UCLA Football: How Ex-Bruin Pivoted From Devastating Accident To New Creative Career
He lost his leg as a result of a 2012 Pacific Coast Highway motorcycle crash, but he hasn't lost hope.
Former UCLA Bruins lineman Amir "Nick" Ekbatani spoke with Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register in a comprehensive new piece about his life after the accident.
Following a one-year stint at LA Harbor College, the 6'5", 306-pound Torrance native played with UCLA from 2006-09, after initially being a walk-on. He played for five games against Utah, Stanford, Arizona, California and Florida State during his first season with the Bruins. He redshirted the 2007 season. He stepped up in a big way in 2008, serving as the sole offensive lineman to start all 12 contests for the team. He was an honorable mention Pac-10 All-Academic team member. During his last season, 2009, he appeared in eight contests, starting two. He played at both right guard and on offensive tackle.
Ekbatani notched a tryout with the then-St. Louis Rams, though he would not stick.
Now 36, Ekbatani lives in Montana and is making what he calls "indie dance" synth-heavy pop music on an 11-track solo record. It took him 13 surgeries and four years to learn how to walk again.
The Swim With Mike scholarship foundation, set up for physically disabled athletes, has raised $29 million plus to date to help fund scholarships. Ekbatani was granted a scholarship through the program, earned a business degree at USC, and very quickly burned out of the business world.
“For a while, I was worried (the MBA) wouldn’t be helpful,” Ekbatani said. He had pivoted to teaching fitness classes. “And then the lawsuit happened.” He was awarded $35 million from Caltrans by a jury decision, blaming the poor design of a Redondo Beach intersection on his crash.
“I come from nothing and I was given a large sum of money and, boy, let me tell you, navigating that world was a really, really, really steep learning curve,” Ekbatani said. “I’m grateful that I had some of the fundamentals to actually know what some people were talking about – as well as having the connection to people who know more than I do and I can trust and lean and say, ‘Hey, am I getting screwed?’ Because when that happened, everybody had an investment, new relatives, all kinds of stuff.”
He supplied a scholarship to the Swim With Mike program after the decision.
“I don’t know where I’d be without Swim With Mike,” Ekbatani said. “Even without the lawsuit and MBA school, in the darkest time of my life, they gave me something to look forward to.”
He took classes at Icon Collective, Berklee College of Music and the Los Angeles Academy of Artists and Music Production to burnish his sonic bona fides starting in 2020.
“I’ve done all the schools,” Ekbatani explained. “So now it’s time to take off the training wheels.”
His first two songs, “In My Lane,” and “Tell Me You Love Me,” are currently streaming on various big streaming platforms (including Apple Music and Spotify). He produced, mixed, wrote and sang on the tracks. Swanson writes that his teammates have been big fans of the two cuts.
“I’m more kind to myself than I’ve ever been,” he said. “One of my biggest downfalls as an athlete, I was motivated by my disdain for my imperfections. Now it’s like, you know, ‘I’m doing OK.’”
“Do it!” Ekbatani said of his message to folks. “I wish to God I did it when I was younger; I always had music in me, and I just kind of always kept trying to hush it up. If music’s in you, do it … whatever it is inside of you that makes your heart feel love and feel on fire, do that.”
