Merlin Olsen biography
Merlin Olsen, in full Merlin Jay Olsen, (born Sept. 15, 1940, Logan, Utah—died March 11, 2010, Duarte, Calif.), American gridiron soccer participant, sports activities announcer, and actor who was one of the extraordinary defensive linemen in National Football League (NFL) historical past.
Olsen, a 6-ft 5-inch (1.9 metre) sort out, was a consensus All-American in his senior season at Utah State University, the place he helped lead the unheralded program to nationwide prominence as a member of an excellent defensive unit. He was drafted by the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams in 1962 and was immediately inserted into the staff’s beginning lineup. Though the Rams gained just one recreation within the 1962 season, Olsen was named the NFL Rookie of the Year. A ferocious run-stuffer, he made up part of the formidable Rams defensive position that was heralded because the “Fearsome Foursome” and dominated the NFL all through the rest of the Sixties. For yearly however his closing one with the Rams, Olsen was voted to the Pro Bowl. He retired in 1976 because the Rams’ all-time chief in tackles, with a profession 915.
Olsen was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982. In 1994 he was named to the NFL’s seventy fifth Anniversary All-Time Team. Olsen’s brothers Phil and Orrin additionally performed within the NFL; Phil and Merlin performed collectively from 1971 to 1974.
After leaving the Rams, Olsen served as an NFL commentator, tv spokesperson, and TV actor, greatest recognized for his recurring position as Jonathan Garvey (1977–81) on Little House on the Prairie, because the star of Father Murphy (1981–83), and as Aaron Miller within the short-lived Aaron’s Way (1988).