Page 163 - Cousins - Celebrities, Saints & Sinners

Merlin Olsen

7th Cousin

1 time removed

Common Ancestor

Father: Edward Putman
Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay,

British Colonial America
1682 - 1755 Born: Died:
15 September 1940 11 March 2010
Mother: Sarah Miles Charles County, Maryland Waldorf, Maryland
Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, Merlin Jay Olsen was an American football player, announcer,
British Colonial America and actor. He played his entire 15-year professional football
1686 – 1735 career in the National Football League (NFL) as a defensive

tackle with the Los Angeles Rams. He was selected to the Pro
Bowl a record 14 straight times, missing selection only in the
last year of his career. This record of 14 seasons selected to
play in the Pro Bowl, consecutive or otherwise, is shared with
current Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, former
offensive lineman Bruce Matthews, former tight end Tony
Gonzalez, and former quarterback Peyton Manning. A recipient
of the 1961 Outland Trophy as the best lineman in college
football, Olsen is a member of the Pro Football Hall of
Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. As an actor, he
portrayed farmer Jonathan Garvey on Little House on the
Prairie. After leaving that series, he starred in his
own NBC drama, Father Murphy.

Born to Merle Barrus and Lynn Jay Olsen in Logan, Utah, the
second of nine siblings and the first-born son. Olsen’s mother
was an elementary education graduate, and his father was a
professor at Utah State University in soil science.
Olsen attended Utah State University where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, and was a
three-year letterman in football as a defensive tackle. He graduated from the College of Business and Social
Sciences at USU with a bachelor's degree in Finance in 1962 and a master's degree in Economics in 1971. He
later received an honorary doctorate degree in business from the Huntsman School.

In football, as a senior, he was a consensus All-American selection (making the vast majority of All-America
teams) and was the winner of the Outland Trophy. After Olsen's junior year of 1960 he was also named All-
American by the Football Writers Association of America and Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was also
All-Conference in both 1960 and 1961.

Coming out of college, Olsen had offers from both the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League and
the Denver Broncos of the rival American Football League. He chose the security of the NFL and signed with
the Rams. Olsen's first contract was for around $50,000 for two years, plus a signing bonus. It was 1962, and
the average football player salary at the time was around $12,000 a year. He was the first USU Aggie to be
drafted in the 1st round of the NFL draft.

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