“Surviving Ohio State” was released Tuesday on Max. The documentary describes the decades-long sexual abuse that Dr. Richard Strauss committed against students. Credit: Lantern File Photo
This story contains mentions and details of rape, sexual abuse and suicide. If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, help is available through the National Sexual Assault Hotline, which can be reached at (800) 656-4673 or via their online chat hotline.
‘Surviving Ohio State,’ a documentary on the Dr. Strauss scandal, aired Tuesday on HBO and their streaming service, Max. Throughout the film, each interviewee—ranging from journalists to survivors to a civil rights lawyer—had something to say about the university officials’ response to the scandal.
Dr. Richard Strauss was an Ohio State team doctor and physician at the university who was accused of sexual assault by former student-athletes and students. Over 2,800 instances of alleged sexual misconduct were found to be perpetrated by Strauss, and over 170 of those instances were rape, according to the documentary.
Ohio State has reached settlement agreements with 296 survivors for more than $60 million since 2018, university spokesperson, Ben Johnson, said in a statement. Every male student who filed a lawsuit was also offered the opportunity to settle.
“In addition, the university continues to cover the cost of professionally certified counseling services and other medical treatment, including reimbursement for counseling and treatment received in the past,” Johnson said in a statement.
In the documentary, Mike Schyck, former Ohio State wrestler from 1988-93, said joined Ohio State’s wrestling team not for the university, but for the coaches developing a program.
“I didn’t choose Ohio State because of Ohio State,” Schyck said in the film. “I chose it because of Russ Hellickson and Jim Jordan and the program they were developing.”
Schyck said he was ultimately failed by them and their refusal to stand up and support the victims, despite seeing Hellickson as a parental figure throughout his life.
“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, ‘Telling would imply that they didn’t know,’” Schyk said in the film.
To the survivors, their coaches and their university failed them.
“I bleed scarlet and gray,” Schyck said in the film. “But we were let down by this university.”
Jim Jordan
Despite denying it publicly, Jim Jordan, assistant Ohio State wrestling coach from 1987-94 and current U.S. House of Representatives member, was allegedly told on multiple occasions of the abuse his athletes were facing, according to the film.
Ohio State paid for a law firm, Perkins Coie, to investigate these claims. Perkins Coie then released the report—a 232 page long detailed investigation into the claims and the university.
According to the Perkins Coie report, which Ohio State authorized and funded to investigate the Strauss allegations, the document says, “The Investigation Team received allegations from numerous student-athletes indicating that they talked about Strauss’s inappropriate genital exams and complained about Strauss’s locker-room voyeurism directly to—or in front of—OSU coaching staff.”
In the film, there are past interviews and clips of Rep. Jordan denying this, declaring that there is no evidence and if he was aware of this abuse, he would have notified someone.
After Rep. Jordan began to be questioned by the press more and more, the documentary said that he called some of the former wrestlers he coached and asked them to back him up publicly. None did.
Ritchie said in the documentary that Jordan was told multiple times about the abuse and it was brushed off each time.
“Our coaches knew. We had guys complaining about Dr. Strauss to Jim Jordan,” Ritchie said. “One of the wrestlers said, ‘Dude, why does this guy have to constantly check our nuts, check our d**k?’ 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.”
Fred Feeney, an Ohio State wrestling referee from 1988-2024, was assaulted by Strauss in the showers following a match. Immediately, Feeney said he reported his behavior to Hellickson and Jordan.
“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 and said, ‘Hey, Strauss is in there masturbating beside me in the shower,’” Feeney said in the documentary. “Both of them looked at me — [Jordan] looked at me straight in my face and said, ‘It’s Strauss. You know what he does.’ And [Hellickson] agreed.”
Russ Hellickson
Russ Hellickson, Ohio State’s wrestling head coach from 1986-2006, was also made aware of the scandal. Throughout the documentary, survivors told stories about the knowledge that Hellickson had about the abuse.
Hellickson said in a 2018 interview that the documentary pulled that he knew that Strauss was “too invasive,” and was always “too hands-on with athletes” during their weigh-ins.
Hellickson also said in the interview that he confronted Strauss on his frequent showering in the men’s locker rooms.
“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,’” Hellickson said. “I said, ‘Yeah, not for an hour, Doc.’ Uh, it was obvious, you know, Dr. Strauss liked to be in the shower room a lot with the athletes, so he was doing a lot of showering.”
Despite knowing of Strauss’s behavior and inclination to shower with the athletes, Ritchie said Hellickson allowed Strauss to have a locker in the locker room. He said Strauss would shower multiple times a day and was constantly in the room watching the athletes get dressed and undressed.
Hellickson was called by his previous wrestlers to come to a meeting where they could describe what they went through, as to which he obliged. After the meeting, Hellickson reportedly said that he would back the survivors up by writing in a letter of support to whoever he needed to.
That letter never came.
The coaches
Charlotte Remenyik, the late men’s and women’s fencing team coach from 1978-99, believed the complaints she received from her players regarding Strauss’s misconduct. Csilla Remenyik-Smith, Remenyik’s daughter, said in the documentary that her mother would often receive complaints about Strauss’s behavior from her male fencers.
Remenyik-Smith said Kevin Smith, her husband and former Ohio State fencer, told her he visited Strauss after his ear started bleeding. Instead of Strauss addressing Smith’s injury, Strauss told him to “drop his shorts.” He relayed the story to Remenyik, which led to her first complaint.
Remenyik-Smith said in the documentary that Remenyik would frequently take the athlete’s complaints to the Ohio State athletic department, year after year.
Each and every time, Remenyik said she was told the same thing—to show proof of Strauss’s abuse. Remnyik-Smith said no one was comfortable enough to come forward and share their story, and thus, nothing was done on the university’s end.
But Remenyik persisted until Strauss was no longer the team’s physician. Strauss was not removed from any other team, the documentary states.
Dr. John Lombardo, Ohio State’s former director of sports medicine from 1990-2004, supervised Strauss from 1993-95. The documentary included a 2019 interview with Lombardo, conducted by attorneys as part of the investigation.
A November 7, 1994 letter written by Lombardo stated, “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 10 years with no foundation.”
Lombardo said in the documentary that he does not remember speaking with any fencers, trainers or coaches about Strauss’s behavior, and he does not remember any other faculty reaching out either.
Al Novakowski, an Ohio State hockey player from 1987-88, was another survivor of Strauss’ abuse. Despite telling his coach about the “weird” behavior Strauss was portraying, his coach told him not to worry.
However, Strauss’ constant sexual abuse played a toll on Novakowski, causing him to have outbursts and lose a passion for a sport he had been playing his whole life. Novakowski said he was then cut by the team and lost his full scholarship.
These sports are few of many in which Strauss had inappropriate, close connections. In the documentary, it is stated that Strauss had a locker in several different male athlete locker rooms, such as wrestling, football, gymnastics and fencing. There were a total of 15 or 16 sports that Strauss had access to the men’s locker rooms.
Strauss was also a “pioneer in steroids,” publishing several academic articles about performance-enhancing drugs. Jon Wertheim, a Sports Illustrated reporter whose coverage of the scandal inspired the film, said in the documentary that multiple sources told him Strauss was administering and distributing steroids to the athletes.
Adam Disabato, former Ohio State wrestler from 1988-93, said he was brought in to receive a B12 shot.
“I mean, I’d done B12 shots before, but this was different. It was right before like, Big Tens and nationals,” Disabato said in the documentary. “They said it was B12, but I don’t think it was B12. I thought it might’ve been some testosterone.”
Wertheim said in the documentary that he believes both the athletes and coaches had reasoning behind not disclosing Strauss’s administration of steroids.
“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,” Wertheim said. “And obviously, think about it — if you’re the coach, and you know that the doctor is distributing steroids to your athletes … wouldn’t you be reluctant to turn on that team doctor?”
The university
Lombardo was one of a few university employees that failed to properly address the concerns of Strauss’ conduct, according to the documentary.
After the initial complaint by Remenyik was denied, based on “rumors,” no other complaints were brought up to the university until the mid-90s. That is when Stephen Snyder-Hill was sexually assaulted by Strauss in the Student Health Center.
When Snyder-Hill went to Student Life to complain about his experience, Dr. Ted W. Grace, the then director of Ohio State’s student health services from 1992-2007, assured him that there have been no complaints about Strauss to the university before.
Not only was this incorrect due to previous reports put into the university to the athletic department from Remenyik, but three days prior to Snyder-Hill’s report, another student complained.
Snyder-Hill dropped any potential charges to the university since he believed what Grace had not only told him, but wrote him. Grace denied knowing any information about the previous complaint when he wrote the letter to Snyder-Hill.
Despite these complaints, the university never fired Strauss. He was suspended from seeing patients after an investigation into the complaints in 1996 but remained a faculty member in Ohio State’s School of Public Health.
Strauss voluntarily retired in 1998, honored by the university with Professor Emeritus status. This status has since been revoked, according to a press release from the university.
Ohio State did not have any participation in this film, declining the filmmakers’ request for an interview with a member of their Board of Trustees.
“Ohio State led the effort to investigate and expose Richard Strauss, and we express our deep regret and apologies to all who experienced Strauss’ abuse,” Johnson said in a statement.
