The new NCAA heavyweight champion is a Radio, Television and Film major who takes Mandarin Chinese, is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, has put in work for WNUR, and once sported shaggy bleach-blonde hair that made the 285-pounder even easier to spot in a crowd.
Yeah, you could call Dustin Fox unique. But you can also call him a national champion.
"It's a dream come true," Fox said after his championship match. "I'm sure everyone says that, but still."
Four years after enrolling at Northwestern as the country's top-ranked prep heavyweight, Fox has fulfilled all his expectations with a storybook senior season that included Big Ten and national titles. He also led the Wildcats to a 13th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
The heavyweight posted a 29-1 record this season, the last win coming over Ohio State's J.D. Bergman in a match that was as close as it was bloody.
In what Fox called one of the longest matches of his life, the two heavyweights battled until Fox scored a single-leg takedown in the second sudden-victory period for a 4-2 victory. Contributing to the length of the match were Fox's cut forehead and bleeding nose.
Despite his injuries and subsequent timeouts, when the match was stopped to stop Fox's bleeding, Fox retained his focus and eventually scored the clinching takedown to end the strategic, low-scoring match.
"I almost lost (my focus and composure) a lot of times, to be honest," Fox said. "My coaches kept me centered and told me to focus. They told me to not be upset about the amount of breaks because I was winning. I owe a lot of this national title to my coaches."
Coach Tim Cysewski called Fox's added maturity the biggest difference between this year and the rest of his career. Throughout the season, the senior has used his wealth of experience as an advantage over opponents.
But according to senior 197-pounder Mike Tamillow, the Big Ten runner-up and Fox's freshman-year roommate, growing up was not always something Fox wanted to do.
2008 Woodie Awards
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