Dustin Fox takes break from 92.3 The Fan, shares Luncheon Club podium with brother Derek

CANTON TWP. − The Fox brothers held court Monday with a crowd that knows them like family.

Derek Fox, 46, and Dustin Fox, 41, regaled the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club with tales of famous people, and Derek beating up Dustin.

Derek, whose business career is related to knee replacements, has been out of the public sports eye for a while.

Dustin is a sports talk host who had to leave Tozzi's on 12th to make Monday's show on 92.3 The Fan. He shook hands all the way to the door as his brother wrapped up.

Dustin commented on the Cleveland Cavaliers playoff struggles: "What the hell is going on with these guys?"

The former GlenOak High School standouts appeared on the heels of NFL draft weekend, in which the Browns' top pick was No. 54 overall.

Often in past drafts, the Browns chose near the top.

Taking defensive end Courtney Brown with one of their No. 1 overall picks was bad luck, not a bad pick, Derek Fox believes.

"He was a really, really scary person on a football field," Derek said. "He just had some unfortunate injuries."

Derek's roommates at Penn State included three players drafted in 2000: Brown (No, 1 overall, Browns), linebacker LaVar Arrington (No. 2 overall, Washington), and cornerback David Macklin (No. 91 overall, Washington)."

Brown played every game as a Browns rookie but missed 28 games the next three years.

"We had so many guys going in the draft in my class," Derek Fox said. "Every owner, every GM, every coach was there our senior year pro day, which helped at least get me a free agent contract."

Fox said Brown was "the best of the best of the best" as a player and a person.

"If someone would say my daughter is dating Courtney Brown, you would say, 'He's a standup act,'" Fox said. "He's always so caring and genuine. I get goosebumps when I talk about him."

In the 1990s, Derek amazed GlenOak basketball followers with his leaping. He dunked with ease at 5-foot-10. He had game.

"To me, he was the greatest basketball player I've ever seen," Dustin said. "If he was five inches taller, he would have been in the league."

Derek recalled a basketball game against McKinley.

"Che Bryant was on that team," he said. "Their star, Mike McLeod, was coming at me. I could see in his eyes he wanted to dunk.

"He went up. I grabbed the ball and put it right up against the backboard. The place went nuts. (Ohio State head coach) John Cooper was there. (Assistant) Lovie Smith was there. All of a sudden my phone starts lighting up for football."

Dustin jumped like his brother.

Football was the family business. Both brothers are in the Stark County High School Football Hall of Fame.

Derek was a Penn State senior in 1999 when the Nittany Lions at one point were 9-0 and ranked No. 2, with a win over Ohio State.

Dustin was an Ohio State sophomore in 2002 when the Buckeyes won the national championship.

The brothers are from a football family.

Their uncle Mark Stier was a linebacker and captain at Ohio State on the 1968 team that won a national title. Stier stopped O.J. Simpson short of the goal line at a key Rose Bowl moment.

Their uncle Tim Fox was a first-round draft pick out of Ohio State in 1976.

The family's Buckeye connections made it odd that Derek landed at Penn State.

Part of the reason was head coach Joe Paterno being the first to offer a scholarship. Part was liking assistant coach Greg Schiano.

Derek was being recruited while his girlfriend (now his wife), Tara Farnsworth, was pregnant with their child. Derek recalled Paterno attending one of his GlenOak basketball games while Tara concidentally was going into labor.

Paterno halted a postgame conversation with Fox to say, "Get over to the hospital."

Derek and Tara married while he was a Penn State student. Brother Dustin said State College was a better place for Derek than Columbus would have been.

"He needed Penn State," Dustin said.

"My brother was my hero," Dustin said in another part of his talk. "He was hard on me."

Dustin recalled being 11, coming home from a practice with his youth team, the Cougars.

Afterward, a "Coach Church" called him "soft."

"We got home and Derek said, 'Put your pads on,'" Dustin said. "I did, and he knocked the living crap out of me in our yard."

Derek throwing a wrench at Dustin is a backyard scene too complex to fit here.

Dustin became a big Penn State fan while watching his brother. Family history helped lead him to commit to Ohio State, but then Cooper was fired.

"I decomitted from Ohio State and committed to Joe Paterno," Dustin said.

He let his brother finish.

"It was a winter Monday when Jim Tressel got the job," Derek said. "It was when he said the Buckeyes were going to beat Michigan in 300 and however many days.

"Jim Tressel called our house that night."

From there it was a full-court press by the Buckeyes, including a convincing family visit.

"Dustin looked at me and said, 'What should I do?'" Derek said. "I said, 'You're coming to Ohio State, but I'm not calling Joe. You are.'"

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Fan radio host Dustin Fox talks Ohio State football at Luncheon