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Chukky Okobi was part of the 1997 team that helped lay the foundation of what would be a memorable 12-year run under Joe Tiller. And for that, Okobi is forever grateful.

“It was a special time in my life,” he said.

Okobi arrived in West Lafayette as a lightly recruited offensive lineman from Trinity-Pawling School in New York in 1996 as part of Jim Colletto’s final class. After redshirting, Okobi became a starter on the magical team in 1997 that defied pundits in Tiller’s first year and earned an Alamo Bowl bid. Okobi remained a fixture the next three seasons, culuminating in a Rose Bowl berth in the 2000 season.

The 6-1, 305-pound Okobi was a fifth-round pick of the Steelers in 2001, playing in the Steel City until 2006 and helping his hometown team win Super Bowl XL. Okobi finished his NFL career in Arizona (2007) and Houston (2008).

Since retiring from football, Okobi has been involved in an array of activities, ranging from music and owning car washes and a bed and breakfast. He also has done some acting.

But in recent years, the 41-year-old Okobi founded Basic Instructions, which is built around the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). What is NLP? According to Okobi’s website, it is “learning the language of your own mind.” Basic Instructions is about “emotional breakthrough and mindset programming.” Okobi helps executives, athletes and others to access the resources within themselves to achieve the life experience they desire.

GoldandBlack.com caught up with Okobi.

GoldandBlack.com: Do you have an interesting recruiting story?

Okobi: It’s an interesting story of how my whole recruiting experience with Purdue went down. It was January 12, 1996. I'm a senior in high school. It was a Sunday. And I got a phone call from Randy Fichtner. He's the recruiting coordinator at Purdue. We had a conversation. And he told me he was going to be at my school the next day. He came to Trinity-Pawling on Monday. We met. He told me that he didn't know if they were going to take any offensive linemen in this recruiting class. But they may take one. And if they take one, they want it to be me. He said he was going to call either way.

Wednesday comes. And I just waited all day for this phone call. And I never got it. But I guess he called at some point when I wasn't there and I didn't get the message until like midnight. I called him back on Thursday morning. And they wanted to bring me out on a recruiting visit that weekend. I visited Purdue on the 17th, spent time on campus. And on January 19, Coach Colletto offered me a scholarship. And the rest is history. That all happened in the course of a week. On January 11, I had no offers. Nobody wanted me.

GoldandBlack.com: What did Jim Colletto mean to you?

Okobi: He’s was a genius when it came to recognizing talent. There are other things about him as a coach that are actually very much genius. There are certain aspects of running a program deal. When it comes to X's and O’s, understanding player's abilities and talents, I think Jim Colletto is a genius.

I very much wanted to play Division I football. I knew in high school that I wanted to play at a certain level. Even though I had opportunities to play at some lower level schools, I never considered it. I would rather not go to college. And so I reached out to a lot of different schools. I wrote hundreds of letters to different coaches and that's how I connected with Jim Colletto.

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GoldandBlack.com: What were you thinking when Joe Tiller got hired?

Okobi: Coach Colletto let us know he resigned. We had a couple games left in the season. And I just remember feeling terrified. In my mind, no other coach thought I was good. And now the only coach that believed in me is leaving. I felt this intense anxiety and fear about the future, about my plans to play on this football team, my plans to play beyond college. Everything was in jeopardy all of a sudden. I’m 18 years old, and I just had this feeling like I have got to do something. I can't just accept my fate. I've got to do something.

So, I went to Von’s bookstore. And I didn't know what I was looking for. But I wanted to find a competitive advantage. I wanted to find a piece of information that nobody else knew. So I figured I will find something that nobody knows. I found a book. And that book changed everything. Beneath the title of the book was the secret to creating your future by Dr. Tad James. I didn't know what it was about, I just liked the title. So, I started looking in this book and it was about Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP. There was a lot of integrating psychology stuff.

There was a concept in the book that hit home to me. And the concept was your entire world is in your mind. I didn't quite get it the way I do now. I thought that was really interesting. So, with this NLP stuff that this guy's talking about in this book, what you're telling me is that I can learn to control what's in my mind.

And I bought the book. And here's the thing: I kept it a secret. I never told my roommates, I never told Coach Hope, I never told Coach Tiler, I didn't tell my mom. This was my secret. This is my advantage. It was to continue to work on my mind.

GoldandBlack.com: How magical was that 1997 season?

Okobi: Long story short, in 1997, I was the only freshman starter on that team. I think Vinny (Sutherland) started a bunch of games, but I was only freshman who started every game in '97. I really attributed it to the work that I did on my mind.

And even more important than that was it was very much in line with the culture and the mindset that Coach Tiller was instilling in us. Now, what I do with my business Basic Instructions NLP is essentially teach what I learned from that experience and help professionals to get their specific desired results, even when all of the evidence in their world looks as if it's not possible.

In 1997, nobody thought Purdue was anything. Going into that season, there were no expectation of us having any type of success. People probably thought it would take many years for Joe Tiller to turn it around, but we just didn't subscribe to that narrative.

And so when we think about people now who want to get their championship level results, as an executive or as a parent, or in their health and fitness or even in their spirituality, their relationship with their God … these are the things that I help people do. I apply the same lessons I got from Joe Tiller and help them apply it in their life.

GoldandBlack.com: Talk about your company, Basic Instructions NLP

Okobi: I’ve had clients contact me through the website or through social media and work with them. I've also done corporate leadership trainings with companies. Now, with everything going on, I'm starting to move into some on-line platforms, doing webinars and whatnot. But mainly in the last two years, I've been doing a lot of speaking, keynote speaking, motivational speaking in teaching people what I call the Basic Instructions. And the Basic Instructions are really an evolution of what Coach Tiller used to call the "Do Right Rule.” This was the only rule we had. And that was the Do Right Rule? It means: "Do what you're supposed to do, the way you’re supposed to do it, when it's supposed to be done and do it that way every time." If you do that, you'll have everything you want.

My main point of reference is my time with Joe Tiller. There were a lot of lessons I learned in the NFL, lessons I learned as a kid. But, Joe Tiller is definitely the biggest influence. Basic Instructions is pretty simple, just helping people to take control of the most powerful force in all of nature, which is the human mind, which we all have one of.

But the thing is, when you take your kids home from the hospital, they don't give you an instruction manual as to how their mind works. So, what I do is I give you the Basic Instructions of how to create the reality that you want for yourself. It's the same way Coach Tiller taught us to do as football players.

GoldandBlack.com: What did you do right after your retired?

Okobi: I lived in Pittsburgh about 10 years after I was done in the NFL. I've been through a lot of different personal challenges, in terms of my businesses and relationships. You get to a point where it's time to shake things up and change the scenery, changing my mindset.

I owned a couple of car washes at one point in Pittsburgh. I sold those. I had a bed and breakfast for a little while. But what I'm doing with Basic Instructions is my life's work. This is why I had all of those positive experiences in sports. I had those experiences so that I can share what I know about how easy it can be to have the life experience you want.

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GoldandBlack.com: You were married in the last few years. Do you have kids?

Okobi: Not yet. Eventually, eventually. That’s always in the plan, that's the whole point of life, isn't it?

GoldandBlack.com: What was your most memorable moment at Purdue?

Okobi: The most impactful moment of my life: October 7, 2000. That's when we beat Michigan at home. It was my game. We just lost at Penn State. That whole experience of losing to them, something snapped in my mind. I just couldn't take it anymore. And then you get to a point where we had had so much success. Going into that season, especially with Drew doing what Drew was doing, it was logical in my mind that we're the best team in this conference. And then after losing at Notre Dame and after losing at Penn State, I had a psychotic break or something. I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to speak to the team. So, I asked Coach Tiller if I could.

So, Thursday came and we have our team meeting. He gives his motivational talk. When he was done, he cleared everyone out but the players. We're all just sitting there. Nobody knows what's gonna happen. And so I just stood up and I walked to the podium. And I looked at my teammates. I reminded them of where we were back in 1996—3-8. I said if we lose this game, that's who we are. Because we're not champs. Nobody will even remember we were here

We were down 18 at halftime. People are getting all excited. And I stopped everyone and said: Do you still believe me? They say "yes." Then let's go. In the second half, the defense came through and Travis (Dorsch), at the end, just needed to believe (after missing an earlier field goal).

GoldandBlack.com: Were you happy with your NFL career?

Okobi: That whole experience, especially getting drafted by Pittsburgh, when I moved out of Pittsburgh as a kid. All I ever wanted to do was go home. Rod Woodson was my favorite player growing up.

It was challenging. I was the new kid in school six times before high school. And all I wanted to do was go home. And, you know, my performance at Purdue gave me that opportunity. And so you know going home, winning a Super Bowl, to be able to be part of that means a lot.

I still attribute a lot of my experiencing success in the NFL to Purdue University and the experiences I gained there with Coach Colletto, Coach Danny Hope and Coach Joe Tiller, probably three of the most important influences in my life even still today.

GoldandBlack.com: Who do you stay in touch with from Purdue?

Okobi: I stay in touch with Matt Light quite a bit. With social media, it's easy to stay connected. So, pretty much everybody that we played with at Purdue, Ian Allen, Brandon Gorin ... I am blessed to have gone to Purdue.

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