Four Kings: Rickey Dudley, John Frank, Jeremy Ruckert and Ben Hartsock Selected As Ohio State’s Greatest Tight Ends

The ninth installment of our 11-part Four Kings series takes a look at the best Buckeye tight ends ever.

Although Ohio State hasn’t had as many recent stars at tight end as it has at most positions, the four tight ends to make our “Mount Rushmore” represent each of the past four decades, with one honoree from the 1980s, one from the 1990s, one from the 2000s and one from the 2010s.

Which tight ends did Ohio State fans pick as the best to play the position for the scarlet and gray, who else garnered consideration from our voters and who would our staff writers have put on their own top four? We break down all of that below, starting with the four leading vote-getters in order of how many votes they received.

Rickey Dudley (1994-95)

Dudley started his Ohio State career as a basketball player and ended it as the Buckeyes’ most dynamic weapon ever at tight end.

Having already played for the basketball team for three years, Dudley joined the football team in 1994 and flashed his playmaking ability in his first season, catching nine passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns. With only two years of football eligibility remaining when he joined John Cooper’s squad, Dudley became a star in his second season on the gridiron, earning All-Big Ten honors after catching 37 passes for 575 yards and seven scores.

Dudley was so impressive in his short time as a football Buckeye that he became the first and still-only Ohio State tight end to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft, going to the then-Oakland Raiders with the No. 9 overall pick. His 575 receiving yards are the third-most ever for an Ohio State tight end in a single season, while his nine total touchdown catches are the fourth-most.

John Frank (1980-83)

Forty years after the end of his Ohio State career, Frank is still the school’s all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards (121 catches for 1,481 yards) by a tight end.

The only Ohio State tight end in the two-platoon era to earn team MVP honors, Frank is also the only OSU tight end since 1960 to earn All-Big Ten honors twice. A four-year contributor for the Buckeyes, Frank caught 45 passes in both the 1981 and 1983 seasons – a number that has only been topped once by any other Ohio State tight end (55 catches by Billy Anders in 1966).

A second-round pick in the 1984 NFL draft, Frank went on to win two Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, catching 65 passes for 662 yards and 10 touchdowns in five seasons before retiring from football to pursue a career in medicine, ultimately becoming a nationally renowned hair restoration specialist.

Jeremy Ruckert (2018-21)

The second-highest-rated tight end recruit to sign with Ohio State in the composite rankings era (behind only Louis Irizarry, who never caught a pass for the Buckeyes), Ruckert was regarded by Urban Meyer as the most talented tight end he ever recruited, and the Long Island native largely lived up to the hype.

While Ruckert never put up huge numbers – his 26 catches for 309 yards in 2021 were his career-highs – that was the product of an offensive system that didn’t prioritize throwing the ball to the tight end in the passing game. Even still, Ruckert caught 12 touchdown passes, the most ever for an Ohio State player who spent his entire career at tight end. (Jake Stoneburner is listed as Ohio State’s all-time leader in touchdown catches by a tight end with 13, but he played primarily at wide receiver in his senior season, when he caught four of those touchdowns.)

Also a strong blocker despite being best-known for his receiving ability, Ruckert finished his career with 54 total catches for 615 yards. He was selected by his hometown New York Jets in the third round of the 2022 NFL draft and is now entering his second season in the league.

Ben Hartsock (2000-03)

Despite finishing his Ohio State career 20 years ago, Hartsock remains the last Ohio State tight end to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors, receiving that recognition after catching 33 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns as a senior in 2003.

Best known for his blocking ability, Hartsock was also a starter on the 2002 national championship team, helping lead the way up front in the ground game while also catching 17 passes for 137 yards and two scores.

Ranking seventh all-time among Ohio State tight ends with 58 catches – the most of any Ohio State tight end since 2000 – Hartsock was selected in the third round of the 2004 NFL draft and went on to play in the league for 11 years, largely because of his blocking ability.

Honorable Mentions

The first tight end to miss the cut in the voting was Wes Fesler, who has a strong case for being among the top four himself. One of just eight three-time All-Americans in Ohio State history, Fesler was a star of a very different era of Ohio State football (1928-30) in which the tight end position was simply called end. A College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Fesler is perhaps best known for his four-year stint as Ohio State’s head coach from 1947-50.

Jeff Heuerman, a three-year starter for the Buckeyes who was the captain of the 2014 national championship team, finished sixth in the vote. Jan White, a member of the 1968 “Super Sophomores” who was an All-American and captain for the 1970 national championship team, received the seventh-most votes.

Stoneburner – the all-time leader in touchdown receptions (13) for an Ohio State player who primarily played tight end, as aforementioned – finished eighth in the balloting. Bruce Jankowski, another member of the 1968 and 1970 national championship teams who had the fifth-most career receptions (66) and third-most career receiving yards (967) for an OSU tight end, received the ninth-most votes. Nick Vannett, who was a key player alongside Heuerman on the 2014 national championship team, rounded out the top 10.

Dan’s Picks

John Frank, Rickey Dudley, Wes Fesler, Merle Wendt

Frank received my first vote as Ohio State’s most productive tight end ever, though I wasn’t surprised that Dudley ended up as the top choice. Even though his OSU football career was brief, he’s the player who Ohio State tight ends have been compared to ever since, as no Buckeye tight end over the past 27 years has quite matched his standard as a weapon over the middle.

I was surprised that Fesler missed the top four and that Wendt didn’t even make the top 10, considering that they were both three-time All-Americans, a feat achieved by only six other players in school history. It’s impossible to truly compare them to more recent players, considering Fesler played from 1928-30 and Wendt played from 1934-36, but the fact that they were both regarded by their peers at the time as one of the best players in the country for all three of their collegiate seasons is enough for me to feel both of them deserved a place among the Four Kings at tight end.

Matt’s Picks

John Frank, Wes Fesler, Merle Wendt, Rickey Dudley

Selecting Ohio State’s career record holder for receptions and receiving yards by a tight end, the two players who combined for six All-American and six All-Big Ten honors and Ohio State’s only player selected in the first round of the NFL Draft made this week an easy proposition.

The only difficulty was leaving Jan White off of the list. Not because he was an All-American, captain and national champion with the Buckeyes, but because of the person he is. My son (six at the time) and I met Mr. White at the Hawai’i game in 2015. It was an encounter I will never forget.

Mr. White is one of the most genuine, caring and positive people I have ever met. He took the time to talk to my son and ask him questions. Mr. White let my boy wear his championship ring. He made a little kid he didn't know, feel like a million bucks. Mr. White is a class act.

Photos of Rickey Dudley, John Frank and Ben Hartsock via Ohio State Dept. of Athletics