Gyo Shojima of UCLA has been playing football since he was a freshman in high school, and he made some history in the Bruins’ victory over UNLV.

Shojima, who played in the UNLV game in which they won 42-21, is believed to be the first Japanese-born player to have played a college football game at the FBS level, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Mora acknowledged it after the game to the media, but Shojima didn’t think it was a big deal, per the LA Times:

“I was honored,” said Shojima, a 6-foot-2, 290-pound redshirt junior, “but I never thought about it beforehand so it wasn’t that big of a deal for me.”

[…]

“When I went to high school,” Shojima said, “I thought, why not go into a sport that everybody loves and since my father played in university in Japan, why don’t I play it myself too?”

The Tokyo native Shojima moved to the United States when he was nine years old because of a business venture his father had. He didn’t have scholarship offers to play football, but after a year at Santa Monica College, he received a spot as a preferred walk-on at UCLA.

Despite reporters trying to hype him up, Shojima still downplayed the feat, as he told the LA Times. “I’ve never really looked at myself as nothing more than just a football player,” Shojima said, “so I didn’t really care about the race or the nationality.”

[Story & Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times]

About Harry Lyles Jr.

Harry Lyles Jr. is an Atlanta-based writer, and a Georgia State University graduate.