Ohio
Former Ohio State football players to join a sexual abuse lawsuit against the school
Thirty former Ohio State football players, including some former NFL players, have agreed to join a federal lawsuit against the university over the sexual abuse of student athletes decades ago by a team doctor, a lawyer in the case said Thursday.
The lawyer, Rocky Ratliff, said in an interview that the men came forward some eight years after the first lawsuit was filed because they needed to overcome the shame of revealing that they’d been sexually abused by another man and the fear of taking on the university publicly.
They are “tearful and living with it,” Ratliff said. “But as this case progresses on, they see how Ohio State’s treating athletes from the university and I think they want people to know it’s OK, even if it is male to male (sexual abuse), to come forward.”
Ohio State has fought lawsuits in federal court since 2018 brought by former student athletes against the university over its failure to stop abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss. Hundreds say they were abused by Strauss, who worked at the school from 1978 to 1998. He died in 2005.
The men have signed letters of agreement to join a lawsuit filed by other student-athletes who say they are victims of Strauss, Ratliff said.
Of the 30, only three have agreed to make their identities public, Ratliff said. They are Al Washington, Ray Ellis and Keith Ferguson, he said. All were members of the 1980 Rose Bowl team and were recruited by and played for legendary coach Woody Hayes.
Some other former football players have settled with the school in sealed agreements that kept their names a secret, Ratliff said.
In a statement, Ohio State said it has “sincerely and persistently tried to reconcile with survivors, including former football student-athletes, through monetary and non-monetary means, including settlements, counseling services and other medical treatment.”
As of April 15, the university has settled with 317 survivors for more than $61 million, and is remains actively engaged in mediation, the school said.
In an interview, Washington said it was hard to talk about the abuse he suffered and recalled being subjected to “unlawful” physical exams by Strauss when he was 18 or 19. He and the other players tried to make light of it with each other and joke about it.
“But it was really uncomfortable,” said Washington, now 67.
He didn’t discuss it with others over the decades, but watching the 2025 documentary film “Surviving Ohio State” put it back into his thoughts.
“As a matter of fact, I couldn’t make it through that movie,” Washington said. “The pain and anguish that I saw, I just couldn’t take it.”
Strauss was on the faculty and medical staff and Ohio State. He retired in 1998 with emeritus status. School trustees revoked that mark of honor three years ago.
Washington was drafted in 1981 by the New York Jets and played one season for the team. Ellis, a former defensive back, had a seven-year NFL career from 1981 to 1987, playing with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns. Ferguson, a former defensive end, played in the NFL from 1981 to 1990, including stints with the San Diego Chargers and the Detroit Lions.
Ohio
After months of traffic headaches, Ohio, Ontario bridges in and out of Chicago to finally reopen
After more than a year of major congestion, lane closures and traffic bottlenecks in and out of downtown Chicago from the Kennedy Expressway, two major connecting ramps from the Kennedy to River North are finally set to reopen.
Lanes on the Ohio and Ontario Street feeder bridges, which bring Kennedy drivers into the city at Ohio and out of the city at Ontario, started reopening with three lanes each Thursday morning, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. That’s up from the narrow two that has caused major traffic headaches since Nov. 2024.
As of 5:30 a.m. Thursday, IDOT was still working to finish its final overnight “punch list” for the Ohio Street bridge going east, NBC 5 traffic reporter Kye Martin said. By 6 a.m., things were clear, with new pavement markings set and traffic barricades removed.
“Haven’t been able to say that since November 2024,” Martin said.
Thursday night, Ontario street will be closed from Orleans to the Kennedy Expressway in order to finish final work westbound. By 5 a.m. Friday, the Ontario Street feeder to the outbound Kennedy was expected to fully reopen, IDOT said.
The end of the construction means drivers on Thursday will have three lanes eastbound on Ohio open from the Kennedy to Orleans. Friday morning, three lanes open westbound on Ontario between Orleans and the Kennedy.
“This will ease the bottleneck that was caused by having only 2 lanes and off-peak closures during the duration of this effort,” Martin said.
“The public can expect delays and should allow extra time for trips through this area,” IDOT said, as the closures come to an end and reopening begins. “Alternate routes are encouraged. Drivers are urged to pay close attention to flaggers and signs in the work zones, obey the posted speed limits and be on the alert for workers and equipment.”
The $15.4 million project “replaced bridge expansion joints, structural steel and deck repairs along with the installation of a new deck overlay and resurfacing on the elevated bridges,” IDOT said. It was a separate project from the three-year rehabilitation of the Kennedy Expressway that concluded last fall.
As the highly anticipated reopening comes, more work on the bridges is still needed, IDOT said, with concrete paving patching to repair both ramps to each bridge set to occur later this summer. That work will require a “full closure” over three weekends, alternating between Ohio and Ontario streets between the Kennedy and Orleans.
Top headlines of the week, May 22 2026
Here are some stories you may have missed this week in central Ohio.
Less than 100 protesters gathered at the Ohio Statehouse on May 27 to protest legislation that would criminalize certain drag shows.
Individual organizers, as well as Ohio 50501 and Ohio Equal Rights, organized the demonstration, said Logan Moon, one of the organizers. Some of the attendees were dressed in drag and donned bright colored face paint, colorful clothing, and high heels as requested in the protest announcement. One of the attendees also had a drum.
As with other protests in Columbus, members of the Columbus Division of Police Dialogue Team stayed on the periphery of the demonstration. Troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol also watched from a distance as one of the organizers led chants criticizing state lawmakers.
The protest was in response to Ohio House Bill 249, which would criminalize certain drag performances anywhere but adult entertainment facilities if they’re deemed obscene or harmful to children. It also changes the definition of public indecency, with an exception for women who are breastfeeding.
The Ohio House voted to pass the legislation 63-30 on March 25. It is now before the Ohio Senate, where no hearings have been scheduled yet. Republicans control both chambers of the General Assembly.
Moon, 24, said Ohio HB 249, and hundreds of other bills throughout the country targeting transgender people, are an example of “genocide” against trans people in the country.
Moon said she was disappointed by the low turnout at the May 27 protest, saying it was an example of the apathy of the general public.
After one of the organizers led a series of chants, protesters marched at least once around the Ohio Statehouse. There were no counterprotesters in attendance.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
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