Former USC long snapper Jake Olson made college football history at the Coliseum in September 2017 as the first completely blind player to compete in a Division I college football game.
Eight years later, his not-quite-8-month-old son was having the time of his life crawling around on the same field.
The significance of the moment was not lost on Olson.
Rowan Olson plays with a football Sept. 5 on the field at the Coliseum.
(Courtesy of the Olson family)
โWatching Rowan crawl around out there on that grass, in that stadium that shaped so much of my story, was emotional in a way I didnโt expect,โ Olson told The Times during a series of interviews over the phone and via email. โIt felt like a full-circle blessing.โ
It wasnโt the only blessing Olson, his wife, Audrey, and their son experienced during that trip to Los Angeles in September.
โWe were actually out there for Rowanโs first checkup after finishing his last round of systemic chemo,โ Olson said, โso the whole trip already carried this sense of celebration and relief.โ
Rowan was born Jan. 17, 2025, with bilateral retinoblastoma, the same rare childhood cancer that had caused his father to lose both of his eyes by age 12. Since his diagnosis at 6 days old, Rowan has made monthly trips with his parents from their home in Jacksonville, Fla., to Childrenโs Hospital Los Angeles, the same place his father had been treated decades earlier while growing up in Huntington Beach.
During those hospital visits, Rowan underwent systemic and intravitreal chemotherapy and laser treatments designed to shrink the cancerous tumors in each of his eyes, stop the cancer from spreading and preserve his vision.
After six months of treatment, the tumors had become small enough that the systemic chemotherapy could stop. And now, according to Dr. Jesse Berry, chief of ophthalmology and director of the retinoblastoma program at CHLA, the laser treatment and injections into Rowanโs eyes are no longer needed as well.
โI think right now he is cancer-free,โ Berry said. โWe have no evidence that he has active cancer anywhere in his body, but heโs a kiddo that we will always watch closely.โ
Rowan celebrates his first birthday in January. His doctor says he has โexcellent visionโ after months of chemotherapy.
(Courtesy of the Olson family)
The monthly visits to CHLA will eventually be spaced out, but Rowan will have to be monitored the rest of his life in case the cancer returns.
โThereโs always a chance that small tumors pop up here and there over the next couple of years, which is normal for retinoblastoma. Thatโs why constant monitoring is so important,โ Olson said. โAs long as we stay on top of it, any tiny spot that appears can be lasered immediately and taken care of.โ
Unlike Rowan, Olson was not diagnosed until he was 8 months old. His left eye was removed two months later, while the remaining cancer was treated with systemic chemotherapy. Olson was 12 when doctors decided his right eye needed to be removed.
โRetinoblastoma is very treatable โ you know, you catch it early, itโs very treatable,โ Olson said.
โI just donโt want [Rowan] to have a 12-year battle with this. Dr. Berry made that very clear up front that his situation is a lot different than mine, that weโre going to knock these things out, and heโs going to grow up with sight in both eyes and really never probably remember a lot of it.โ
According to Berry, Rowan has โexcellent vision.โ
Olsonโs ophthalmologist at CHLA was the late Dr. A. Linn Murphree, a pioneer in ocular oncology who later served as Berryโs mentor.
After Rowan was diagnosed, the Olsons didnโt hesitate in choosing a hospital more than 2,400 miles from home for their sonโs treatment, both because of its reputation as a leading retinoblastoma center and because of the special care Olson received there throughout his childhood.
Dr. Jesse Berry holds Rowan Olson while standing between the newbornโs parents, Audrey and Jake, in early 2025.
(Courtesy of the Olson family)
โI texted [Berry] โ at what was 6:30 in the morning her time โ and she responded within two minutes, encouraging us and confidently telling us that she will take the best care of Rowan,โ Olson said. โThatโs just a glimpse into who she is and the culture Dr. Murphree built.โ
At the time, Berry was dealing with hardship of her own. She and her family had just lost their Altadena home in the Eaton fire and were considering leaving the Los Angeles area to rebuild their lives. She said a call from Olson about his newborn son helped her decide to stay.
โJake called and said, โI just had a baby, and Iโm sitting in a doctorโs office and they think he has RB, and I want to come see you.โ And that was the same week as the fire,โ Berry said. โAnd so I said, โOK, weโll see you next week.โ He and his family were a real anchor to keeping us set in L.A. and really focused on the greater mission.โ
Once back at CHLA, Olson experienced an intense feeling of deja vu.
โWe walked into the same waiting room I used to sit in, the same exam rooms, hearing the same vocabulary I hadnโt heard in years. It was like being thrown straight into the deep end of my past,โ Olson said.
โThe hardest moment was going to the part of the hospital where my last surgery โ the one that took my eyesight โ took place. Even though I couldnโt see it, my body remembered. I had to fight back panic I didnโt even know I was capable of feeling. But I had to stay steady for Audrey and for Rowan. That was probably the hardest thing Iโve ever had to do.โ
But the location of the monthly treatments came with an extra benefit.
โWhen we found out that [Rowan] had this tumor, we immediately flew out to California and were surrounded by Jakeโs family, who had gone through this and had the experience, the wisdom and knowledge around the disease,โ Audrey Olson said.
Audrey, Jake and Rowan Olson take a family selfie after a long travel day from Florida to Childrenโs Hospital Los Angeles in May.
(Courtesy of the Olson family)
โSo I really leaned on the support of the family we were surrounded by. And then I also just leaned on Jake, who I know lived a major life after losing his sight and battling his cancer. We definitely leaned on each other a ton and could not have done it without each other.โ
USC football has been a major part of Olsonโs life since childhood. Upon learning he would be losing his eyesight, Olson became determined to watch as much of the Trojans as he could before his surgery. Then-coach Pete Carroll heard about Olson and allowed him to hang out with the team in meetings, in the locker room and on the sideline. His last day with sight was spent at a USC practice.
It wouldnโt be Olsonโs last time in that environment. Not even close. After years of learning the techniques of a long snapper, Olson earned a first-string spot at the position for Orange Lutheran and joined the Trojans in 2015 as a walk-on player.
Two years later, on Sept. 2, 2017, then-coach Clay Helton called on the 20-year-old long snapper for an extra-point attempt following a USC touchdown against Western Michigan. Olsonโs snap, as described by The Timesโ Bill Plaschke at the time, was โperfectโ and the kick was good, sealing a 49-31 Trojans victory.
USC long snapper Jake Olson conducts the marching band after the Trojansโ 49-31 win over Western Michigan on Sept. 2, 2017, at the Coliseum.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
โYou just never know whatโs going to come from adversity and from situations, like the miracles that can come from what we think are tragedies. And that miracle for me was playing football at SC,โ said Olson, who played in a total of three games during his time with the Trojans. โHonestly, I donโt know if I ever would have done that if I kept my eyesight or never had cancer. So for me, being able to play at that school was a pinnacle of everything Iโd gone through that had led me there.
โI donโt know what Rowanโs pinnacle is going to be, but thereโs going to be miracles that come from this. … Thereโs a level of excitement to that, just hope and knowing thereโs going to be something special that comes from this. For me, it was playing at USC, and I think thatโs just indisputable evidence of that. And weโll see what that is for Rowan.โ
As news broke about Rowanโs recovery in recent weeks, Olson said he received a text from current USC coach Lincoln Riley.
โHe sent a really, really special message that just let us know heโs praying for us,โ Olson said. โTrojan football has helped me get through so much in life. It did last year, is going to this year and for every year to come. And if, Lord willing, Rowan will one day wear that helmet too.โ
Former USC long snapper Jake Olson holds son Rowan on the football field at the Coliseum on Sept. 5, 2025.
(Courtesy of the Olson family)
During his familyโs visit to the Coliseum last fall, Olson introduced his wife and son to Helton, now the head coach at Georgia Southern, whose team was practicing ahead of its game against the Trojans the next day.
โThat alone felt special,โ Olson said of meeting up with the coach who had helped change his life. โBut then, we were able to walk out onto the exact yard line where I snapped from.
โStanding there with my wife and son, on the very spot where I had shown so much resilience myself, felt like seeing the fruits of โFight Onโ in real time. It acted as a reminder and encouragement for why I was still fighting on now through this new cancer journey. It was surreal and sacred at the same time.
โIf it werenโt for the Coliseum and USC football, I genuinely donโt know if Audrey or Rowan would be in my life. And if it werenโt for me learning how to fight on through all that it took in order to get to that 3-yard line, I donโt know how I would be fighting on as a father or a husband now. So to have both of them there, on that field, taking it all in for the first time, it meant the world.โ