May 7, 2019 3 min read

The click-click-click of a keyboard controlled by eye movement was the only sound for minutes at a time as Matthew Onyshko used an electronically-produced voice to testify Monday in his civil trial against the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

As the late afternoon sun headed toward the horizon over West Washington, others adjusted his motorized wheelchair in front of a courtroom jury box so the glare would not hinder his eyes.

Onyshko, 38, of Pittsburgh, a former California University of Pennsylvania linebacker, claims trauma caused by his football-playing days from 1999 through 2003 caused his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a neurological degenerative disease marked by paralysis and loss of speech.

Baseball great Lou Gehrig suffered from the affliction that has long borne his name, and Onyshko, who could have played college baseball instead of football, pointed out Gehrig had actually been a fullback at Columbia University in New York City.

Onyshko contends the NCAA, the governing body of college sports, failed to warn him of the dangers of football-induced concussions, which he suffered, but stayed in the games.

But an attorney for the organization tried to show Onyshko had reported only a single injury, that of a bruised thigh, while he was at Cal U.

Onyshko has been communicating through a device called “Eye Gaze” for the past three years and has been using a wheelchair for six, he told jurors.

The image of the disabled plaintiff was in stark contrast to an image his attorneys projected on large screens showing a young Onyshko holding a bat while wearing a red and white North Catholic High School Trojans baseball uniform.

“Did you ever know what a concussion was while you were playing at Cal U.?” said Eugene Egdorf, one of his attorneys.

“No,” Onyshko replied.

Neither did he know the NCAA was conducting a concussion study at Cal U. during his time as a player there.

If he had it to do over, he would have pursued baseball in college rather than football, he indicated.

Onyshko said he believes he suffered “at least 20” concussions as a collegiate football player during which he blacked out, but was never taken off the field on a stretcher.

Egdorf asked him why he didn’t report these episodes to a trainer.

“I didn’t know they were an issue,” he replied through his communication device.

Onyshko went on to become a Pittsburgh firefighter, where he said he was warned of the dangers he would face.

Egdorf asked him why he chose such a risky profession.

“I always wanted to be able to help people out of a bad situation,” he said.

Onyshko experienced numbness in his left hand in 2008, but his ALS diagnosis came as a shock because it didn’t run in his family.

Under cross-examination, NCAA attorney Arthur W. Hankin brought up a deposition Onyshko gave earlier as part of the civil litigation in which the former football player said he first experienced headaches, dizziness and memory problems.

“You said 1999,” Hankin told him and Onyshko replied, “Yes.”

Hankin said that was before Onyshko had played in any collegiate games.

“No games that season, only practice,” Onyshko replied.

Hankin also tried to show in video recordings of Cal U. games, at no time was Onyshko seen lying immobilized on the gridiron.

Testimony continues Tuesday before Judge Michael Lucas.