As many of us already know, Luke Fickell is out and Urban Meyer is in for the coaching job at Ohio State. Many fans know about Urban Meyer and his accomplishments but what about Luke Fickell? Sure he played and coached football at Ohio State but that’s not all to his story. Before Fickell started playing football he was already famous for something else. He was a 3-time state wrestling champion at DeSales High School. Did you get that? HE WAS A 3-TIME WRESTLING CHAMPION. This is his story.
From 90-92 Luke Fickell dominated high school wrestling. In his sophomore year he was 189 lbs. and had a record of 36-0. He won his first state title and continued to improve. During his junior year he jumped up to heavyweight status and went 31-0 with 29 pins. According to Cleveland.com, Fickell pinned four of five opponents at state, in times of 1:35, 42 seconds, 1:26 and 54 seconds in the final. He would then win his second straight state title. No one could touch him his senior year as he pinned most of his 39 opponents. Apparently some wrestlers forfeited because they didn’t want to go against him. I don’t think I have ever seen or heard of that before, quite astonishing. Obviously he won another state title ending his time at DeSales with a 106 record in three years and a 3-time state champion.
Since then Fickell has gotten a lot of recognition for his time as a wrestler. He was named to the Wrestling Hall of Fame and is arguably the best high school wrestler to come out of Ohio ever. He was also based off of Slater on Saved By the Bell. Apparently the producer of Good Morning, Miss Bliss, Peter Engel, went to go see his nephew wrestle and was mesmerized by Fickell.
“Who is this teenager with the wrestling prowess of Olympic gold medalist Kenny Monday?” he asked himself, “and the dimples of Kirk Cameron? And the hair of an adolescent Harry Hamlin?”
He changed the show, moved it to a location in Indiana, and began shooting the new hit series.
Let’s review. Luke Fickell set records, won championships, got named to the Hall of Fame, and was based off of a famous television character. This should certainly be turned into a documentary. Too bad very few people know about it.
