CAS CONNECT 2014

Randy Couture in his OSU days in the ear ly ’90s 4 past, been most visible in his athletic pursuits. He was a three-time All-American at OSU, made Team USA’s Greco-Roman wrestling team as an alternate, and took the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) by storm, winning six world champion- ships and earning a spot in its Hall of Fame. Couture continues to seek challenges, looking for ways to fail. For that, he believes, is how to build character. “I think it started from the wrestling mindset at an early age — the kind of diligence and technical mindset that it builds, because every single guy I know has lost matches and had to deal with adver- sity,” he says. The facts that he did not win an NCAA champion- ship nor advance beyond “alternate” status for the U.S. Olympic team clearly moti- vated him as a competitor. He remains equally motivated with his current pursuits. “It’s problem-solving in its simplest form.” Couture has overcome all sorts of problems. Many are detailed in his best-selling autobiography, Becoming ‘The Natural’: My Life In and Out of the Cage . Published in 2009, Couture gives an uncompro- misingly honest account of his life up through the latter stages of his UFC career. He spent more than two years with co-writer Loretta Hunt to produce the book and, thanks to his lay-it-all-out-there approach, it was not always an easy journey. “I tried to be as honest as I could in the book and, you know, a lot of that was hard and painful to drudge up,” he says, “but a lot of it I’ve dealt with and still managed to get through those things, not use them as excuses to fail.” As he moved into his 40s, Couture realized his years in the UFC were numbered. Acting, something the athlet- ically gifted Couture never saw himself doing, became not only a viable option, but a passion. It was a risky passion for while Couture had spent considerable time in front of a camera, he was always “The Natural” (or “Captain America” or “Old Man”, depending on your preference for his nickname). His biggest challenge has simply been to set “Randy” free so that his on-screen characters feel authentic. “I’ve spent most of my life in an individual combat sport where the key was to be able to compartmental- ize, to place your emotion in boxes and kind of stuff them away,” he says. “Now I’m in an endeavor where the whole idea is to let those things out.” And yet, honesty remains. His professors in the foreign languages department made an impression on him. He appreciated the continuity and focus of the faculty. “It was a small group, you had a lot of the same instruc- tors, so you developed rela- tionships with them and they got to know you a little more,” he says. “It made it more enjoyable. Diligence, focus, motiva- tion — pick one and it prob- ably applies to Couture. Those qualities have, in the