probably it was
too much vodka or whatever.
So my roommate gave me a ride down
to the Student Health Center,
and I went in, you know,
like a normal student,
which kinda sucked because I was used
to being an athlete
and you're, you know...
But I was a normal student
at the time,
so I'm-I'm-I'm standing there in line
and, you know, just minding
my own business, and then,
I look and there he is.
There's Dr. Strauss.
That time, he didn't do
all the stuff he usually did.
It was a very... quick examination.
And he goes, "It's your epiglottis,"
and he goes, "It moves like this,"
and it was in spasm.
Doc said, you know, "In order
to get rid of the spasm,
we will, um, we're gonna sedate you.
We're gonna give you
a sedative, it'll relax you,
and that'll come out of spasm."
So I was thankful. You know, like,
"Thank you for being a doctor."
He gave me a shot at the hospital
to relax me.
And he said,
"Let me give you a ride home."
I don't remember getting
into the car, but I remember
he helped me go up to my room.
I laid down.
I couldn't move.
I was sort of paralyzed.
He was rubbing my side
or my back, and I thought,
"What the fuck?
This is weird," but again,
you're so out,
you're trying-- you're...
trying to process,
but you're so stoned
or whatever it is,
I mean, you don't really...
So, um...
Yeah, then he raped me.
I woke up in the morning and...
I was trying to process it,
you know, like, what-- what--
Trying to remember the night, like,
how did we get here, how did we get--
How did we get to this?
And...
Yeah, I was in--
I was in fucking shock.
Like, I was in-- Like, I was...
I was-- I was--
And who are you gonna tell?
Like, who... who am I gonna tell?
By the time
I interviewed Al Novakowski,
the investigation
had identified 47 rape victims.
Now we know he was number 48.
When I found out that they knew,
when I found out
that The Ohio State University
knew he groped and touched
the athletes,
I was beyond...
Well, to this day,
I'm thinking, "Holy shit.
Did these people not have kids?
Did these people not have
hearts or souls?" Like...
Like, there's a special place
for these people,
and it's not heaven.
For those that knew, can you--
Like, they knew it!
How many others are out there
who may never share
their story publicly?
I dropped out of school.
And Dr. Strauss went on,
year
after year
after year.
So I'm showing you exhibit 19.
Another very disturbing incident.
-Right?
-Yes.
This is now the third
direct complaint against Dr. Strauss?
- Correct.
-The Student A complaint
was January 3rd, 1995, correct?
Correct.
Student B complaint
was January 6th, 1995.
-Right?
- Correct.
And you wrote this memo
on January 10th, 1996, right?
- Correct.
-So that's over a year later.
Correct.
This student reported
that Dr. Strauss commented
on his big muscles,
asked him to take off his shirt.
- Yes.
-Dr. Strauss told Student C,
"Take everything off
from the waist down,"
and did a slow exam
that Student C described
as fondling and like nothing
he'd ever had before.
Right.
And then the student ejaculated.
-Right?
-Yes.
Have you ever heard
about a patient who ejaculated
during a medical examination?
No.
The only time you ever heard that is
in the context of Dr. Strauss, right?
Yes.
During the investigation
of that complaint,
you placed Dr. Strauss
on administrative leave.
-Correct?
- Correct.
One of the incredible
things about this case is,
you know, Dr. Grace did not report
Dr. Strauss to the medical board.
It was Dr. Strauss
who reported Dr. Grace
to the medical board.
He complained that Dr. Grace
had confronted him
over alleged sexual abuse,
and Dr. Strauss
was the one being wronged.
He was the one being harassed.
Over three months
after Student C's complaint
is when Dr. Strauss complains
to the medical board about you.
-Yes.
-And so, at that point,
you had not spoken
with the medical board.
-Correct?
-Correct.
Or had any contact
with the medical board.
-Correct?
-Correct.
Or made any complaint
about Dr. Strauss
-to the medical board. Correct?
-Correct.
And then in July 1996,
you did meet with the medical board.
-Correct?
-Yes.
Because of Dr. Strauss's complaint.
-Right?
- Correct.
When Dr. Grace
finally was interviewed
by the medical board,
the medical board on its own
then initiated an investigation
into Dr. Strauss.
So as of July 1996,
no one at the university
filed any kind
of complaint against Dr. Strauss,
correct?
Not in writing.
Well, according
to the medical board, not at all.
After this, what OSU did
is they had a secret
disciplinary hearing
for Dr. Strauss.
Didn't reveal the findings
to the student body
or pretty much anyone,
and then they very quietly
removed him
from being the team physician
and from Student Health Services.
Quote, "On August 5th, 1996,
Williams informed Strauss
that he considered
all the information
and Williams had determined
that Strauss's appointment
would not be renewed
effective immediately."
-Correct?
-Correct.
Everything else was renewed, right?
He was still a professor
of Internal Medicine. Right?
Still a professor
of Preventive Medicine. Right?
Still a professor
at the School of Public Health.
Correct.
The university
never fired Dr. Strauss, right?
Not that I'm aware.
Richard Strauss
finally retired voluntarily
in 1998.
And even after he retired,
OSU gave him emeritus status.
It's an honor to have
emeritus status.
-Yes.
-And OSU
gave Dr. Strauss that honor.
-Yes.
-Did they have to do that?
I guess not.
This is hardly someone
who has been disgraced,
who leaves Columbus
in-in this horrible exile
with a cloud over him.
This is an esteemed
Ohio State faculty member
who decides to move out west
to the sunshine.
This is someone who sets up
practice in California.
He still can put on the wall,
still can tell people
he's Emeritus Professor
at The Ohio State.
This is not someone
who has suffered consequence
for-for grievous crimes.
He sexually abused football players,
wrestlers,
tennis players,
hockey players, fencers.
He sexually abused students
who were not athletes
whom he saw
in Student Health Services.
He did this repeatedly,
he did it
right under the nose of OSU.
And the whole thing
might have just died away forever.
But fast-forward 20 years,
it all changed.
Today marks a step
in a continuing quest
for accountability and justice
for the horrific predatory conduct
of Larry Nassar.
The Larry Nassar,
Michigan State ordeal,
I was following that very closely
because, you know,
my daughter was a gymnast.
What would you like to tell him?
Your Honor, thank you
for the opportunity
to make this statement here today.
I called Mike DiSabato up
and... and I'm discussing
the situation.
And he's reading testimony to me.
The hardest thing
I've ever had to do is process
that I'm a victim of Larry Nassar.
I had no idea what he was doing
and that it was sexual assault
or any type of abuse.
I was taught to trust doctors
because they are there to help you.
And I said, "Wow, that's us."
He turned the lights off.
I was alone without any supervision.
The same thing happened
every single time.
Even when I had knee
and ankle injuries.
I was ashamed, disgusted in myself
rather than at Larry.
Your Honor, stress the need
to investigate how this happened
so we can hold accountable
those who empowered
and enabled Larry Nassar.
It makes a difference
to have the abuser
accountable for their actions.
Thank you.
To watch them speak was powerful.
It unlocked something in me.
And I spent two months
speaking to my teammates...
to verify what I already knew,
that Richard Strauss
was another Larry Nassar.
Mike DiSabato,
just out of the blue one day,
asked me about Dr. Strauss,
and-and I shared with him my story.
I'd never talked
to Mike about these things,
and Mike asked me about Doc Strauss.
You know, you sit
and think you don't remember
any of these stories.
And then, an hour and a half
later, it's like,
"Oh, like, wow, that--
that happened.
And that happened."
And he said, "I'm gonna tell 'em."
And I was taken back.
I'm like, "Gonna tell who?"
And he said, "I'm gonna go
to The Ohio State University
and ask for an investigation
to be done."
I think I was speechless
for a little bit...
and then I begged him not to.
Why?
Shame.
Sexual misconduct allegations
40 years in the making
at The Ohio State University.
Mike told me
that he was still gonna do it.
Details are coming to light
in the investigation
of a former Ohio State
wrestling team physician
possibly involved
in sexual misconduct.
Even though I wanted no part of it,
I told Mike,
"I'm not gonna let you stand there
and take it by yourself."
"I'll stand with you."
Another former Ohio State student
has come forward to say
that he too was a victim
of Strauss's sexual misconduct.
I decided that accountability
needed to be had.
I'm speaking on behalf
of many of my teammates...
I said, "I want to help."
Dan Ritchie is one of the men
who kept his secret for 25 years.
This complaint involves a student
at the Student Health Center.
As more people come forward,
Ohio State decided
to investigate themselves.
OSU BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING
APRIL 22, 2018
Just like Penn State and at Michigan,
they were doing
what everyone would expect
a university was doing.
They were paying for
an in-depth
independent investigation.
Now, a full report will be released
when this investigation is done.
No word on when that will happen.
What became evident
quickly was that this was not
the USA Gymnastics scandal
and the dynamic there.
To begin with, there would be
no Larry Nassar to pursue.
Richard Strauss had eluded
the possibility of conviction.
The outside attorney investigating
provided this today:
Richard Strauss died in 2005.
We now know former OSU doctor
Richard Strauss died by suicide.
This sounds so morbid,
but I pulled up
his autopsy report
after he killed himself,
and I wanted to know
the details of everything.
I wanted to know what he was wearing.
I wanted to know how he did it.
I wanted to know
what they said his causes were.
I wanted some kind of glimpse
that he did it
because he was miserable
because of what he did to us,
and what it said was he did it
because he was in pain
and the pills weren't helping him.
There's no remorse about what he did.
It was because he was inconvenienced
because of pain.
That's what you find out,
and that... that just stinks.
If the doctor in question is dead,
some ask, "What is the point
of this investigation anyway?"
Well, the university says
there are two goals
for this investigation.
One of them is to identify
and evaluate
all the allegations against Strauss,
and the other one
is to see if anybody
working at the university
at that time
knew about those allegations.
That, of course, could lead
to criminal action.
If a university
is deliberately indifferent
to sexual misconduct,
then they are legally responsible.
"Deliberately indifferent,"
fancy words.
Basically, you know,
did they-- were they--
Did they care?
Did they do something to stop it?
Did they take
reasonable action or not?
OSU not only took no action,
they put a known predator
into a position of authority.
We decided to take action,
and I was the lead plaintiff
on a lawsuit filed
against the university.
For years of alleged abuse,
former Ohio State wrestlers
are suing the university tonight,
claiming the school
ignored their complaints
about a team doctor.
Being in this arena is scary.
I mean, I'm-- I'm suing a university
that I spent years of my life
wrestling for.
I mean, that's just insane.
But it was necessary.
The university
should've protected us more.
They knew what was going on.
So, I contacted our attorneys.
I said, "What do I have to do?"
Dozens of men have come forward
and sued The Ohio State University
over sexual abuse allegations
against a former school doctor.
And that unleashed
the other major difference
between this case
and the Nassar gymnast survivors.
People could not wrap
their brains around it.
How could these
grain-fed tough guys...
How in the world
could they be the victims
of sexual assault?
These were wrestlers.
And not just wrestlers.
Mark Coleman!
I mean, Mark Coleman
was the baddest of the badass.
He was a terrific wrestler
at Ohio State,
won a national title.
And then after this absolutely
gilded wrestling career,
he pivots to mixed martial arts.
He was this very prominent fighter.
"Ground and Pound" was his trademark
as a UFC fighter. What did that mean?
You'd wrestle the guy to the ground
and you'd beat the shit out of him.
Coleman is this physical beast.
So how could this guy be a victim
to someone like Strauss?
I was very, very nervous
about this whole thing.
I wanted Ohio State
to hold themselves accountable
to make sure
this doesn't happen again.
But everybody is
telling us to go kick rocks.
So, who could we go to
that could help us with this?
I present to you Russ Hellickson.
Well-deserved.
Russ. My relationship with him
is so cherished.
As a wrestling coach,
I have three daughters
and over 500 sons.
Russ was like family.
He was like a second father to me.
And so I text Russ
a long text message.
Just, "Hey, look, we need you."
And within an hour, I got a response.
About 20 of us met
over at one of the local high schools
that one of the wrestlers work at.
And we sat in a room with him
and we went around, each individual,
and told exactly what happened to us.
Everybody said their piece.
It was emotional.
It got to my turn,
and I asked him, I said,
"Do you remember
when I came into your office
and I said, 'I'm done. I'm out'?"
He said, "Yeah, I do."
I said, "I never told you why.
This is why."
You just saw him open up
and start to sympathize
and understand what had happened.
At the end of that meeting,
he said he would write a letter
to whoever he needs
to write a letter to
in support of us.
That's what we needed.
We needed reassurance.
We walked out like we were family.
And, of course, we turned to Jimmy,
our former assistant coach.
Things had changed a bit
for him since OSU.
Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome
Congressman Jim Jordan.
Thank you. Very kind.
Jim Jordan's now a prominent figure
in the Republican Party
for the House of Representatives,
always on news and media outlets.
Congressman Jordan,
great to have you.
I don't agree with his politics
but I still was proud of him
as my college coach.
He had ideals
and he had honor.
Discipline is doing
what you don't want to do
when you don't want to do it.
Doing things the right way
when you'd rather do 'em
the convenient way.
Your experts knew the truth.
Your spokesperson knew.
But what troubles me more is
I think you knew the truth.
He was a pit bull.
And so, I figured
that why in the hell
wouldn't this guy
step up for us, you know?
-Did you remember Dr. Strauss?
-Yeah.
You know, knew-knew, uh, the doctor.
And Jim Jordan didn't.
But there is no truth to the fact
that-that I knew of any abuse.
Uh, or I've talked to other coaches,
they didn't know of any abuse.
Um, it just-- there just--
That's just not accurate
to say those things.
That we knew of it
and didn't report it
is just not true.
There's no way that he didn't know.
Did he know something?
Everybody knew something.
So, do I think he knew?
I think everybody knew.
Did it make me angry? Yes.
How do you characterize
the accusations
against Strauss, uh, against him?
Um, you know...
All I know is I never knew
of any abuse
from Dr. Strauss, plain and simple.
To say that he knew nothing,
that nothing ever happened,
it's a flat-out lie.
It is a flat-out lie.
We are now joined
by Congressman Jordan.
The first time dealing
with all of this in detail.
Your reaction, first, to all of this.
The guys that are saying this thing,
I know they know the truth.
I know they do.
I never saw, never heard of,
never was told about
any type of abuse.
-If I had been...
- I know for a fact
how many conversations
that Jimmy's had
about Dr. Strauss.
Conversations in the locker room
are a lot different
than someone coming up to you
and saying there was abuse.
So did you hear it
in the locker room?
No. We did not hear that.
-'Cause if we had...
-Something short of abuse
that-that-that may be
considered abuse now
-in this current time?
-Did not. Did not.
I wasn't beside Jim
in his locker room,
so I don't know what he knew,
but I knew what he said to me,
and that's why I knew he knew,
'cause when he said,
"It's Strauss, you know that,"
that told me-- he couldn't
have said that without knowing
what Strauss was and who he was.
That's why.
And maybe Jimmy thought
it was just gonna go away.
-And it didn't.
-Jim Jordan denies
any wrongdoing
in that OSU wrestling case,
but the controversy,
the scandal, has not abated.
Instead, people perked up
and then it became a big deal.
Representative Jim Jordan
has been accused
of covering up sexual abuse.
Jim Jordan has said in response...
Jim Jordan, who was
a wrestling coach at the time...
They talked to Jordan about it
and he didn't do anything.
Once it got legs
and it started going,
more people came out and said,
"Yes, this is what happened.
Absolutely, this is what--
This is my experience."
Tonight, more former Buckeye
wrestlers are coming forward.
-More victims coming forward.
-University announced today...
There was a thought that
it was the tip of the iceberg.
And that's when Jordan
started calling everybody.
He actually started calling
all the wrestlers.
Even called Adam DiSabato,
Mike DiSabato's brother.
Eight in the morning,
and my phone starts blowing up.
And I answer it, and he's like,
"Hey, Adam, this is Jim Jordan."
I'm like...
He was talking to me for a half hour
about if I'll come out publicly,
defend him and say this isn't true.
He's literally crying on the phone.
He don't give a fuck about me
or none of us.
And he's wanting me to defend him
against my fucking brother.
I mean, that's insane.
And I figured
that Jimmy's probably talking
to Russ too.
And, sure enough,
Russ disappeared into silence.
He never wrote any letter.
He didn't offer any support.
He completely turned his back on us.
I propped him up on a pedestal
like he was my dad,
and-and...
it sucks.
Russ said he'd be there
standing up for us,
and he took a different tack.
I tried for a very long time
to get a one-on-one interview
with Congressman Jordan,
and his office would not set that up.
So I found out
that he was going to be
at the Honda plant, and I showed up.
Athletes like Dan Ritchie says
Dr. Strauss had a locker
two down from yours.
How were you not aware
that he was in there
taking a shower every day
and pleasuring himself
in front of these students,
when they all knew about it?
I guess he seemed resentful
that he was being questioned
about this.
This is ridiculous.
I've stood up to the--
to the FBI, I've stood up to the IRS.
So if I think-- if I thought
there was something wrong
or if I knew there was
something wrong happening,
I would've stood up for 'em.
-You didn't see anything?
-That's why every--
No, I did not. And that's why
every single coach and...
"No one ever told me. I had no idea.
Nope, that never happened."
And then came the bombshell of May.
Uh, good afternoon.
Today, I want to provide
some, uh, comments and thoughts
on the report issued Friday
by Ohio State University
regarding, um,
the situation with
the late Dr. Richard Strauss.
The yearlong
independent investigation
that OSU had paid for
was finally released.
This investigation
was a good thing for them to do,
but the results were so unexpected
and so deeply troubling.
The Strauss report
detailed acts of sexual abuse
against at least 177 former students
between 1978 and 1998,
and undoubtedly there are
many other victims out there
who have not come forward.
When you see it all
laid out in black and white
and you see the numbers,
it just broke my heart.
I had no clue
how far the ripple effect had gone.
I had no clue, and so,
when I read it, I'm like,
"Holy-- holy shit."
Holy shit.
I knew our experience,
I knew my experience,
I knew Mike's experience,
I knew a few other
of the guys' experiences.
I didn't know the extent
of those experiences
nor the scope.
I read the report
from cover to cover,
and the more I read,
the more pissed I got.
We should all be disgusted.
The complaints and reports
about this sexual abuse
were not reported
to higher authorities
by the athletic department
or Ohio State University's
Student Health Center
until 1996,
more than 15 years
after the first reports
were, in fact, received.
The most startling thing
was just how many people
who were in a position to stop it
knew about it and did nothing.
An independent report found
that Ohio State University
had knowledge
that a doctor
sexually abused students
dating as far back as the late '70s.
The report found
Strauss's behavior was
an "open secret"
to more than 50 staff members
in Ohio State's athletic department.
They were aware,
and they covered it up.
They covered it up.
It's truly amazing
how many people
had to look the other way
for him to get away with this
that long.
...the OSU investigation,
the allegations
could affect your run?
Anyone can see through that story.
I've talked to numerous colleagues
and they can all see through that.
Are you concerned at all?
The congressman said again
he has denied ever knowing
about this abuse, denied...
Jim Jordan's a coward.
He's a coward.
He's not a leader.
He's a coward.
He abandoned us.
Our head coach abandoned us.
This is disgusting.
I saw Russ at a wrestling event,
and he walked in.
He's that, you know, that presence.
And he goes,
"Hey, Fred, how are you?"
I shook his hand, I said, "Hey, Russ.
Russ, when are you gonna tell
the truth?"
Yeah. And he just stopped.
He goes, "Fred, I'm not going there."
He goes, "But you have a good day."
And he... he walked away,
and I haven't talked to him since.
You know,
early on, when this came out,
I had an opportunity
to speak to the media
and I didn't choose to,
and I-I finally chose to
because Russ didn't.
Um, Jim Jordan didn't.
And, you know,
the people that you thought
would be there standing up for you,
they didn't.
And so I-I decided
that I was gonna say something.
And I did it at the
Board of Trustees meeting.
I didn't want to go to the newspaper.
I didn't want to say anything.
I felt this would be the place
because I care about Ohio State.
I am someone...
I bleed scarlet and gray.
The best time of my life was
to wrestle for the Buckeyes.
I've been seeing things
that have been written
on social media.
I almost feel like I'm not a victim,
I was the problem.
I'm not the problem.
We weren't the problem.
Some...
bad man was the problem.
And we just want you guys
to do the right thing
so we can move on.
I appreciate you guys
giving us the time
to come up here and speak.
Mike Schyck
said, "I'm coming up there
and I'm talking
to the Board of Trustees."
I'm like, "Okay.
All right. I'm with you.
I'll do it too."
And I got up there
and I told my story.
Between the fall of 1988
until the fall of 1992,
I was subjected to a sexual predator
under the guise of a team doctor
in the employ of this university.
And based on your own report,
this university knew.
It knew prior to my enrollment
and it knew after.
We were let down
by this university before,
and ultimately, it's your decision
on how you proceed from here.
So I leave you with this question:
Are you going to let us down
again or do the right thing?
I thank you.
Rest assured that this board
is not dismissing you.
MICHAEL GASSER CHAIRMAN,
OSU BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2012 - 2019
We're committed
to doing the right thing.
In public, OSU expresses contrition.
We at The Ohio State University
are deeply sorry
for Strauss's abuse decades ago.
This was reprehensible,
and the university's failure to act
at the time is inexcusable.
We acknowledge
the university's failures
during Strauss's time at Ohio State.
But this was manipulation,
lying, and deceit.
Behind the scenes,
they begin fighting us
tooth and nail.
Ohio State, while professing
to do the right thing,
actually moves to dismiss
the entire case
on statute of limitations grounds.
Under Ohio law,
you have two years
to bring a lawsuit.
It happened more than two years ago,
therefore you're out of luck.
The statute of limitations defense is
sort of the last refuge of scoundrels
in sexual abuse cases.
We've seen it
from the Catholic Church.
We've seen it from the Boy Scouts.
We see this from all sorts
of organizations
that are trying to avoid
accountability.
And that's OSU's defense.
Basically, we were so successful
in hiding Dr. Strauss's abuse
that it's too late
for you now to sue us.
Shock and anger
from hundreds of plaintiffs
who have objected
to the university's request
that their lawsuit be dismissed
based on the statute of limitations.
I think when their own study revealed
just how many people were involved
and just how big this problem was,
they panicked.
It was a devastating report,
and as we now know,
the 177 survivors
was a very small fraction
of the true number.
It's in the thousands.
It's mind-boggling.
It was a total and complete cover-up
at the highest levels
of the university.
I mean, if there's one thing
OSU is good at,
other than football,
it's deceit.
Their strategy was,
"We are going to say,
'You waited too long.'"
But what they didn't count on
was a federal judge
taking a look at this
and saying, "The survivors are right.
Ohio State actively tried
to hide this.
They protected this predator."
And they struck down OSU's
statute of limitations defense.
And suddenly, I think
some powerful people
got nervous.
New at 11,
The Ohio State University today
notified a federal district court
of its intention to set up
what it's calling
the Strauss Individual
Settlement Program,
bringing an end
to about half the claims
filed against the university.
OSU put forward a pot of money
for survivors,
a sum that differed significantly
from that offered
by other universities
facing their own
sexual abuse scandals.
Penn State, Michigan State,
have held themselves accountable
in a way that OSU has not.
Plainly, OSU is not treating
sexual abuse survivors
the way other universities have.
Because we were male athletes.
That's why we're here.
That's why we're not
acknowledged the same way.
So guys would sit around
conscious of, "What are we doing
to male sexual abuse victims
if we take this lower number?"
We could've settled.
I could've signed
the agreement and-and, um,
and been on my way
and said, "Whatever."
But beyond the low number
and what that signified,
I read in there
that they were gonna take
no accountability
for what was done at all.
"We deny any wrongdoing."
That was written in there.
It's like, "Really?"
This is what they call
a settlement program.
That's what they tried
to bully us into.
That sounds like a great deal, OSU.
But that's not what they tell people.
They tell people,
"Oh, he chose not to settle."
But, you know, in spite of all this,
I still want to give
olive branches and opportunity
to, like, make these things right.
'Cause at the end of the day,
we're all Buckeyes.
We had this feeling that we are here
to bring your university down.
We are not here to do that.
I love this university.
We can do things great together
if we can all come back together
and if you can make this right.
So I thank you for your time.
O-H.
I said, "O-H."
And someone's supposed to say, "I-O."
And they didn't.
And, like I told you,
if you say that to somebody
and they don't say, "I-O,"
you're like,
"You're not a Buckeye."
You're something different.
Ohio State still has no understanding
and has failed to acknowledge
the actual devastation
they have caused
thousands of men.
Thousands of men.
High divorce rates,
high substance-abuse problems,
whether it be alcohol or drugs.
We've had several suicide attempts.
And I don't know one guy
that regularly goes to a doctor.
None of 'em.
It's really bad.
You know, you-you-you do think
about the woulda-been,
coulda-been, shoulda-been club
because you are part of that.
And that's-- I can't let myself
go there very often
because it-it's not fun.
Yeah.
You know, somebody asked
one time, they said,
"Are you a survivor
or are you a victim?"
And they wanted to make
that terminology distinct.
And I had to think about it,
and I thought, "You know what,
I'm a survivor of sexual assault,
but I'm a victim of OSU."
Attorneys for the plaintiffs
believe what OSU really wants to do
is delay or even block this case
from going to trial, and OSU...
If they want to keep spending money
to fight us in court,
then we'll keep going.
If we have to go another five
years, I'll go another five years.
If we go ten, I'll go another ten.
Accountability is necessary.
People ask,
"Do you want money out of this?"
Yeah, you know what, I do,
and I'll tell you why.
You punish somebody,
you give 'em a $5 fine
and say, "Don't do it again,"
they're gonna come back.,
"$5, that's fine.
Here, here's $5,"
and they're gonna do it again.
You hit 'em where it counts,
and that's
the money that they have to shell out
because they did not protect
the athletes
they were supposed to protect
when they brought 'em here
to compete for them.
So, yes, I want them to pay out.
LEMON BAY HIGH SCHOOL
ENGLEWOOD, FLORIDA
This is my seventh year as coach,
and I'm a firm believer
that this sport teaches
like no other.
You build these relationships
with these guys
probably just as solid as
a parent to your kid, you know?
And they get to that point
where they trust you.
And it's so special.
I can't even fathom
not being there for my-- my guys.
Wow.
In my wrestling room,
we've got a wall that's got
a word, "integrity."
It's what I preach to my guys.
It's what truly defines you.
The Ohio State University is home
to one of the largest athletic
departments in the nation.
Since 2018, when the survivors
of Dr. Strauss filed suit,
Ohio States Department of Athletics
has reported total revenue
of over $1.2 billion.
Representative Jim Jordan
did not respond
to the filmmakers request
for an interview.
Russ Hellickson did not respond
to the filmmakers request
for an interview.
Ohio State declined the filmmakers
request for an interview
with a member
of their Board of Trustees.
In March 2023, Ohio State petitioned
the Supreme Court to hear their case,
citing the statute of limitations
as their defense.
In June 2023, the Supreme Court
declined to hear the case.
The case was sent back
to the District Court
for further proceedings.