Football’s J.T. Barrett, baseball’s Nick Swisher and women’s volleyball’s Danielle Meyer are among the nine former athletes being inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2026.
Details on when the class, which also includes Katie Borchers (women’s cross country/track and field), Jincy Dunne(women’s hockey), Oyesade Olatoye(women’s track and field), Chris Sanders(football/men’s track and field) and Stan White (football), will be officially inducted have yet to be announced. The school’s athletics hall of fame has inducted 510 former athletes, coaches and administrators through 2025.
Barrett, who played for the Buckeyes from 2014-17, started 44 games at quarterback and set the school record with 38 victories, including starting four wins over Michigan, while setting 39 individual school records. He finished among the top 10 Heisman Trophy vote-getters twice, and he is one of two Division I quarterbacks to have thrown at least 100 TD passes and rush for at least 40, joining Central Michigan’s Dan LeFeVour.
He’s one of three players with ties to the football program being inducted. White played for coach Woody Hayes from 1969-71, finishing his career with school records for career tackles, tackles in a season and tackles in a game. He also played for the baseball and men’s basketball programs.
Sanders earned Ohio State Male Athlete of the Year honors, across all sports, in 1994. That year, he caught 35 passes for 533 yards and a team-leading eight touchdowns on the gridiron and was a Big Ten champion in the 1994 outdoor 200m and 4x100m relay. A three-time first-team All-Big Ten pick in track and field, he was a 10-time All-American in four different events.
Similarly, Borchers earned her nomination for her contributions to two different programs from 2012-15. She is the only two-time cross country All-American in school history, was a first-team All-Big Ten pick in 2013 and second team in 2014 in track and field and was the 2015 Big Ten Medal of Honor winner.
In 1983, Dixon won the NCAA Outdoor 440-yard championship after winning the Big Ten 300-meter indoor championship earlier in the year and still holds the Jesse Owens Classic and Ohio Stadium records in the 200m and 400m. Years later, Olatoye was the 2019 NCAA Weight Throw Champion, earned nine NCAA first-team All-America honors and won seven Big Ten Championships from 2015-21.
She still holds the program records for the weight throw and hammer throw and ranks in the top five in program history in the discus throw (185’11”).
Dunne is the first two-time All-American in Ohio State women’s hockey history, a four-time captain from 2017-20 and the 2020 Ohio State Athlete of the Year after helping the Buckeyes win their first WCHA Final Faceoff Championship in school history.
From 2004-07, Meyer was a two-time All-American and a three-time All-Big Ten first-team selection from 2005-07 while leading the Buckeyes to three NCAA Tournament appearances. She is still fourth in program history in career kills (1,760) and is one of just five Buckeyes to record at least 1,500 kills.
Swisher was the 2000 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and went on to be a first-team all-conference pick in 2001 and 2002 before being taken in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft. He helped the Buckeyes win the 2002 conference tournament and is still in the top 10 in program history in career home runs (35), RBI (156) and walks (131).
The baseball stadium also bears his name, as it is known as Nick Swisher Field at Bill Davis Stadium.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: See the 9 former Buckeyes named to Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame
Reporting by Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
