Ladies and gentlemen, meet Northwestern's newest NCAA champion.
He's a 285-pound behemoth who won 29 of the 30 matches he wrestled this season. He's a two-time All-American who has helped resurrect a moribund program. And he's a frat boy. On the surface, he's the archetypical jock.
Except instead of being "to cool for school," he's as friendly as they come. Except he'd rather talk to you in Mandarin Chinese than "Dude" speak. Except he sports long, shaggy hair, sometimes dyed blond, instead of a buzz cut.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Dustin Fox.
The Sig Ep senior epitomizes the term student-athlete. He's RTVF by day, TKO by night. He loves animé almost as much as he loves beating Ohio State's J.D. Bergman, whom he defeated in the regular season, the Big Ten Championships, and the NCAA final.
And he has filled the Jake Herbert-sized void in our hearts.
No disrespect to Herbert, but when the defending NCAA champion left to train for the Olympics, it hurt. Sure, it was cool to think that a Wildcat might bring a gold medal back to campus. But he left behind a school yearning for a new Big Man On Campus.
Football and basketball has its share of stars, but no one, well, Big enough. Basketball has no one taller than 6-foot-8. Football's biggest star, running back Tyrell Sutton, is a mere 190 pounds.
So the task fell squarely on Fox's gargantuan shoulders. Ranked No. 1 going into the season by several wrestling magazines, the heavyweight was expected to win an NCAA title.
The task might have overwhelmed a smaller man (no pun intended), but Fox is used to it by now. Ever since he arrived at NU as the top-ranked prep heavyweight in the nation, the senior has dealt with the burden of high expectations.
Time and time again, he has risen to the challenge.
First, he helped turn a last-place program into a perennial contender in the country's toughest conference. While Herbert dominated the headlines with his run to the national title, Fox quietly finished seventh in last year's NCAA championships, helping propel the Cats to a school record fourth-place finish.
2008 Woodie Awards
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