Who is the 'most interesting' man on OU football team? Meet Sooners OT Walter Rouse

NORMAN — By the time they’re in middle school, plenty of players who go on to become big-time college football players and eventually NFL prospects are already walking that path.

They spend their summers refining themselves as athletes, going to camps and recruiting showcases.

They aren’t spending their summers dissecting fetal pigs or cow hearts.

They aren’t doing research presentations on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or yellow fever.

But normal is definitely not a word that describes OU left tackle Walter Rouse, a renaissance man whose future goals include not only the NFL but also a career as a surgeon and being a host of a food-centric TV show.

“He might be the most interesting guy I’ve ran into for sure,” Sooners center Andrew Raym said of Rouse.

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Rouse might just be the most interesting player in college football.

One of his grandfathers hit the winning shot for Loyola in the 1963 NCAA championship basketball game against Cincinnati.

Another was in the Peace Corps and founded Africare, a non-profit providing developmental air for Africa.

Rouse is interested in Star Wars, Lego, comic books and thinking of different ways to approach complex medical problems.

He loves trying new foods — and is working toward becoming a better cook — and is interested in photography.

Rouse is also a mauler of an offensive lineman.

“Walter, once again, likes to dominate,” Raym said. “Likes to finish. It’s a great deal going on.”

Saturday, Rouse will look to dominate SMU when the Sooners host the Mustangs at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (5 p.m., ESPN+).

It won’t be his first experience with SMU.

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For two summers as a middle schooler, Rouse attended the Physician Scientist Training Program for Biomedical Research Training at the Dallas school.

At the time Rouse was involved, the program — which began in 1990 — boasted a success rate of 100% of its students who finished attending college while 83% went on to graduate school to become dentists, engineers, pharmacists, physicians or researchers.

Rouse wasn’t even thinking of being a football player when he went to SMU nearly a decade ago.

Instead, Rouse had it in his head that he would become a professional basketball player and a heart surgeon.

Rouse could still become a heart surgeon — he hasn’t decided just what specialty he plans to pursue.

“Now it’s one of three things, depending on the way it goes — a trauma surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon or a cardiothoracic surgeon,” Rouse said. “Or could be a orthopedic pediatric trauma surgeon — that’s all three in one.

“I know it sounds crazy.”

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Rouse initially decided he wanted to be a heart surgeon because his grandfather, Vic Rouse, died from heart disease before Walter was born.

Not only did Vic Rouse hit that famous game-winner to clinch a national title, but he earned three master’s degrees and a doctorate to go along with his bachelor’s.

Walter Rouse was also inspired to medicine by his aunt, who had Down syndrome and died in 2017.

“It’s wanting to help and just see the look on people’s faces when you’re able to help them or just give them a simple high-five or whatnot,” Rouse said. “Even the kids here, working at the football camp signing a football, signing jerseys, seeing the look on their faces when they’re being coached or whatnot.

“There’s no greater feeling in the world when you see that smile. That makes it all worth it and that also I was a big Grey’s Anatomy fan back then but all those things together were what led me to want to be a surgeon or a doctor at one point.”

OU vs. SMU

KICKOFF: 5 p.m. Saturday at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman (ESPN+)

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football OL Walter Rouse's road to Sooners included an SMU stop