Joel McHale — Football Player at University of Washington
Seattle native Joel McHale was once performing on the gridiron before starring for audiences on television as both an actor and radio/television host. McHale was a tight end on the Washington Huskies football team under legendary head coach Don James. Initially projected to be on the rowing team, McHale was a two-year walk-on TE for the football team before eventually quitting and going into the world of comedy.
Image Source: YouTube, Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Billy Crystal — Baseball Player at Marshall University
Funny man Billy Crystal has always been a big fan of baseball. He’s participated in a number of celebrity baseball/softball games over the years. He even attempted to hit off of live pitching when playing around during spring training with his childhood favorite New York Yankees. It’s not a surprise to learn that baseball was deeply-rooted in Crystal’s family. His father pitched in college, and Crystal earned a baseball scholarship to Marshall University. However, he left the program and returned to New York after about a year. The rest, as they say, was history.
Image Source: Men’s Health, Bruce Glikas/Getty Images
Mark Harmon — Football Player at UCLA
Mark Harmon has been a fixture in Hollywood for over 40 years. He first began appearing in a plethora of commercials. From there, you saw him in movies — such as Wyatt Earp, Summer School, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A ridiculously successful TV run on NCIS has made him a cable star. As fate would have it, Harmon’s career before getting into the industry was quite fascinating.
A native of Los Angeles, he was the starting quarterback at UCLA for two seasons. The team went 17-5 with him as the starter. Interestingly enough, his father Tom won the Heisman Trophy as a football player for the University of Michigan.
Image Source: Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images, Pinterest
Phil Robertson — Football Player at Louisiana Tech
Duck Dynasty is a highly popular show featuring multiple generations of a family in Louisiana who perfected the duck-calling apparatus used in duck hunting. The patriarch of the family — Phil Robertson — was once a prominent athlete during his collegiate days. In fact, he was such a good quarterback, that he had actually beaten out Terry Bradshaw for the starting job. Yes — the Terry Bradshaw who won multiple Super Bowls and is currently in the NFL Hall of Fame. While Bradshaw’s calling was on the football field, Phil’s was in the forest — where he felt most comfortable hunting.
Image Source: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images, Starcasm
Ellie Kemper — Field Hockey Player at Princeton
Bubbly and gregarious, Ellie Kemper has spent the last decade developing into a very endearing comedic actor. Aside from being a co-star on The Office and Bridesmaids, Kemper starred in her own show entitled Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. During her college days at Princeton, the St. Louis native was actually an athlete before leaving the field for the world of theater and improv. She was a two-year member on the field hockey team. As a sophomore, Princeton was the Division 1 National Champion in the sport.
Image Source: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, google
Josh Duhamel — Football Player at Minot State University
Josh Duhamel has been involved in acting for quite sometime. Starting out as a model and being the ex-husband to Fergie, he carved out a very nice career for himself. Most recently, he’s been the star in the second season of Disney+’s Might Ducks: Game Changers (alongside Lauren Graham). Speaking of athletics, Duhamel knows a thing or two about competing at the highest level. As a college student at Minot State University (in his native North Dakota), Duhamel was a quarterback on the team for two seasons. During that time, he threw 10 TD passes to 11 INTs. Still, he’s probably the most famous alumnus of the school!
Image Source: google, Jason Kempin/FilmMagic
Dwayne Johnson — Football Player at University of Miami
You guys should all know this story. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson came from a wrestling family. However, his first love was football. Playing prep football in Pennsylvania, the University of Miami came calling. Johnson was a defensive end on those awesome ’90’s Miami teams featuring Warren Sapp (among others). After a brief spell playing professional football in Canada, Johnson made the decision to ultimately go into the family business. We’d say that worked out quite well for himself.
Image Source: Miami/Collegiate Images via Getty Images, Vivian Zink/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Matthew Fox — Wide Receiver at Columbia
Before starring as Jack on LOST, Matthew Fox — a longtime actor — was growing up in rural Wyoming before heading to Columbia as a football recruit He played as a wide receiver for his team…though we’re willing to bet he didn’t have the best experience. In 40 career games on the collegiate level, Fox and his team went a combined 2-38. Fortunately for Fox, the whole ‘acting thing’ ended up being the best thing possible for himself and his career.
Image Source: Albert L. Ortega/WireImage, People
Forest Whitaker — Football Player at Cal Poly Pomona
Fast Times at Ridgemont High depicted Forest Whitaker as an excellent football player. That wasn’t too far off from the truth. Whitaker was a college football at Cal Poly-Pomona. Ultimately, an injury led Whitaker to drop football together for the arts. It was at USC where Whitaker learned to hone his skills in the world of performing arts (initially he set out to be an Opera singer). As things go, roles picked up upon graduation — and Whitaker’s career would blossom.
Image Source: Jaime Valdez/USA TODAY Sports, Product placement blog
Mahershala Ali — Basketball Player at St. Mary’s
2-time Oscar winning actor Mahershala Ali is one of the most gifted performers in the industry today. The way he conveys emotion on screen with a small look or minimal dialogue is simply special. Interestingly enough, Ali (at the time named Hershal Gilmore) had a totally different career path. The Bay Area native was a D1 basketball player for respected program St. Mary’s. While he was a good player, the acting bug reared its head — thus Ali opting for a new journey.
Image Source: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images, Bleacher Report
Emma Watson — Field Hockey Player at Brown
Miss Hermione Granger aka Emma Watson was once a solid field hockey player during her college years at Brown. Once the Harry Potter films ended, Watson wanted a sense of normalcy. She was accepted to/enrolled at Brown — where she was just your normal run-of-the-mill college student. Of course, people surely recognized her. That could account for her super-short haircut as a way of trying to disguise her famous persona.
Image Source: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images, tumblr
Uzo Aduba — Track Athlete at Boston University
Uzo Aduba comes from a very sporty family. As you can see in the picture above, she was a standout track athlete at Boston University. Her brother played hockey in college and then made it as a professional. Once Aduba’s collegiate career came to an end, she focused more so on acting throughout the United States. All of the hard work paid off massively. Aduba has won three Emmy Awards — two for Orange is the New Black and one for her work in Mrs. America.
Image Source: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Netflix, Pinterest
2 Chainz — Basketball Player at Alabama State
Atlanta native 2 Chainz (real name Tauheed Epps) was once a highly talented basketball player as a youth. His strong high school career led to 2 Chainz garnering a scholarship to Alabama State. A 6-foot-5 forward, 2 Chainz played on the basketball team for two seasons. As we all know now, 2 Chainz is one of the biggest rappers on the planet. He’s worked alongside virtually every big name in the industry, and continues to produce bangers.
Image Source: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic, YouTube
Elsa Holk — Basketball Player in Sweden
Elsa Hosk is one of the world’s most prolific supermodels. Hailing from Sweden, the 34-year-old has modeled for every major brand you can image — including Victoria’s Secret, Dior, H&M, Dolce & Gabbana, and much more. With her striking looks, you may find it surprising that her first love was actually basketball. Hosk played professional basketball in Sweden for two years, until the reality of making more money doing modeling came into focus.
Image Source: John Parra/Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret, dailymail
John David Washington — Football Player for the Rams
John David Washington has exploded into one of the most hotly-pursued actors in Hollywood up to this point. After breaking out on Ballers, JDW has featured in a plethora of critically-acclaimed projects. Some include BlacKKKlansman, Beckett, Tenet, Malcolm & Marie, and Amsterdam. The son of Denzel Washington, he grew up in LA before embarking on a college football career at Morehouse. While he never made an NFL appearance, he was a practice squad member of the St. Louis Rams for two seasons.
Image Source: Peter Aiken/Getty Images
Tom Selleck — Basketball/Baseball Player at USC
There was a time in which Tom Selleck didn’t have his noteworthy mustache. Originally from Detroit, his family moved out to LA before Selleck started attending USC. As a junior in college, Selleck transferred to be a Trojan. Not only was he a star basketball player for the team, but he was also a pitcher (hence why he has a fondness for the film Mr. Baseball). Whether its television or film, Selleck has been involved in the industry for over 50 years (and he’s still going as he approaches age 80).
Image Source: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images, kiwi report
Terry Crews — Football Player in NFL
Crews is built like a Greek God. We’ve constantly seen his muscular frame on television/in movies — and it comes as no surprise to learn that he once was a professional athlete. After walking onto the Western Michigan Football team, Crews got drafted in the 11th Round of the 1991 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams. Throughout his career, Crews featured for the Rams, Redskins, Packers, Chargers, and Eagles (over the course of five years). Once football ended, Crews came to LA and started doing standup comedy. Eventually, movie roles came via his natural charisma and energy.
Image Source: ambrosia for heads, GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images
Ed O’Neill — Football Player For Youngstown State
Married…with Children was a hit show for years. Ed O’Neill played an ex-football player who often tries to relive the glory years. Interestingly enough, O’Neill himself has quite the history in the sport. He started his collegiate career at Ohio before ending up at Youngstown State. The former defensive linemen then spent an entire camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers. While O’Neill didn’t make the team, it did open the door for him to be a fixture on-screen (including with Little Giants and Modern Family).
Image Source: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc for HBO LA, sports yahoo
Stephen Hocking — Coxswain at Oxford University
Stephen Hawking possessed one of the most brilliant minds the world has ever seen. You may not think of him as much of an athlete, but in all actuality, he was! Back at Oxford, Hawking (pictured above) was a member of the team’s rowing team as a coxswain. A former teammate (courtesy of a 2004 book) had this to say about Hawking:
“Half the time I got the distinct impression that he was sitting in the stern of the boat with his head in the stars, working out mathematical formulae.”
Image Source: Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports, google
John Wayne — Football Player For USC
The most recognizable Western actor had a penchant for demonstrating a feel of toughness on screen. As such, it comes as no surprise to learn that John Wayne (real name Marion Morrison) was a good prep football player. Wayne played for iconic USC head coach Howard Jones in the late 1920’s. Once his athletic career ended, Wayne actually got into a film as an extra (using his football contacts at USC). The rest, as they say, is history — as Wayne still remains among the most recognizable faces in all of cinema.
Image Source: REPORTERS ASSOCIES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, yahoo sports
Merlin Olsen — Football Player for Utah State/NFL
The late Merlin Olsen was a fantastic football player. To put it into perspective, the gigantic defensive lineman was a 14-time Pro Bowler, a 10-time all-NFL selection, and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame/College Football Hall of Fame. For some, they may recognize him from his time on Little House on the Prairie. Character Jonathan was good friends with Charles Ingalls (played by Michael Landon). Olsen also starred in the show Father Murphy (where he was the lead and Landon the show’s creator).
Image Source: Focus on Sport/Getty Images, Ted Shepherd/NBCU Photo Bank
Tommy Lee Jones — Football Player at Harvard University
Famed actor Tommy Lee Jones has played virtually every character you can imagine. He’s been the nice guy, the bad guy, the superhero villain, and everything in-between. Before he played make-believe on screen as a career, he was actually getting an Ivy League education at Harvard in Boston. Playing as an offensive guard, Jones was a first-team all-league player — and even helped Harvard notch an undefeated season.
Image Source: Warner Brothers/Getty Images, Pinterest