They came from the cities and from small towns. They spanned generations and races and body types. Some looked like they could still make weight; others not so much. It was the summer of 2021, and around 30 former Ohio State wrestlers quietly converged on a high school outside Columbus for a meeting. Others joined virtually. It had the look of a team reunion, but the mood was considerably more somber. This was akin to a family intervention, a revival meeting to attempt to repair the programs ripped fabric.
It had been three years since one of the wrestlers, Mike DiSabato, had come forward with accounts that when he wrestled for OSU in the late 80s and 90s, the team doctor, Richard Strauss, had sexually assaulted him. He was, effectively, the whistleblower in what would be shorthanded The Strauss Scandal.
It would metastasize, and soon hundreds of other former OSU athletesdisproportionately wrestlersshared their experiences of being groomed, assaulted and in some cases raped by the serial predator who was also the team doctor.
The trauma was compounded by a sense of betrayal. Wrestler after wrestler recalled complaining about Strauss to the head coach, Russ Hellickson, and to Jim Jordan, a onetime wrestling star in Wisconsin who served as OSUs assistant coach from 1986 to 94.
In some cases, the wrestlers can recount specific dialogue with striking exactitude. Dunyasha Yetts, an All-American wrestler in the 90s, recalls complaining to Jordan that he saw Strauss about a thumb injury and stormed out of the room when the doctor attempted to pull down his shorts.
Yetts recalls Jordan saying that if Strauss ever approached him in a sexual manner, hed kill him. Dan Ritchie, another wrestler, says he was present when Jordan was informed of abuse from Strauss. Jordans response: "If he did that to me, I'd snap his neck like a twig of dried balsa wood."
In all, at least 11 former wrestlersas well as a wrestling refereehave said the OSU coaches knew and chose to do nothing. Strauss would continue to go unchecked until the mid 90s, assaulting athletes without consequence.
Nick Nutter, an All-American OSU wrestler in the 90s and a Strauss survivor, recounted to me in 2020, as I was reporting this story, that he and his teammates made a calculus before deciding whether to see the team doctor. Is this injury bad enough that Im willing to get molested for it?
Even as Ohio State began settling lawsuits brought by survivors of Strauss in 2020, Hellickson and Jordan continued to deny they ever knew there was abuse. By this time Jordan was a Republican member of Congress representing Ohios Fourth District, an ascending political star rising in status and power.
Jordan predictably, was asked about the allegations leveled by so many of the athletes he once coached. He was defiant, referring inquiries to a statement issued by his communications director: Congressman Jordan never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had he would have dealt with it. (Jordan did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)