Growing up in Bismarck, North Dakota, Greg Eslinger modeled the relentless work ethic of those before him. Eslinger’s grandfather, Bill Eslinger, operated a gas station in North Dakota, building a foundation that would support generations to follow.

Greg’s father, George Eslinger, instilled that same tireless work ethic in his children and shaped the lives of countless students during his 40 years as a teacher.

“We all got our work ethic from my dad [Bill]. My dad owned a gas station. He worked 70 or 80 hours a week and he instilled a work into me. I worked 12 months a year,” George Eslinger said. “I worked construction in the summers when I taught. And now my kids are just absolutely into their jobs and they just put in 110 percent into everything they do.”

Greg’s mother, Kay, also taught students in Bismarck. Together, Eslinger’s parents set a strong example of selfless service, work ethic and empathy. Those values shaped Greg as he chased his football dreams.

“Just growing up around them, they were extremely hard working people. My dad [George] grew up in a city in North Dakota but he grew up farming in the summer for one of his uncles. That obviously translated over to me,” Greg Eslinger said. “I was taught by them about the good of hard work, that nothing comes easy and it takes time. Show up every day and be dedicated to your craft. Even on the good days, the bad days, the rain days. I grew up with the North Dakota mentality of grassroots hard work and a lot of that came from my parents.”

From an early age, Greg and his brothers, Matt and Jered, shared a deep love for football, a game that continued to bring them joy through one of the most difficult moments of their lives. Jered was diagnosed with leukemia when Greg was just seven years old. Despite the challenges Jered faced every day, Eslinger watched his brother maintain unwavering positivity through adversity.

“We complain about the small things and the small struggles of what we’re going through. I watched him in the toughest battle that any of us can face – the battle for his life,” Greg said. “At least in front of me, he always had a positive attitude. He never let off that things were at where they were.”

Jered, a 13-year-old at the time, passed away in 1990. From that day forward, Greg vowed to honor his brother’s legacy in everything he did.

“Just seeing how he had a fighter’s attitude throughout the whole terrible experience, I used that throughout my entire football career as motivation. I used that fighting spirit, that positive attitude when I was working out, when I was in practice, when I was playing in a game,” Greg Eslinger said. “You have a tough workout, you’re kind of gassed when you’re conditioning with your teammates, it’s so easy to quit, it’s so easy to give those excuses to quit. I used him as motivation for saying, you want to know what? This isn’t tough. I never let myself complain about feeling too tired or wanting to stay in bed. He was a lot of my driving factor behind pushing myself harder, doing the extra work, never giving myself an excuse to quit or to complain.”

After his football career ended, Eslinger honored Jered by running the Boston Marathon in his memory. He also supported future leukemia patients by raising funds and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).

“I did the Twin Cities Marathon and got pretty close to qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I was probably 10 minutes off, so two years later I decided to run for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and I ran it in Chicago,” Greg Eslinger said. “It was a nice flat course so I was able to hit [the Boston Marathon requirement] just a couple minutes under the mark for qualifying for my age group at the time.”

Backyard Ball to the Big Ten

Greg Eslinger’s football journey took off in middle school. He developed an even deeper love for the game while being coached by his father. George Eslinger enjoyed watching his sons – Greg and Matt – develop their football passions. Little did George know, it was the start of a journey that would one day lead Greg to the College Football Hall of Fame.

“I had the good fortune of coaching Greg and Matt at the junior high I taught at and both teams went undefeated. It was just such a marvelous feeling to coach both of my sons and they both were undefeated. And I can remember that in the fifth and sixth grade football program, his mother didn’t really want him to play in the fifth grade because she thought he’d get hurt.”

Matt Eslinger played backyard football with his brother until he couldn’t compete with him. At that point, the entire Bismarck community began to recognize the young football player’s potential.

“We played ball up until he started kicking my butt and that was the end of that. I wasn’t going to deal with it any longer after that,” Matt Eslinger said. “When I was a junior, Greg was an eighth grader and he started to make a little bit of noise in the community. He was really sprouting and putting on some size and turning people’s heads. And he started throwing in the track events so some people in the high school that were my age, that’s when they first got introduced to him.”

Matt, who is three years older than Greg, briefly overlapped with his brother on the football field. As an eighth grader, Greg’s athleticism immediately stood out when he played linebacker on the practice team.

“When I was a senior, they brought him up for the last week or two of the season with the JV, so he was in on our practices. He was a linebacker then. They put him at linebacker of the practice team and he was actually starting to show up some of the varsity guys at the time and it was really impressive and the guys really liked it,” Matt Eslinger said. “They really gave me a lot of crap because my younger brother was really showing it on the field.”

Gerg Eslinger left a major mark on the Bismarck High School football program. During his senior season, he led the Demons to a 12-0 record and state championship. Greg’s mother fondly remembers watching her son play high school football.

“It was just so much fun,” Kay Eslinger said. “His senior year they won the state championship, so that was just really exciting because we had been there with Matt as well.”

Years later, everything came full circle for the entire Eslinger family. Greg’s sons, Easton and Grant Eslinger, football players at Orono High School, won the Minnesota Class AAAA Football State Championship game in November.

“Greg has raised three boys and they’re doing well. In fact, the older two just won a state championship in Minnesota, so it was a full circle moment for Greg to watch his children achieve that goal,” Kay Eslinger said. “I’m just so proud of both of my sons and the men that they have become in life. You just want your kids to be happy and successful and they both are.”

From Underrated to Unstoppable

Despite emerging as one of the top football players in North Dakota, Eslinger wasn’t receiving much interest from college football programs. In the early 2000s, many schools didn’t target prospects in North Dakota. That didn’t stop Greg and his dad though. George produced VHS tapes and sent them to programs across the Midwest.

“We thought that if Greg was going to get noticed, we needed to send out a lot of his plays that were good plays. And so I sat down with two VCRs and played each game on one VCR and I recorded his best tackles and blocks with the other VCR and then we put it to music,” Eslinger said. “It was all of his football film up until the end of his junior year because we sent the tapes out the summer of his junior year. We sent them to Nebraska, Wisconsin, UND, NDSU, the Gophers and Montana. We got a lot of correspondence back from all of the schools, so it was a very worthwhile thing to do.”

From there, Greg received a Minnesota Gophers football camp invite in the mail. Eslinger went to the camp and then eventually earned an offer from the Gophers. After arriving on campus, Eslinger assumed he wouldn’t see the field early, but that belief quickly changed. The young offensive lineman started immediately as a true freshman.

“A teammate of his, Joe Quinn, who played guard at Minnesota when Greg was a freshman, they were talking at a practice about a week before the first game of the season and Joe said, ‘I think you’re going to start.’ And Greg said, ‘You can’t be serious, this isn’t going to happen.’ I don’t think he believed it right up until he was told he was going to start his first game,” George Eslinger said.

For Greg’s brother Matt, watching his younger brother play for the Gophers is something he will cherish forever. He vividly remembers all of the special moments that the two of them shared through football.

“When he was in college, you can’t get over the fact when you see him out on the field against Penn State or Michigan. Going to bowl games, watching those were always the greatest time. And watching him play these big SEC schools,” Matt Eslinger said. “I remember when they beat Alabama. I was just like, I can’t believe I’m watching him play at Minnesota and they just beat Alabama.”

Eslinger, a two-time First Team All-American (unanimous honors as a senior), started all 50 games for Minnesota during his four-year career. As a senior, the Gophers’ star became the first player to win the Rimington Trophy (nation’s best center) and Outland Trophy (most outstanding interior lineman) in the same season. After beginning his journey with little interest from college programs, Eslinger went on to cement his legacy as one of the most accomplished players in Gopher football history.

Eslinger’s exceptional career reached its pinnacle when he was officially inducted into the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

During all of the Hall of Fame activities in Las Vegas, Greg found himself thinking about his brother, Jered, a driving force in his life. Jered played football in middle school and dreamed of one day competing on the biggest stage. While playing center for the Gophers, Eslinger made it his mission to live out that dream for Jered.

“Before every game I’d say a prayer to him. He was a huge influence. Every time I talk about him, I still get emotional,” Greg Eslinger said. “He was a football player back in the day. I always thought about how he wasn’t able to chase that dream, so I like to think that I was able to carry on his legacy through working hard and continuing on that fighting spirit in my own way.”

As Eslinger received his Hall of Fame plaque from the National Football Foundation, his heart was with Jered. Every tackle, every snap and every victory throughout his career was shaped by the memory of his brother. When Eslinger became the 20th Minnesota Golden Gopher to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, he felt the smile of his brother.

“I hope he’d be proud of me,” Greg Eslinger said. “I hope he’s up and there and proud of what I was able to accomplish. Granted it’s on a much, much lesser scale than what he went through, but I’d like to think I was able to continue on with his fighting spirit, positive mentality and never-say-quit attitude.”

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