1. Eugene H Fekete was an American football fullback and linebacker who played for the Cleveland Browns for one season in the All-America Football Conference before launching a coaching and education career.
25 Facts About Gene Fekete
1. 2.
Gene Fekete graduated and enrolled at Ohio State University in 1941.
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Gene Fekete's career cut short by a bad knee, Fekete went on to serve as an assistant football coach at Ohio State for 10 years.
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Gene Fekete then got a degree in educational administration and was the principal of two high schools and two middle schools in Columbus, Ohio before he retired in 1975.
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Gene Fekete was inducted into Ohio State's Varsity "O" Hall of Fame in 1998.
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Gene Fekete was born to Hungarian immigrants who settled in Findlay, Ohio in the early 1900s.
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Gene Fekete played on Ohio State's freshman team in 1941, and moved to the varsity team under coach Paul Brown the following year.
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Gene Fekete was selected as a third-team All-American and was on the second-team of United Press's all-Big-Ten team.
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Gene Fekete was eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting, making him the first Ohio State player to finish in the top ten.
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Gene Fekete joined the US Army in 1943 and was sent to Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
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Gene Fekete competed in the annual College All-Star Game in 1944 despite not having played football or exercised regularly for a year.
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Gene Fekete was out of shape and reported late to practice because the army initially denied his request to participate.
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Gene Fekete's thesis was a manual for the US Air Force's conditioning program.
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Gene Fekete was selected by the Detroit Lions in the sixth round of the 1945 NFL draft.
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Gene Fekete signed instead with the Cleveland Browns, a team set to start play in the new All-America Football Conference in 1946.
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Gene Fekete ended his playing career and got married after the Browns won the AAFC championship in 1946, for which Fekete received an $833 bonus.
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Woody Hayes took over as Ohio State's head coach in 1951, and Gene Fekete remained on the staff until 1958.
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Gene Fekete coached running backs including Heisman Trophy winners Vic Janowicz and Howard "Hopalong" Cassady.
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Ohio State won two national championships while Gene Fekete was with the team, in 1954 and 1957.
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Frustrated at not getting a head coaching job in the college ranks and wanting to spend more time with his family and two sons, Gene Fekete left his Ohio State coaching job.
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Gene Fekete tried the insurance business, then became the coach of the Columbus team in the new minor-league United Football League, in 1961, but resigned the following year.
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Gene Fekete spent four years as a World History teacher and football coach at West High School in Columbus, Ohio.
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Gene Fekete then moved on to North High School in Columbus as an assistant principal, followed by Franklin and Starling middle schools before serving as principal of Briggs High School for 13 years.
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Gene Fekete retired from Briggs in 1975 and was elected to the Ohio State Men's Varsity "O" Hall of Fame in 1998.
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Gene Fekete died in 2011 at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus.