University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Oskie Mystery
March 26, 2002 | Football
March 26, 2002
There are a few mysteries that have been handed down through the ages of Carolina football.
Why does the Tar Heel offensive line always seem to be "young and inexperienced"? Where do they keep finding these talented linebackers?
But one mystery befuddles even regular inhabitants of the Kenan Football Center. On any given practice day in Chapel Hill, the defensive backs usually spend the first part of practice doing individual position-group drills. The most common involves pass recognition-first they yell, "Pass" as the quarterback fades back, then they yell "ball" when the ball is in the air, and then, once they pick off the pass, they yell "oskie."
Not "pick" or "go." Oskie.
So what or who is an oskie and why do the defensive backs seem to always be talking about him? It's impossible to leave any practice and not have "Pass...ball...oskie oskie oskie!" ringing in your head.
The first stop on our fact-finding mission was first-year defensive backs coach Jim Fleming.
"I have no idea where it came from," he said. "I've used 'bingo,' I've used 'wetsuit,' I've used a lot of things. Football comes from a long lineage of strange names and that kind of thing. It just means interception and it usually never comes out of their mouth in the game anyway, because they're trying to get into the endzone."
Fleming provided some useful information, but like an Enron accountant, he never addressed the actual question. Sure, maybe the DB's don't actually use oskie, but what does it mean?
The next stop was Kevin Knight, who's been oskie-ing for four years now.
"I have no clue where oskie comes from," he said. Knight is an ACT mentor, so obviously oskie is not on the vocabulary list. "When you get the ball, you want to let your teammates know that you've got the ball and let's go. But really I don't think anybody is saying oskie."
But they are, Kevin, they are. They're saying it every day in practice, which is what originated this quest in the first place. And we're not going to let you dampen our inquisitive spirit that way.
Surely Michael Waddell would know the origins of oskie. After all, he has a cool nickname, "Rabbit," and has been playing cornerback his whole life. At some point, he simply must have run across the oskie originator.
"I really don't use oskie," Waddell said, and suddenly "Rabbit" seemed like a less cool nickname. "I'm more familiar with wetsuit. You just want to tell the other guys you made an interception. But we hardly ever say it when we do make an interception. We'll say it after we've already gone five or ten yards, because then we're thinking, 'Aw, man, I forgot to say oskie.'"
Thanks a lot, Rabbit. Don't ever ask us for a favor, OK?
Enough with the middlemen. It's time to take the question to the very top. Enter John Bunting, a man who has spent his entire life in football. He coached for three different NFL teams and was a defensive coach for his entire coaching career before arriving at North Carolina. This was a man who would know oskie.
Or maybe not.
"It's an interception term," he said with a smile. "I don't use it. I hate it. I didn't invent it and I don't know what it means and I don't know where it came from. I have been called upon to use it as a player. If you find an Ohio State player, they might be able to tell you. It goes all the way back to Woody Hayes."
Not to quibble, Coach, but it apparently goes back even further than that. According to http://www.oskie.com (no, seriously, it really does exist), the term goes all the way back to General Bob Neyland at Tennessee. In fact, it was one of his seven maxims of football. "Ball, oskie, cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle...for this is the winning edge," according to Neyland. He was unavailable for further comment since he is, technically, dead.
But oskie lives on every day at Tar Heel football practice. And though they don't really know what it means or where it came from, the defensive backs will continue to say it-or not say it, depending on the player.
Mystery solved.
