NFLHS.com will introduce you to some of high school football's greatest names during the 2005 season. Every week we will feature a different player or coach from a different era. Some of them have gone on to greatness in the NFL - all the way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even - but others have remained at the high school level, staying true to their calling.
We hope you enjoy these stories - if you'd like to share your own legend of high school football with us, please email it to nflhs@nfl.com.
By Dave Krider, NFLHS.com
Thoughts of Central Park bring back many memories - some good, some bad - to Merlin Olsen.
"I was always the last one chosen for football games in Central Park," Olsen said during a recent interview. The park was across the street from his home in Logan, Utah and he spent countless hours there as a youngster.
Despite the frustration of youth pickup football games, the 65-year-old Olsen was quick to add, "I loved that park. It was one of the reasons I ended up being a success in football. I ice-skated so much that I developed very powerful legs. I had a hockey puck and stick - the only ones in town. I definitely would have played hockey ahead of football (had it been available)."
His mother, Merle, still lives in that same house, purchased in 1945. And - by the way - the park since has been renamed Merlin Olsen Park.
Olsen's athletic frustration continued through junior high, as he was cut from the football and basketball teams in both eighth and ninth grade.
His sophomore year at Logan High, which housed 500 students in three grades, was filled with revelation and elation - he made the JV football squad. "My coordination finally caught up with me," he explained. "It was kind of exciting for me, because I hadn't made any teams in junior high. I was really uncoordinated in my early days. I'd fall down walking on a flat sidewalk," he exaggerated.
Except for three games at tight end, the lanky 165-pounder was anchored at left tackle on offense and defense. And that's where he stayed for his entire high school and college career.
Asked about his greatest game, Olsen replied, "In my mind (it was) the first one I ever played. I was so excited. I probably pumped a gallon of adrenaline that day. I bet I made close to 20 tackles because nobody on either side knew what they were doing."
With added confidence, Olsen decided to try out for basketball following the football season. However, there was a week before tryouts started, so he elected to try out first for the swim team. "I just wanted to be an athlete," he confessed.
"The basketball coach cut me within two days, so I was back in the pool," Olsen related. "I was the first one in the wall after the first 25 yards, but the last one out because I didn't have a flip turn." Still, he was the team's best sprinter and swam the 50-yard freestyle.
 |
Merlin Olsen
Photo courtesy NFHS |
As a junior, Olsen served as swim captain and placed fourth in the state 50-yard freestyle.. As a senior he did not return to the swim team because he finally made the basketball squad. As he put it, "To me, nobody cared about swimming and you could draw a crowd for basketball."As a junior, in the fall of 1956, Olsen moved up to the varsity football team. "After a few games I knew I was going to be able to compete," he noted. "But the most exciting thing was just realizing I was going to be part of a team. The idea of being a star never crossed my mind."
But he did, indeed, become a star, helping Logan win its first eight games and reach the Class A state-championship game. The dreamy year ended, though, with a disappointing 34-6 loss to Salt Lake City East. Olsen was quite surprised when he was named to the All-State team.
Olsen almost started a riot in the state-title game when he "leaped across the line and grabbed the facemask of the quarterback. It was the early advent of facemasks and they hadn't outlawed grabbing them. Their quarterback was very popular and it infuriated the crowd. They were about ready to come out on the field after me."
He played his senior year at 6-5 and 205 pounds, but by the following spring he was up to 220 pounds. Besides repeating as an All-State selection, he was named to the 11th annual Wigwam Wisemen of America high school All-American team and played in the All-American Prep Classic in Memphis.
Meanwhile, Olsen displayed his versatility in many other areas. He made the basketball team as a senior and even though he fouled out of his first game in four and a half minutes, he wound up making all-region. "It took me awhile to realize that basketball wasn't football," he chuckled.
In track he threw the shot put and discus and ran the low hurdles a few times. His claim to fame was winning the regional shot put. "The No. 1 guy had a very bad day and I had a very good day," he analyzed. "We tied (at a little over 47 feet). We ended up flipping a coin and I won."
You name it - Olsen was in it. He and partner Kip Thorne (now an astrophysicist) placed second in the state in debate as seniors. He sang in the choral group for two years. He was commander of the ROTC rifle team as a senior. He was in the school play and opera. Oh, and he also had nearly a straight-A average in the classroom.
"He was a man among boys and his brother Phil was the same way," recalls Gil Brandt, longtime Dallas Cowboys vice president and director of player personnel. "He was around 245 pounds (in college) and that's about equal to a 310-pounder now. He was the talk of everybody out in the west. He had tremendous athletic ability and running back speed."
The kid who couldn't make his junior high team was overwhelmed by 150 college scholarship offers. He spurned hometown Utah State in favor of the University of California. However, just before he was to leave for fall practice, he was informed by telephone that his scholarship would not be available until the second semester.
Olsen had just returned from working at Yellowstone Park and was lonesome for his friends. He decided to follow many of them and enroll at Utah State. The campus was just one and one-half miles from his home and he had been attending games there since he was six years old. In fact, he often had sold concessions there - just to get into the games free.
"I always watched the games, so I didn't sell much soda pop," he laughed.
The day after he enrolled at Utah State, Olsen received another call from the University of California. He was told that in the mixup, he had been listed for an academic scholarship instead of one for football. His football scholarship was good to go.
"I had made a commitment and I wasn't going to go back on it," Olsen told the caller. "He went ballistic. Twenty-five years later I told the story to Pete Elliott (Cal coach at the time) and he got red. The color drained out of his face."
Olsen's football career grew one layer at a time, but the college portion began rather unpleasantly on the freshman team at Utah State. "Our coach was absolutely out of his head," Olsen feels. "He must have read Bear Bryant's book. We had 78 players out. The first day 35 quit (he missed the first day hunting elk). Twenty quit the second day. We ended with 17 players. It was pretty depressing."
By the time Olsen played his last year (1961), he was acclaimed the finest college lineman, winning the Outland Trophy. He was a two-time All-American and a three-time Academic All-American, finishing with a 3.79 scholastic average for four years. He also was one of just six to be named an NCAA Scholar Athlete.
Olsen's most embarrassing day at Utah State came the week of a big game at arch rival University of Utah. He forgot his football shoes and had to run through an entire practice "in my oxfords."
An absolutely brilliant 15-year NFL career (1962-76) followed with the Los Angeles Rams. "Most exciting for me was to make the Pro Bowl in 14 of 15 years," Olsen said. Only a hamstring injury kept him from making it his final year.
Playing at around 275 pounds most of the time, Olsen teamed with Deacon Jones, Rosey Grier and Lamar Lundy to form the famed Fearsome Foursome. "Our whole philosophy was to intimidate the quarterback," he noted. "We were able to do it very effectively. We were pioneers. People still recognize us as, maybe, the best defensive line of all time."
Olsen missed a mere two games during his entire career. "I probably played hurt a lot more times than I should have," he confessed. "Team doctors' jobs those days (when he was in the NFL) were to keep you on the field. Early we only had 39 guys on our roster (with the Rams). The result was you didn't come off the field."
When Chuck Knox took over as Rams coach, he wanted his players to lift weights. It was pretty foreign to most players at that time. Each player was to tell the trainer how much he could bench press. "I just wrote, 'I do not lift weights' and signed my name. But I was captain and should have set the example. I would go in and lift with the team. I would lift a minimum of weights. Mine was natural physical strength. I always thought quickness and agility were much more important."
He had one major injury that required knee surgery. He missed the two games due to a severe ankle injury and also once hurt his shoulder. He finally had a knee replaced in November 2004. "It kept me off skis last winter," he lamented.
When Olsen announced that his 15th year would be his final one, he was asked by Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom to play two more seasons. Olsen has planned to go into television broadcasting, but he did not know that Rosenbloom had told the networks not to negotiate with him. Finally, a call to Howard Cosell revealed what had been going on behind the scenes.
Eventually he did convince his owner that it was time to retire and Olsen then launched a highly-successful 15-year career in broadcasting (13 with NBC and two with CBS), during which he did five Super Bowls.
The longevity honors have followed. He made the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982 and the National High School Hall of Fame in 1987. He has been named to all-time college and pro teams and his 14 Pro Bowl selections still are No. 1 all-time.
But this man of many talents wasn't satisfied with his greatness in sports.
He starred as Jonathan Garvey for five years on NBC's popular Little House on the Prairie. He followed with the lead role in Father Murphy for two years and also had the lead role for one year in Aaron's Way.
In addition, he has been national Spokesman for FTD since 1982 and is in his fourth year as national spokesman for the National Association for the Self-Employed. He also is a motivational speaker for around 80 Fortune 500 companies.
He does many community and fund-raising projects for charities.
When he has time, Olsen loves to ski, fish, travel and read. "I've caught fish as big as I am (he now weighs 255 pounds)," he laughed. "I've caught marlin close to 300 pounds."
From a family of nine, Olsen has two brothers (Phil and Orrin) who also played in the NFL.
Olsen lives in Park City, Utah, about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City. "I can ski out of my back door," he says proudly.
Being called a legend today makes it all the more sweet to a guy who always was the last one chosen for pickup games at Central Park.
NEXT WEEK'S LEGEND: Mel Renfro, Portland, Ore., Jefferson RB-QB.
PREVIOUS LEGENDS:
Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Legends of HS Football: Merlin Olsen
Here are the latest players to update their journals:
