Gene Fekete

Who was Gene Fekete?

Eugene H. "Gene" Fekete was an American football fullback and linebacker who played for the Cleveland Browns for one season in the All-America Football Conference before launching a coaching and education career.

Fekete was from Findlay, Ohio, where he starred on several high school sports teams. He graduated and enrolled at Ohio State University in 1941. At Ohio State, he was part of a football team that won the school's first national championship in 1942. After serving in the U.S. Army for several years during World War II, Fekete returned to Ohio State to finish his education and played one year for the Browns, a new professional football team in the AAFC.

His career cut short by a bad knee, Fekete went on to serve as an assistant football coach at Ohio State for 10 years. He then got a degree in educational administration and was the principal of two high schools and two middle schools in Columbus, Ohio before he retired in 1975. He was inducted into Ohio State's Varsity "O" Hall of Fame in 1998. Fekete died in 2011.