UFC legend Mark Coleman has broken his silence about the horrific sexual abuse he and hundreds of other Ohio State University athletes endured at the hands of Dr. Richard Strauss, the university’s former team physician.
Coleman, a two-time UFC Hall of Famer, first UFC heavyweight champion, and Pride Grand Prix tournament winner, recently appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show alongside Mike DiSabato, the first whistleblower in the case, to discuss their experiences and the upcoming HBO documentary “Surviving Ohio State.”
Years of Systematic Abuse
Coleman transferred to Ohio State in 1986 and won an NCAA wrestling championship in 1988. He first encountered Dr. Strauss during his initial physical examination.
“It was a joke going around… people were saying stuff to me like ‘have fun in there,'” Coleman recalled. “I didn’t understand it either, but I kind of knew… Doc Strauss was very hands-on.”
DiSabato, who attended Ohio State from 1987 to 1991, first met Strauss when he was just 14 years old. He described how the abuse was normalized within the athletic department.
“It was a joke within our community, within the locker room, that Strauss performed unnecessary genital exams on all of us all the time,” DiSabato explained. “At the time, in 1986, we didn’t know what we know now to be grooming and sexual abuse. We just thought it was some dude that was not right.”
The Whistleblower Moment
The case gained momentum in December 2017 when Coleman was reading about the Larry Nassar abuse scandal at Michigan State. DiSabato had a realization: “That’s us, Mark.”
In March 2018, DiSabato became the whistleblower, approaching Ohio State officials about the decades of abuse. This led to an investigation that identified 177 victims who came forward, though the actual number is believed to be in the thousands.
“I was the whistleblower. Proud of it,” DiSabato stated firmly.
A Toxic Environment
Beyond Dr. Strauss’s examinations, the athletes described a horrific environment at Larkins Hall, the facility where they trained. The locker rooms were open to the public, creating what DiSabato called “a gauntlet of sexual deviancy.”
“Our locker room was open to the public and it wasn’t just Strauss. The whole facility was filled every day with predators,” Coleman explained. “They would be waiting in the showers, waiting in the sauna. The wrestlers were their favorite.”
Strauss, who worked at Ohio State from 1978 to 1998, had unprecedented access to athletes. DiSabato noted,
“He had a locker in our locker room, he had a locker in the gymnast locker room, he had a locker in the swimmer’s locker room. He literally spent his day going from one locker room to the next.”
Political Complications
The case became politically charged when Congressman Jim Jordan, a former assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State, was implicated. Coleman and DiSabato assert that Jordan knew about Strauss’s behavior, something Jordan has repeatedly denied.
“Jim Jordan’s either got dementia or he’s a liar,” Coleman stated, though he later acknowledged he was “drinking back then” and “at close to rock bottom” when he first made these claims.
DiSabato was more measured but equally firm:
“Everyone knew. He knew Strauss was doing unnecessary genital exams, prostate exams. He knew he was taking showers twice a day.”
The Fight for Justice Continues
Dr. Strauss committed suicide in 2005, but the survivors’ fight for justice continues. While some victims have accepted settlements (averaging around $220,000), Coleman has refused.
“I’m not settling, and I’m going to keep fighting,” Coleman insisted. “I want to be paid for what happened.”
The case has moved slowly through the legal system, even reaching the Supreme Court at one point. Depositions are set to begin this month, with the first trial scheduled for next October if a settlement isn’t reached.
A Powerful Documentary
The HBO documentary “Surviving Ohio State,” produced by George Clooney, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and will be available on HBO and HBO Max starting June 17th. It promises to expose the full extent of the abuse and the institutional failures that allowed it to continue for decades.
Coleman hopes the documentary will raise awareness and prevent similar abuses in the future.
“The movie is coming out, which is going to be huge. Blow it up. It’s going to end this stuff,” he said.
Despite the painful memories, Coleman takes pride in coming forward:
“I’m just super proud because I know how many people I’ve helped by coming forward like this. This is a big deal. It wasn’t easy for me to come forward, but I decided to do it.”
For these survivors, the trauma continues long after the abuse ended. As DiSabato poignantly noted:
“The trauma that’s come after coming forward was a h-ll of a lot worse than the trauma of actually dealing with him.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCsgg48kfNg
