www.canisiushigh.org
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John Urschel ’09
John Urschel is a numbers man. Two numbers
in particular are significant: 64 and 4. As in jer-
sey number 64 with the Nittany Lions, and as a
mathematics major with a 4.0 GPA in the Penn
State Class of 2012.
Recruited by Ivy League schools and offered
scholarships by The University at Buffalo, Penn
State, Boston College, Stanford and University at
Buffalo, Urschel chose Penn State for its positive
football atmosphere and rigorous academics.
“To play at Penn State is pretty cool. It can be
overwhelming when you come fromhigh school
playing in front of 2,000 people,” says Urschel,
of playing for a crowd of 110,000 at Penn State’s
Beaver Stadium. “[There is] nothing like it, [not]
even playing pro football.”
Urschel is a guard on the offensive line, split-
ting playing time with another offensive line-
man this past season. He ended spring football
by being honored with the Frank Patrick Total
Commitment Award, given to a junior football
player who displays a total commitment to aca-
demics, offseason preparation, in-season com-
mitment and community service—a fitting
tribute to this 2009 Mr. Canisius.
Joining football his freshman year for fun and
friendship, he was quickly recruited for track
by Coach Lombardo. A senior football captain
and a three-year track and field captain for the
Crusaders, Urschel went on to earn all-state and
Western New York Lineman-of-the-Year honors
and holds the record for shot-put.
Urschel has always been a dedicated student-
athlete, focusing on math, earning induction
into the National Honor Society. Well prepared
for college-level academics, he “hit the ground
running,” saying that “there was more work
at Canisius High School.” Urschel is careful to
maintain a balance and calls his Canisius-taught
time management skills a “big asset when you’re
playingDivision I football, which takes up a lot of
time, like a job.”
Urschel plans to work toward a Ph.D. in math-
ematics for a career in industry or as a professor.
His current academic focus is on numerical solu-
tions to partial differential equations and is on a
research teamworking with Shell conducting oil
reservoir simulations.
His mother, Venita Parker, is proud of him
and, he says, thinks he works too hard. Keeping
in contact with fellow classmates, such as Kyle
Thompson ’09 and Coach Lombardo, who at-
tends many Penn State games, is also important
to Urschel.
“I’m trying to make everyone at home
who supports me—my Canisius High School
family—proud.”
Urschel has two more years of eligibility. He
has chosen to stay at Penn State in the aftermath
of the NCAA sanctions addressing the sex abuse
scandal. He anticipates playing for the Nittany
Lions as a graduate student.
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“I’m trying to make everyone at home who supports
me—my Canisius High School family—proud.”