Tony Okanlawon
American football player (born 1979)
Anthony A. Okanlawon (born March 4, 1979) is a Nigerian American former professional football defensive back who played one game in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Diego Chargers. He played college football at Maryland.
Early life and education
Okanlawon was born on March 4, 1979, in Lagos, Nigeria. He was the second-oldest of seven children. He later moved to the United States where he attended DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland and graduated in 1998, having been named first-team all-conference and honorable mention USA Today All-American as a senior.
Okanlawon committed to the University of Maryland and saw immediate playing time as a true freshman, making six starts and 39 tackles. As a sophomore in 1999, he started three games and played in a total of nine, missing several games due to a pulled hamstring. Okanlawon made 26 solo tackles and 31 total, while also recording three passes defended and a fumble recovery.
In the season finale of the 1999 season, Okanlawon allowed Billy McMullen to score the game-winning touchdown in the final minute, which ended any hope of Maryland making the bowl game. He used the play as motivation for the 2000 season and was named Maryland's most improved player in spring drills.
“Tony Okanlawon” enters the record as american football player (born 1979). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tony, Okanlawon and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q108050512. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 1998, 1999 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tony Okanlawon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.