Why it’s ‘Coach OJ’ and not ‘Coach JO’
Augie introduced Jerry Olszewski as its new football coach Wednesday.
Finally.
Now Coach OJ, as he’s known, has about a week to make a positive enough impression on the Viking players to prevent them from deciding to transfer over the holiday break. He didn’t sound overly worried about it, but inevitably a few will probably decide to leave. He also has to figure out his staff, and he gave no indication of whether or not he plans to keep any of the three holdovers — Don Pierson, Joe Evenson or James Schrenk (there’s also an open position vacated by Steve Olinger). I don’t think all three assistants will be retained, but I don’t think all three will be let go, either. Just my opinion.
Anyway, I’ve written enough about this story and am ready to put it to bed, but there’s one last question I felt like I needed to answer.
Why does everyone call Olszewski ‘OJ’ when his initials are ‘JO’?
“Kind of a long story,” Olszewski said. “My oldest brother was an All-State football player in high school and was selected to play in an All-Star game. When he got there, he walked up to his locker, and there was a piece of tape on it that read: ‘Olszewski, J. O-J.’”
“This was around the time that OJ Simpson was a big deal, and nobody could pronounce ‘Olszewski’ worth a damn, anyway. So they all called him ‘OJ’ and it stuck. After that we were all ‘OJs’. But the rule was, you couldn’t become an OJ until you got your first trophy. My brother is four years older than me and I got to be OJ before him. Boy did that piss him off. Plus, ‘JO’ just doesn’t sound as good.”
So there you have it.
Good luck, Coach OJ.
