Football factory? Basketball powerhouse? Well, let’s see. The football Buckeyes have claimed eight national championships: 1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002, and 2014. Impressive. And basketball? Just the one in 1960. Ten Final Fours and four runner-up finishes. Pretty good. But neither of these sports comes close to the records that Ohio State swimming and diving coach Mike Peppe achieved during his tenure from 1931-1962.
Peppe graduated from Ohio State in 1927 and became the university’s first swimming and diving coach. Unsurprisingly, it took him a few years to get the program really going, and his primary competition was that team up north.