In most cases, if someone achieves greatness in their life, there is someone behind the scenes who pushed, encouraged, and supported them. Andrew Luck has achieved greatness, in high school and college. Experts expect him to be successful in the NFL also. So who was the person behind Luck who helped him reach his maximum potential? His name is Oliver Luck, Andrew Luck’s dad.

Oliver has quite a resume too when it comes to football and academics. According to Andrew Luck Locker, he is from Cleveland where his stellar quarterback play for St. Ignatius High School helped him win a scholarship to West Virginia University.

He did not get much playing time his freshman year, but earned the starting role the following year. His 1,292 yards and 8 touchdowns was a clear sign that he was a top-tier quarterback. He had the ability to not only pick defenses apart with his arms but also with his legs. He complied over 400 yards rushing with 5 touchdowns.

Oliver impressed people with his leadership on the field, but he was equally impressive in the classroom as shown by his two Academic All-American honors and being inducted into the Academic All-American Hall of Fame. He graduated magna cum laude with a number of other academic awards and honors.

In his junior year, Oliver’s 19 touchdowns set a new school record for most touchdowns thrown in a season. His senior season he lead his team to a bowl appearance: the Peach Bowl versus the Florida Gators. The game wasn’t even close. The final score was 26-6. He’d also set school passing records that year with 216 completions for almost 2,500 yards.

Oliver would hang up his cleats with his name on many school records. Some of them would eventually be surpasses later on, but he still remains very prominent in the top ten list of numerous school passing records. His performance in college was enough to convince the Houston Oilers to draft him in the second round.

Although his professional career didn’t last very long, he would move on to be successful in varies management positions and would even run whole organizations such as the World League of America and the Houston Dynamo.

If you look at Andrew, you can see many similarities to his father. Andrew is a premier student athlete. He was the class valedictorian when graduated from high school and had a perfect GPA. He chose to go to Stanford University because of the challenging academics. Luck is also a dual threat quarterback. He would break many rushing records as a Stanford Cardinal.

Andrew has said that even though his dad hasn’t necessarily “coached” him, he was a major influence in his life. Oliver taught Andrew many of the everyday life fundamentals that helped him to mature into a respectable young man and great football quarterback.

Author: Edson Phicil