Meet Wisconsin's backflipping 'Mr. Aloha'

MADISON, Wisc. -- The most popular man around here is a 6-foot-2, 335-pound, backflipping, ukulele-playing, toe-touching former cheerleader who happens to be the starting nose tackle for Wisconsin's football team.

That's an important thing to understand about Olive Sagapolu. He's known for football (a shocking disclosure: it's the reason for this story) and likely will be for a while. He's an All-Big Ten candidate who has started 19 games for one of the country's best defenses. But football doesn't define him.

Born in Hawaii and raised in American Samoa and Southern California, Sagapolu sought an adventure for college. "Someplace far, someplace where I could rely on myself as an individual,"…