As he raised his children in Nigeria, Chief Adewale Fashanu often repeated a lesson. “It’s better to have a good name than all the money in the world,” he told them. Adewale fought for Nigerian independence and served as the political secretary of the country’s first president. His access to power offered him many chances to enrich himself through corruption, and at every opportunity he refused.
“When he died, he died with a good name,” his son Anthony Fashanu said recently. “If I go back to Nigeria, I introduce myself to a lot of people. They say, ‘Oh, you are the son of Adewale.’ They always respect that name. So it’s something I try to instill in my kids, too: Having a good name is better than having all the money in the world.”
A few decades after he moved to the United States and settled in Waldorf, Md., Anthony will hear his family name announced to a broad American audience. His son, Adewale’s grandson, will be selected early in the NFL draft Thursday night, perhaps among the first 10 picks and the first offensive lineman chosen.
Olu Fashanu did not try on football pads until he arrived as a freshman at Gonzaga College High in the District, and he played a year longer at Penn State than most anybody outside his family expected. Over eight years, Fashanu turned himself from a burgeoning basketball prospect into a team captain at a college football powerhouse. He was named an all-American, became a finalist for the academic version of the Heisman Trophy and graduated from business school a semester early.
“He did everything right,” Penn State offensive line coach Phil Trautwein said. “He’s not a kid who the money is going to change his work ethic or change who he is.”
Anthony Fashanu moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living with his uncle on Long Island. Shortly after he moved to Maryland, he met his wife, Paige, settled in Waldorf and had two children. Their son, Olumuyiwa, had the athletic genes that had helped Anthony play semiprofessional soccer. He sprouted above his peers and gravitated toward basketball. Fashanu’s parents spent between $50,000 and $60,000 so he could travel around the country to camps and with AAU and Elite Youth Basketball League teams. “Was he going to get a basketball offer? I don’t know,” Anthony said. “But I know that he was very good.”
During those basketball trips, football coaches often approached Anthony in the stands and pleaded for Fashanu to play their sport, for their team. Anthony declined every overture without telling his son. He was a college football fan, but he worried about football’s physical toll and the threat of brain injury. He had twice signed up Fashanu for Charles County youth leagues, but both times he changed his mind and wouldn’t let him play.
Fashanu enrolled at Gonzaga intent on playing basketball. He had grown to nearly 6-foot-6 by eighth grade. At a summer welcome picnic for incoming students, Eagles football coach Randy Trivers spotted Fashanu walking around, towering above his future classmates. “Of course, Olu looks a little different than the other freshmen coming in,” Trivers said. “You could see: ‘Whoa, man, this is a good frame. This young man may possibly be interested in football.’ You’ll welcome anybody into the program. But that one raised your eyebrow a little bit.”
In Anthony’s recollection, Trivers called him every day for a month. He ignored every call. On the first day of school, Trivers found Fashanu in class, handed him football equipment and instructed him to report to practice after school. Fashanu relented, seeing a means to keep in shape and add toughness for the winter.
“At that point in my life, I was a basketball player,” Fashanu said. “The thought process was, try out football, see if I like it, but at the end of the day, at the very least, I’d be conditioning myself for the basketball season.”
“I was worried,” Anthony said. “His mother was worried. But we prayed about it. We said, ‘Okay, we’ll just take it as it goes.’ ”
Fashanu started with the freshman team, “learning what the heck’s a stance and how to get lined up,” Trivers said. He quickly came to love football. His basketball background gave him advanced, agile footwork. Fashanu had almost always been the biggest kid on the court, and using that advantage often came with punishment. In football, physicality became an asset. He loved how grueling practices and extensive preparation built intense camaraderie.
“I knew 110 percent he was going to put all his effort into that sport,” Paige said. “Because that’s what he does.”
At lunch, Fashanu would eat quickly and retreat to Gonzaga’s film room to study NFL offensive linemen he modeled his game after. During the offseason, he set his alarm for 5 a.m. so he could drive to the District in time for early-morning practices. He stayed after school in the weight room until 6:30 some evenings. He would remain at Gonzaga for 12 hours, not counting about an hour commute on both ends.
“It takes a real mature, committed, tough human being to do that consistently,” Trivers said. “He could roll up the sleeves with the best of them. It wasn’t easy. He may have made it look easy.”
“I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I was super excited waking up at 5 a.m. every day in the offseason,” Fashanu said. “I knew in order to get where I wanted to go, that was the stuff that was required. A large part of that comes with my parents teaching me discipline from a very young age.”
Self-motivation permeated Fashanu’s upbringing. His father constantly told him and his sister, “Whatever you do, always be the best in it.” Trivers sensed it didn’t matter what task was in front of Fashanu — a practice drill, math class, community work. He wanted to excel and focused himself to do so.
“In most West African households, the relationship between the family is definitely built upon respect, discipline and love,” Fashanu said. “That was something that was really emphasized in our household: treating everyone with respect, showing appreciation for those who helped you get to where you are in your life and discipline, just taking care of business.”
By Fashanu’s sophomore season, even though he had not become a full-time starter, Trivers believed the lineman was on track to play at a Power Five school. College programs started to notice his ideal size and athleticism at camps. He received his first major scholarship offer from Rutgers before his junior year.
“We were shocked,” Anthony said. “I mean, I can’t describe how we felt.”
In his junior season, Fashanu blocked for quarterback Caleb Williams — now projected to be the first pick in the draft — and became “the dude,” Trivers said. Scholarship offers flooded in. He chose Penn State.
Fashanu arrived at Penn State a “raw” player, said Trautwein, Penn State’s offensive line coach. Trautwein constantly saw him in the film room, taking detailed notes on opponents he would face. He improved his flexibility. He focused on where to place his hands on a defender. He refined his pass-blocking technique.
“He just worked,” Trautwein said. “He worked, and he made sure his weaknesses became his strengths.”
Fashanu made his first start as a sophomore in the Outback Bowl and dominated. He started the first eight games of the 2022 season, becoming one of the Big Ten’s best linemen and attracting notice from NFL evaluators before an injury ended his season. After only nine collegiate starts, Fashanu had become a prized prospect. He learned he would be taken in the first round, possibly among the first 10 picks, if he left school early.
The outside world expected Fashanu to enter the draft. Who passes up a year of NFL money, risks injury and delays a lucrative second professional contract by a year?
Those who knew Fashanu best, though, believed he might stay. He had gone to Penn State armed with one certainty: He would leave with his degree. Paige’s mother, whom Fashanu and his sister called Nana Fawehinmi, was an educator. When she visited in the summer, from the time Fashanu and his sister were in kindergarten, they had to finish a school activity before a trip to the zoo. His parents would remind him he was a student-athlete and student came first.
Fashanu majored in supply chain management and information systems, an atypically challenging course load for a football star. “I definitely had my hard days,” he said. “I just did what I was supposed to do.” He envisioned working in the pharmaceutical division of a huge corporation and maybe starting his own company one day.
Fashanu also felt a pull to finish a season healthy and to lead Penn State to a championship. He wanted to play another season with teammates he called “my brothers.” So he called a meeting with Penn State’s coaches and began by telling them: “I’m coming back. I came here to get a degree.”
“That meant more to him than the money,” Trautwein said. “In the world we live in right now, it’s crazy that he stayed. It told me what kind of person he is. He wanted the chance to win a national championship. It’s all about the team. We need more guys like that. I don’t know how many kids in the next 10 years are going to do that.”
In 2023, Fashanu didn’t allow a sack, and as a returning starter, he made it his mission to be a more vocal leader.
“Being transparent, I’m a really introverted person,” Fashanu said. “I try to stay in my own lane. That was a really big emphasis of mine to improve on, just being that type of guy that guys can look to, be a guy that other people can rely on at times when stuff might be hectic. I wanted to be the guy where I could step up, talk to the team, let everyone know everything is going to be all right.”
Penn State lost to Michigan and Ohio State, but Fashanu got everything else he had wanted out of his final season. He graduated a semester early. Fashanu and his family have never regretted the choice. “It was a no-brainer,” Paige said. “I knew he was going to finish his education. I really think he wasn’t ready mentally.”
“Now he’s ready,” Anthony said. “He’s more mature. And he’s ready for the NFL.”
Early Thursday night, an NFL team will draft Fashanu. It will get a player who is still improving, an offensive lineman with rare athleticism and power. It also will get a young man who was given a good name and has done everything required to uphold it.