EDITOR’S NOTE: The Knox County Sports Hall of Fame inducted its inaugural class on Nov. 2, 2019 at the Knox County Historical Society. Seven local athletic legends made up the first class of inductees. Knox Pages reporter Grant Pepper helped research each inductee in preparation for the ceremony. This week, we will run stories based on that research. Pepper used resources like Newspapers.com, the world’s largest online newspaper archive, to collect statistics, quotes and anecdotes pertaining to each athlete.

No athlete made Fredericktown prouder than the late, great Ollie Cline. Standing 6-foot and weighing 200 pounds, Cline was nothing short of dominant in his time as a fullback at Fredericktown High School and Ohio State University.

Cline, a 1944 Fredericktown graduate, starred on three undefeated Freddie football teams from 1941-1943. He is perhaps most famous for a night his junior year when he ran for seven touchdowns and kicked two extra points in Fredericktown’s 79-6 win over Mount Gilead.

The performance made newspapers across the state, as Cline battled for the individual scoring title that year with Paulding’s Bob Lucas.

Cline took Fredericktown to new heights during his time at the school. One Loudonville resident described Cline’s dominance to an Ohio newspaper during his Ohio State days:

“Fredericktown was the doormat of the league until Ollie came along,” the man said. “He was personally responsible for Fredericktown beating several Class A schools last year, among which was Bucyrus, 35-0, and Mount Vernon, about 65-0.”

Cline finished second in the state in scoring his junior and senior seasons. His senior year, he had a realistic shot of winning the title, but he chose an entirely different – and altogether shocking – path. The Freddies were set to battle Bellville in late October, and Cline was only one point behind Sidney’s Dick Flanagan for the individual scoring lead entering the game.

Late in the fourth quarter, Cline took a handoff and raced 60 yards up the field. But once he reached the two-yard-line, he stopped and grounded the ball. The next play, Cline traded places with Buck Jones, the team’s center, who had never scored a touchdown. Cline snapped the ball to Jones and cleared a wide hole for him to burst into the end zone.

Cline did not score a touchdown that game – Fredericktown had vowed to take it easy on Bellville, which had barely fielded a team that year – and even when the senior had a golden opportunity to take the state’s scoring lead, he chose to let a teammate have the spotlight.

“Ollie lost the scoring championship that year by a matter of a couple of points,” Cline’s wife Jennie told reporters years later, “but that was a fine thing he did for Jones.”

Cline was named second-team all-Ohio his senior season at Fredericktown, and went on to have a legendary career at Ohio State. He started at fullback his freshman season in 1944, and his blocking helped Les Horvath become the school’s first Heisman Trophy winner.

The Buckeyes went undefeated that year and won the Big Ten championship; Cline was named all-conference, a rare honor for a freshman.

Cline set Ohio State’s single-season rushing record his sophomore year. He ran for 229 yards in a game against Pittsburgh, the most in a single game in school history. That record stood for 27 years, until Archie Griffin came along and broke it.

Cline was simply unstoppable his sophomore season, earning all-conference and All-America honors. Through eight games and 162 carries, he had only been stopped for a loss once. A reporter in the Dayton Herald described Cline’s running style like this:

“The opposition could not be sure just where he would run. A quick starting back with a world of drive, he was tough to stop up the middle … and when the enemy ganged up to stop him there, he went outside.”

Cline’s college career was interrupted in 1946 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve in World War II. He returned to Columbus in 1947 for his junior season and played sparingly in eight games, running for 332 yards and two touchdowns.

Cline chose to forgo his senior year at Ohio State to play for former Buckeye coach Paul Brown and the Cleveland Browns. Cline played backup to Marion Motley in 1948 as the Browns went undefeated and won the All-America Football Conference championship. It marked Cline’s fifth undefeated season on three teams – Fredericktown, Ohio State and the Cleveland Browns.

Cline went on to play for the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions before retiring from football. He earned a master’s degree in education from Wittenberg University and spent his professional career in the classroom, teaching at school districts across the state, including Mount Vernon for a brief period of time.

He became the principal of North Union High School and was named Dean of Men at Urbana College. He also served as a coach and an athletic director during his professional tenure.

Cline passed away in 2001, but not before Fredericktown proclaimed Jan. 20, 2001 as “Ollie Cline Day.” He was voted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame and named to the OSU All-Century Team that same year.