A new desi college football player is now at large. 6’4″, ~290 lb. Gurminder Thind starts as left tackle on the University of South Carolina roster (thanks, OldWarHouse). 
But based on the snarl, Thind really should moonlight as a professional wrestler.
I’m very happy to report that based on the recently concluded Spring practice sessions in Columbia, SC, Gurminder Thind (6’4 290lbs) born in Mississauga, Ontario to practicing Sikh immigrants from India has locked down the starting LT for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. A desi will be protecting the blindside of Steve Spurrier’s signal callers in ’06. [Link]
Gurminder Thind is not like most major college football players in the United States. For one thing, he’s from Canada, where football is not held in the same high regard as it is in the American South. Second, he did not start playing football until he was 16 years old. A former USC assistant coach noticed him there and the rest is history. [Link]
Given the size of these Canadian imports, its hard to imagine anyone taking the joke too far. Pavlovic, who is 6-foot-4 and 241 pounds, is the runt compared to Thind (6-4, 286) and Sorensen (6-7, 309).
As Pavlovic explained when asked why his countrymen did not take up the Canadian religion/pastime of ice hockey: “With how big they are, its pretty hard for them to skate.”
But the three seem to be taking to football fine. With spring practice ending with today’s Garnet and Black game, Pavlovic and Thind have strong grips on starting positions, and Sorensen is working with the second team. [Link]
Although he’d spent four years on a club team in Mississauga, Ontario — a suburb of Toronto — Thind hadn’t been exposed to a complex system or the teaching tools his American counterparts take for granted as obvious.
So when he decided to make film study a serious part of his preparation routine after last year’s spring practice, Thind believed he’d struck gold…
USC may have little choice but opt for Thind as its starting left tackle and ultimately the protector of quarterback Blake Mitchell’s blindside…
Offensive line is typically the hardest position for incoming freshmen to handle, so with USC already down in numbers — only seven scholarship linemen return — Thind became the front runner by default…
“You can tell he’s not quite as far along as other guys, but he’s coming,” Hunt said, referring to Thind’s football background. [Link]
Gurminder Thind was listed as the starter at left tackle… [Link]
“I think the offensive line will play just as well as last year’s. Gurminder (Thind) held his own in there…” [Link]
Another badass man mountain Punjabi boy! What do these Punjabis feed their kids to make them so strong?
Speaking of Thinds, here is an interesting story: http://www.pbs.org/rootsinthesand/i_bhagat1.html
Thanks. See also the title and the first link 🙂
that’s an unfortunate photo
Yo – notice to SM staff – some idiot has linked to a porn page in the News section – first post on Sophia Loren.
imagine how much more awesomely menacing he’d look if he came charging onto the field sporting a dhari and pagdi
Great job representing. Now if we can have some desis playing the skill positions ….
Punjabis and other northwestern indians have white man blood in their paternal lineage. So its not surprising that many of them assume caucasoid style height and largeness of frame. It also explains the lighter skin and occassionally blue or green eyes. Keep in mind that punjabis, haryanvis, kashmiris and rajasthanis together account for less than 10% of india’s population and of them only a minority are taller than 6 feet and have medium/large frames. 95% of indians are small boned, rather short and have a predisposition towards pot belly. Sorry to burst the bubble of our desi manhood 😉
Tamora on April 10, 2006 07:49 AM Another badass man mountain Punjabi boy! What do these Punjabis feed their kids to make them so strong?
Read the tale of the atta and sarson da saag fed “sikh rat” 🙂
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0203cat/020301wrench/020301ch4-6.html
yeah, unfortunate photo..he looks like he has hyperthyroidism… similar to that runaway bride in georgia…
Razib, help….!
Why be self-denigrating? Exercise -> no pot belly. Nutrition -> height. My brother (South Indian) is 6″. No “uncommon/white man/northern/” genes there.
Deepa
your brother is 6″ ? By some measures he may be…ahem…average, but hopefully you should not be one of the women to know about it 😉
In case u meant he is six feet tall, that is not unreasonable. Physical size is variable among groups but the proportions vary. He may well be a six footer with low body fat and a large frame, however proportionately such individuals are a rarity among subcontinentals compared with other populations such as europeans.
anand you have been fed with the shit, the british spread in india to divide and rule. I have met quite a few “binder boys” who believe this shit. its unfortunate and quiet disturbing to see desis beleive in this false info.More so from desis living in US.
If looks could kill (or petrify) this guy should be able to cut a swathe through the opposing team’s defense quite easily…
Touche (ugh :P)!
If so, much of the disparity can be remedied with dietary and exercise habits. Body fat and height are not total inevitabilities (in case you got too distracted by my feet->inches typo in the earlier post!).
Gurminder Thind, meet Jennifer Wilbanks.
It’s actually The University of SOUTH Carolina, not Southern Carolina. Go Gamecocks!
Deepa:
Yes the disparity can be remedied with exercise/diet. The point is, some ethnicities have it easier than others. Most Indian guys for example (with the exception of some of these Punjabis and a few assorted others like possibly your brother) have a tougher time gaining muscle mass in the gym. Yes they can work out harder, pay more attention to their diet, and gain results. But for the same amount of effort, a white or black guy will usually do better. A six-pack (abdominal definition) is very tough for an Indian to achieve. I agree diet/lifestyle play a huge role. The best example of that that comes to mind is if you go to upstate New York about 50% of the people are obese. In Australia, with largely the same gene pool (mostly descendants of people from the British Isles) obesity rates are much lower. Chalk that up to a more active lifestyle.
Fixed, thanks. Got USC on my mind.
Manish:
Something I’ve wanted to ask you for a while: When you were at Berkeley, did you take any of the Punjabi or Hindi courses? They are supposed to be excellent. Sorry to go off on a tangent like this.
manish: you’re forgiven since you made me chuckle….which californian doesn’t have THE usc on their mind? i mean the trojans cover the (game)cocks anyways 😉…
But is there any evidence for this? Not just anecdote or expectation? (Though I do understand that you agree about a large role for exercise and diet.)
Deepa
Here are some links with data to back up what can easily be seen in real life : ie. indians are on average small boned and short with higher levels of body fat despite being of lower weight. Some exceptions exist, especially among northwestern indians such as punjabis due to the fact that invading caucasian armies.
(1) Indians are smaller boned and shorter than europeans http://www.innerexplorations.com/psytext/sp.htm
(2) Indians have higher levels of body fat genetically http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11701707&dopt=Abstract
(3) Further northwest you go in the subcontinent the “whiter” the population gets http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ articlerender.fcgi?artid=1181978
(4) the higher you go up the caste ladder the “whiter” the people…the lower you go the more indian it gets http://www.genome.org/cgi/content/abstract/11/6/994
Have fun
seriously. he needs major work. not a cute singh. hoepfully he’s got talent though.
yo… I would be careful with the genetic generalizations based on internet articles. I’ve read that stuff before too; perhaps they hold some general truths or averages, but I am suspicious of their use as a predictor of how desis fare in the gym or on the field.
We also have some serious African ancestry in India, and that actually really fucks up the artificial genetic split between Black and desi. Of course the political split remains thanks to colonization and geography. But that’s a story for another day.
I knew plenty of big, scary, weight-lifting, muscular desi men in college. These were usually a combination of Malayalees (who were usually not tall but swole as fuck) and Punjabis (who were gigantic and both Indo and Paki). I guess those were also the majority desi groups on campus, after the dreaded Gujjus.
I’m just saying that our proximity to whiteness is NOT the measure of desi men’s masculinity or masculine features. I think it’s a total stereotype that Indian men somehow lack the same physical vibrance as Black and White men. That is the standard racist, emasculating line about the Desi man generally. Right along with the hypersexualization/hypermasculinization of the Black man. I mean let’s see throught this please!!!
There are well over a billion desis in South Asia. What people have seen and stereotyped in the gym in the United States, where the desi population is barely 1% of the nation and an even more miniscule fraction of a percent of the global desi population, is really not representative at all.
Deepa said it even better than my rambling: Exercise -> no pot belly. Nutrition -> height.
Damn straight. It’s not that deep y’all.
NOT TO MENTION that the idea that being 6’6″ and 300 pounds equals masculine, and being 5’5″ and 130 pounds equals being nonmasculine/emasculated is a completely racist colonizing idea in itself.
Come interesting comments from a lot of people who don’t know my brother…but its good to see he is drawing interest from all over…
The whole genetics debate – my family is a larger than normal Punjabi family, I myself am 6’5″, 235 lbs…unfortunately I didn’t receive the same atheltic gifts my brother did…
My brother got to where he is because he works his butt off in the gym for 4 hours a day…and he’s in better shape than 90% of the black and white guys on his team…and isn’t an athlete an individual who just happens to be outside the normal population in terms of their physical gifts…
Genetic variances do exist and one cannot (should not) deny that. Blacks seem to possess a far higher degree of musculature and lean muscle mass. Guess thatÂ’s why every other black actor or rapper has a six pack, regardless of body frame.
If Indians tend to not have six packs, it is partly a function of the fact that we have traditionally and historically an agrarian people, and not avid hunters or warriors. From an evolutionary perspective, decades and centuries of agrarian activity has not required the sub-continental body to develop lean muscle mass, strength or power. Thrown into this the fact that our diet tends to be very carbohydrate based (be it roti ya chaval), and suddenly we have some plausible reasons for why Indians have evolved the way we have. Case in point, modern day urban Indian diets are very high in fat and carb heavy.
Re: north vs south physique. Its is incorrect to assume that PunjabiÂ’s are physically superior or overly larger. I have heaps and heaps of Punjabi mates who are as tall/short or large are someone from say Gujarat or Karnataka or Bengal or up. Also keep in mind that Punjab in particular has faced centuries of invasions and the resultant intermingling of blood lines from the Greeks, Persians, mughals, turks etc. The afghanis and those living in the modern day pak area have for centuries lived in sparse and physically demanding terrain (mountainous and desert area). All these factors imply explain why more Punjabis (Indian and Pakistani) tend to be larger than say in the south of India. Another important fact is that as one gets closer to the equator it is a natural evolutionary practise for complexion to get darker and the body frame to get smaller. This also explains how one can see a gradual (and this is a huge generalisation) darkening of complexion as one goes from Kashmir to Punjab to UP to Maharashtra to Karnataka to Tamil Nadu to Sri-Lanka. Take for example the scandenavians and the mediterranan Europeans (greeks, Spaniards, Italians etc. The Swedes and danes tend to be taller, heavier and way way fairer then the shorter, swarthier and more olive complexioned Italians/Spaniards.
End of the day, despite genetic impact on metabolism, propensity to gain lean muscle mass or bulkÂ…..one can always attain aerobic fitness and increase strength with the appropriate exercise and diet. Yes, height cannot be changed, but that is down purely to genetics and growth hormones.
Bottom line, if you wanna get fit and get muscular and a six pack – go to the gym, start exercising and eat healthily. Everyone’s body functions differently, but there are many ways to skin a cat, so find what works for you. There are plenty of Indian actors these days who are muscular and have six packs.
yeh gurminder thind is ma older cousin dis man is ILLLLL rep it for sauga GOGA! peace bro link me wen u bak
I play football fo high school in california but man if i get a scholorship to ucla! just like him. iono im trying my best out there i started most of mah games as wide reciever. maade 7 touchdowns all in total. but i wanan be linebacker. i still got two more years to go. i wanan see if i reach it that far.n i was tryna create a league for little kids at the gurdwara or da hindu temple but i dont think i could raise enough money. but if you guys live in california and can help out in ur community creating a small league football team for us desis only help me out by emailing me anmolmirakhur@yahoo.com or desiballaz@hotmail.com