Gene Fekete - College and Military Career

College and Military Career

Fekete played on Ohio State's freshman team in 1941, and moved to the varsity team under coach Paul Brown the following year. As a sophomore in 1942, Fekete scored two touchdowns in the team's first regular-season game, a 59–0 win over a Fort Knox military team. He scored another pair of touchdowns in Ohio State's second game, a 32–21 win over Indiana University. In a game against the University of Pittsburgh, he set an Ohio State record for the longest run from scrimmage, an 89-yard dash to the end zone. The record still stands. While Fekete's run was not recorded as a touchdown in Ohio State's record-books, a YouTube video shows him running into the end zone.

Fekete led the Big Ten Conference in scoring and rushing in 1942 as Ohio State amassed a 9–1 record and won its first-ever national title. Fekete was selected as a third-team All-American and was on the second team of United Press's all-Big-Ten team. Fekete also was eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting, making him the first Ohio State player to finish in the top ten.

Fekete joined the U.S. Army in 1943 and was sent to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. After a stint at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York to train as an engineer, he was sent to a recruitment center in Manhattan as an assistant psychologist. Fekete competed in the annual College All-Star Game in 1944 despite not having played football or exercised regularly for a year. He was out of shape and reported late to practice because the army initially denied his request to participate. On a handoff from quarterback Otto Graham in the team's first practice, he snapped ligaments in his left knee. After his discharge from the military, Fekete returned to Ohio State to finish out a master's degree in physical education. His thesis was a manual for the U.S. Air Force's conditioning program.