Alumni Profiles

'The Russian Front' Revisited When the Jarostchuks played football, there was no detente By Beth Potier

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Lisa Nugent/UNH Photographic Services Ilia '87, Alex '89 and Basil '89 Jarostchuk

In UNH football, it's not often that members of the defense team psych out opponents by speaking Russian. But for the Jarostchuk brothers, who played Wildcat football in the late '80s, a comment like "Ya vozmu sorok shest—A ti vozmi tritsatz dva!" (I'll take 46—you take 32!) while waiting for the snap was a fun way to unnerve the opposition.

Ilia Jarostchuk '87 was the first brother to be offered a football scholarship, and to arrive at UNH, where he majored in civil engineering. His mother was anxious about his playing college football. "She saw these enormous guys in the weight room and told my father, 'If you send our son here, his blood is on your hands,'" he recalls. Her attitude changed with time, however. A nearly constant presence at every game, "She would yell along with the crowd, 'Hit him again! Hit him again! Harder! Harder!'" Ilia says.

Basil Jarostchuk '89 followed his brother to Wildcat country, majoring in Russian, and then Alex Jarostchuk '89. Alex, 6'5" and more experienced on the football field, was courted by many schools—Syracuse even sent a recruiter to Durham to seek Ilia and Basil's blessing. In the end, it was academics, not athletics, that lured him to UNH. "The UNH athletic department always supported the academics first. That was one of the biggest factors," says Alex, a chemical engineering major. A sister, Anya, arrived at UNH in 1987 but stayed for just a year. By then, sportswriters had dubbed the three brothers "the Russian Front." "She had to leave because she couldn't get a date," jokes Ilia. "Who wants to confront the Russian Front?"

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All three brothers credit UNH with setting them on successful career paths. Ilia was drafted in the fifth round in 1987 by the St. Louis Cardinals and played in the NFL for six years, including a stint with the New England Patriots. Today, he works in medical device sales for neurosurgical products at Johnson & Johnson. Basil lives in New Jersey and also works in sales and marketing for medical devices. Alex is associate director of engineering for Pfizer in Massachusetts.

The Jarostchuk brothers overlapped as football players only for the 1986 season, but the Russian Front nonetheless has left a lasting legacy of pride. All three brothers maintain strong connections to their Russian heritage, taking leadership roles in the Russian Orthodox church. While the quirky story of UNH's Russian Front captured the attention of Wildcat football fans, it also gained the brothers an even greater notoriety among Russian immigrant families throughout the country. It was one of the first times, says Basil, that the media portrayed their heritage in a positive light.

While it's hardly Cowell Stadium, each Thanksgiving the brothers and their combined brood of eight offspring play a fiercely competitive Turkey Bowl, donning old jerseys and painting yard lines in the backyard. Their father calls obscure penalties, and the brothers nurse pulled muscles the following day. "The mind says yes," says Ilia, "but the body says something else."

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