Jack Nicklaus's Grandson Is a Top College Football Prospect

Nick O'Leary's grandfather knows a thing or two about championships -- he won twenty major ones in his career. That would be Jack Nicklaus, the man still considered to be golf's greatest champion. Nicklaus was a natural athlete in his prep school days, and not only in golf. He was a star basketball player at Upper Arlington High School in the late 1950's, playing several sports before narrowing his interests into golf, the sport in which he would rewrite the history books.

As for grandson Nick, he can golf too -- at 12 years old, he shot a 77 during his second-ever round. His true sport, however, is football.

According to the college sports recruiting service Rivals.com, O'Leary is a top college football prospect out of Florida:

As of last week, O'Leary - a 6-foot-4, 215-pound junior who is expected to be one of the nation's best tight ends in the 2011 recruiting class - already had received written scholarship offers from Florida, South Carolina, Miami, Tennessee, West Virginia, Boston College and Florida International.

Interest has picked up from Ohio State (his grandfather's alma mater), USF, UCF and Wisconsin.

By his coaches' accounts, O'Leary is a natural athlete. His coach at Palm Beach Gardens (FL) Dwyer High, Jack Daniels, says O'Leary has "the best hands I've ever seen on a high school player."

Nicklaus's pride in his grandson is barely concealed, where he quipped that

"Nick is such a natural (athlete). From the time that kid was 5-6 years old - if they put him in the outfield in baseball, at the crack of the bat he would be on it. You don't teach somebody that.

"In football, if he can touch it, he catches it. If the ball is in the air, he's going to be the first one there."

As for O'Leary, he's said to be humble and a good teammate who doesn't mention his family's (meaning Nicklaus's) history. "Somebody has to talk about him for Nick to say something about him. He doesn't bring him up," said Dwyer wide receiver Robert Clark, a 2010 Virginia commit. Sounds like O'Leary is a young man who will make a name for himself by earning it the old fashioned way: by his own merits. Just like his grandfather did.