Sampson of the gridiron

By Jeff Berkwits

If he didn’t already have a signature chant – “I-gor! I-gor!” – they might call him Sampson. Igor Olshansky, the enormous new rookie defensive lineman for the Chargers, didn’t even play football until he was 15. This fall, the Ukrainian native looks to be the first Jewish Bolt since Ron Mix.

  Though the media focuses on football’s high-profile positions like quarterback and halfback, sometimes other players unexpectedly fire the fans’ imagination. During the glory days of the Chargers, linebacker Junior Seau roused Bolts buffs with his masterful moves and “Say-Ow” mantra, but since he was traded to Miami there really hasn’t been an individual whose charisma has consistently inspired widespread admiration.

   Which was why the roar that went up at the Chargers minicamp last month was such a surprise. As the squad scrimmaged behind the team’s facility on Murphy Canyon Road, fans began spontaneously shouting “I-gor! I-gor!,” cheering on the team’s second-round draft pick, defensive lineman Igor Olshansky, as he mock-tackled opposing teammates. That respect extended after practice too, as Olshansky was still signing autographs well after stars like LaDainian Tomlinson and first-round draft pick Philip Rivers had already retired to the locker room.

   Such excitement doesn’t come as a surprise to Steve Greatwood, assistant coach for the University of Oregon Ducks. Until just a few months ago, Olshansky had been a leading defensive force on his team, shutting down a number of big-time running backs and firing up school spirit on and off the field.

   “He would make a big play here in our stadium, and the fans would chant his name, yelling ‘I-gor! I-gor!,’” recalls Greatwood. “He was the kind of player that would really get the crowd pumped up. He had this little ritual, flexing his muscles after a big play, which got everybody excited.... He’s an emotional player, the kind of player that’s a catalyst for both the guys that are on the field with him and the fans in the stands.”

   What’s likely less evident to Greatwood, and certainly to the crowd at large, is that 22-year-old Olshansky is also a catalyst for Jewish sports enthusiasts. Few Jewish football players ever make it to the pros, let alone someone like Olshansky, who didn’t play football until his teens, having emigrated with his family from the Ukraine to the United States in 1989. It’s a story that his agent, Leigh Steinberg, finds both puzzling and oddly inspirational.

   “Part of it may be that football is a violent sport with a high injury rate, or maybe it’s common sense, or just the protectiveness of their parents; I don’t know for sure,” he says. “To have come from the Ukraine, which as we know is in some ways the most anti-Semitic part of Russia... and then be able to make the transition and be productive in football is pretty incredible…. Igor is someone who has gone through the immigrant experience, who has had to overcome true adversity, and yet has maintained his Jewish identity.”

   “Being Jewish is very important to me, because that’s who I am,” says Olshansky, a polite, soft-spoken behemoth who, among numerous other tattoos, prominently sports a Star of David on each shoulder. “I got blue eyes and brown hair. Those things are a part of me, and being Jewish is also a part of me.”
Which is a surprise, considering that, when he came to the country at the age of seven, Olshansky knew almost nothing about religion or, for that matter, football. While their Russian passports identified the family as Jewish, Olshansky, his older sister Marina and their parents never went to synagogue or actively practiced their faith. All the same, while Olshansky doesn’t personally recall experiencing anti-Semitism, his father, who had served in the Red Army and worked as a butcher before arriving in America, knew that when his son grew up his educational and career opportunities would be extremely limited.

   “Nobody liked the Jewish people,” says Yury Olshansky, who still speaks with a thick Russian accent. “Now, I don’t know, maybe it’s different, but 20 or 25 years ago, for Jewish people there were lots of problems. Lots of kids, they go to high school and then [when they try to get into] college, it’s a lot of trouble. No college will touch you.”

   So he and his family moved to San Francisco where relatives of his wife, Alexandra, already lived. Igor and Marina attended the Hebrew Academy of San Francisco, while the JCC and other local organizations helped the Olshanskys establish a household, learn English and generally connect with the community. At the same time, Igor began to become interested in basketball, and the JCC provided him with his first opportunity to participate in organized sports. He ended up playing two years in the Maccabiah games, traveling to St. Louis and Milwaukee where he stayed with Jewish host families.

   His schooling at the Hebrew Academy began to solidify his budding Jewish identity, too. “It gave me a solid background of Jewish culture and history,” he says. “I could read Hebrew a little bit and, since you’d pray every morning, I could say a couple of prayers.”

   Nevertheless, as he approached his graduation from the Academy, Olshansky began to become less concerned with the classroom and more interested in developing his basketball skills. Already more than six feet tall, he was recruited by St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, which boasted a solid sports program.

   “Igor went and talked to the coach, and he said, ‘Why don’t you apply to the school?,’” remembers Marina. “It was a private Catholic school, which was kind of a dilemma, because we were a Jewish family. But apparently [the administrators] were very open-minded. My parents visited, and it looked like a very nice school.”

   Although the Jesuit culture at St. Ignatius was a bit of a culture shock for Olshansky, it also served as a priceless learning experience that expanded his knowledge of Catholicism and bolstered his appreciation for Judaism.

   “I went to mass and I’d go to churches, but I wasn’t forced to pray or act a certain way,” he says, admitting that, perhaps because of his already imposing size, he never experienced any prejudice and consistently “got respect” from his classmates. “I just observed and learned. I appreciate the culture, but I definitely get myself as Jewish.”

   After a year at St. Ignatius, 15-year-old Olshansky realized that he’d probably never develop into a star player, so he began thinking about trying out for the football squad. As he wrestled with that personal predicament, a chance meeting with one of the school’s former coaches helped him come to a decision.

   “I went to a game, and at half-time I had to go to the bathroom,” recalls Vince Tringali, who had coached St. Ignatius football during the 1960s and continued to follow the team. “I had two options, going right or left. I went left, and there was Igor. Now, I’d coached a lot of men and boys, and served in Korea, and I thought he was a man.... He was about 6’4”, 6’5”, weighed around 250, 260 pounds and was absolutely an Adonis. There wasn’t one bit of fat on him, and one of his legs made two of mine.

  Pointing to the football field, I asked him, ‘Why aren’t you out there?’ and he said, ‘I’m a basketball player.’ I told him, ‘Well, whoever told you that was lying.’”

  Tringali became a bit of a mentor and pushed him to take advantage of his size.
“I used to stand right by the base line and watch him play basketball,” chuckles Tringali. “And I told him, ‘Look, Igor, when you get to the base line, drive for the basket. It’ll be like Moses parting the Red Sea – the water will open up and there won’t be a soul in the way.’ One time he did it, and it was classic! He’s running down the base line, everybody got out of the way and he stuffed it. I said, ‘You see, it works!’”

   With encouragement from Tringali, Olshansky made the jump to football. By the following season he was a valued, though certainly not outstanding, member of the St. Ignatius squad. Even so, the switch from hoops to the gridiron didn’t occur without some resistance from Olshansky’s family.

   “Because he was tall, my dream was that he was supposed to play basketball,” says his father. “So it was a big surprise for me when he came home after school and said, ‘Pop, I am going to quit playing basketball and start football.’ I talked to him at that time and told him that football is not an easy game. I am worried to watch, because basketball and football are different games. And he said, ‘No pop, I want to play football.’ I said, ‘If you want it, try it.’ And right now I understand he’s supposed to play football because he’s big, he’s strong. It’s the best game for him.”

   Olshansky was not a prized prospect coming out of high school. He was named to a couple of all-area teams by local newspapers but was not heavily recruited. At the University of Oregon he spent his first season “red shirting,” or not playing, as he learned the intricacies of the game at the college level. The start of his second year was also unspectacular, but his playing time steadily increased. By the end of that sophomore season, after an impressive performance at the 2002 Fiesta Bowl, Sports Illustrated included him on its All-Bowl team and Olshansky began to be touted as a potential NFL competitor.

   “It was difficult for him that first year, realizing that he wasn’t going to play, that instead he was going to practice his trade and improve,” recalls Greatwood. “But to his credit, Igor accepted that and found out there were things that he didn’t know about the game. And what he did from there was probably his biggest asset. He actually went about working to improve every facet of his game, to make sure that he was a force the remainder of his career.”

  It was obviously time well spent. By the end of his tenure at Oregon, he was running a 40-yard dash in 4.91 seconds and bench-pressing 505 pounds. NFL scouts drooled over his combination of strength, speed and size. Still, when Olshansky opted to skip his senior year and enter the NFL draft, most experts expected that he would go as a third or fourth round pick. That is, until his performance at the NFL Scouting Combine last February.

   “One of the tests there is how many times someone can bench press 225 pounds,” explains Steinberg. “Igor and this other defensive lineman got into a contest where they were seeing how many times they could do it, and both of them broke the all-time record. Igor ended up with 41, and the other fellow had 42. Well, even though that’s a stunning number, it infuriated Igor. So when it came time for Pro Scouting Day, which is the next event after the Scouting Combine, he went ahead and [set a new] record with 43. To find someone who is that athletic at 318 pounds is pretty incredible.”

   Nonetheless, had he waited another year and finished college, he likely would have been picked in the first round. Yet Olshansky felt he was ready to turn pro.
“Part of what motivated his early entry was the fact that he felt like he wanted to provide some economic benefit for his family,” notes Steinberg. “And while he came late to football in high school, and he didn’t play a full number of years in college, [the Chargers] get to mold him in their system.... Plus, the lifting that he did, breaking the all-time bench press record, that sent ripples throughout the league.”

   Despite the excitement surrounding his accomplishments, most mid-round draft picks generally spend most of their first year on the sidelines. When he does take the field, Olshansky believes he’ll likely play defensive end in a three-four scheme or defensive tackle in a four-three alignment. There has even been some speculation that Olshansky could start by the end of the season.

   “I don’t have any expectations,” he admits. “I’m just going in there, learning and taking a busting-my-butt attitude right now. I want to get the coaches confident in me.”

   Which doesn’t mean that Olshansky didn’t forego celebrating his signing altogether. He has already bought a new BMW 7-Series, and intends to share his wealth with his family, purchasing his parents a new car and, as soon as possible, buying them a new home. Here in San Diego, he’s also looking for a house of his own, and promises that, when he gets situated, he’ll become an active presence within the Jewish community.

   “Right now, my main priority is to get in shape and get ready for football, but once I get settled in and figure out what’s up and what’s down, I’ll be a lot more eager to get involved,” he says. “I don’t know much about the Jewish community in San Diego, but I’m definitely willing to learn and in the future help out in any way I can.”

   Which should be easy, because the local Jewish community is actively welcoming him. “I have friends in San Diego who are Jewish and have already offered to have him over for dinner,” says Steinberg. “They’re eyeing him for their daughters.”

   Unfortunately for local matchmakers, Olshansky already has a Jewish girlfriend (they’ve been together since high school), and there’s a good chance that they’ll get to know her too, since he might be a fixture in the local Jewish community for a long, long time. Barring serious injury, Olshansky could stay in the pros for a decade or more, serving as a significant and stalwart defensive player. Which means that Chargers buffs and Jewish football fans could find themselves chanting “I-gor! I-gor!” for years to come.

   And that, undoubtedly, is worth cheering about.  



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