Happy Hour with John Gaskins

Augie's "Coach OJ" & his fascinating football life


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You will want to run through a brick wall after you've heard this conversation.

No, seriously! Yes, "run through a brick wall" is an overused sports cliche, but if anyone can make you feel it, it's Augustana football coach Jerry Olszewski, more commonly known as "Coach OJ."

How can a human Energizer bunny be so animated, so positive, such a compelling storyteller, and yet so humble and down-to-earth at the same time?

Find out in this 75-minute conversation that walks through a fascinating football life — from Wisconsin to California back to Wisconsin to Minnesota to South Dakota — that started a short drive from one of football's cathedrals — Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

Through Green Bay Packers fandom and a Norman Rockwell youth sports childhood, OJ knew he wanted to be a coach by age 10, but his route to becoming a championship college football head coach was anything but a primrose path. It included walking away from his career and the game professionally after being passed over for what he thought would be his first head job.

Now in his 12th year at Augie, OJ is the program's winningest coach, first to win back-to-back conference titles and first to truly make the Vikings a consistent regional powerhouse.

How did he do it? It started with Ham — C.J. Ham, the Minnesota Vikings captain who has a pizza named after him at Sunny's Pizzeria, two blocks from the Augie campus, where OJ ponied up for a poigant pigskin pow wow with host John Gaskins. And the chat started with some Hammer Time.

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Happy Hour with John GaskinsBy John Gaskins

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