Merlin Olsen's legacy one of strength and grace

SALT LAKE CITY — Merlin Olsen wasn't just a former All-American football player at Utah State. He was the face of the university, its most famous alumnus.

No matter how many years passed and how many athletes followed, people never forgot him. Nor will they. Last December, the university announced the Romney Stadium field would be named after him.

Olsen died Wednesday after a fight with cancer. His last public appearance was in December, when he appeared during halftime at an Aggie basketball game, the crowd chanting "Aggie Legend!"

That, he was. He gracefully played the part of Jonathan Garvey on the popular TV show "Little House on the Prairie" and the title role in "Father Murphy." He did commentary for NFL broadcasts and appeared in three films.

Meanwhile, he dominated for 15 years as part of one of football's most famous combinations, the Los Angeles Rams' "Fearsome Foursome" defensive line.

You might say people knew him from the (Utah) mountains to the (Little House on the) prairies, to the (Pacific/Atlantic) oceans, white with foam.

Olsen was from a more modest era. He arrived well before the end-zone dance or the post-tackle shimmy, playing from 1959 to 1961 at USU. When later hired by NBC to do football commentary, he wasn't about to wave his arms and shout to make his point. That would have been beneath him.

"I don't think I ever, in all years I've known him, saw him lose his temper," said Tom Larscheid, the former USU running back who played with Olsen. "It's true. He had such wonderful self control."

Throughout his life, Olsen stayed true to his nature. His acting parts had dignity, as did his commentaries and, of course, his game. As ferocious as he was, he never would have considered taunting a quarterback he had sacked.

He merely terrorized them by his presence.

"He was not a showboat of any kind," said Larscheid. "His play did the talking."

Maybe he was too smart for taunting. An Academic All-America, as well as a first-team All-America as a player, he is one of 17 people in both the National Football Foundation athletic and academic halls of fame.

He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Kappa Phi in 1962 with a degree in finance, almost single-handedly wiping out the stereotype of the brutish, dim-witted lineman. Larscheid called him "the poster boy" for what a student-athlete should be.

He was strong, sensitive, articulate and smart, not necessarily in that order.

"About as good a person as they come," said Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson, who was a USU basketball player when Olsen played football. "Very brilliant, very smart, yet just a very down to earth guy. To talk to him, you wouldn't have known he had done anything special."