Open a web browser tab and do an online search of the name Ayele Forde. The majority of the top results share similar headlines:
“Ayele Forde ineligible for title game after positive drug test,”
“Oregon RB Forde also benched after positive drug test,”
“Duck Ayele Forde also left home for positive drug test, Mark Helfrich says,”
“It sucks having your name out there in a negative light, for any reason,” said Forde. “Things happen, you make your own decisions. I made mine and I had to live with those consequences.”
Scroll past the first page of results and click over to the second, and the first opportunity to see past Forde’s abilities on the football field is revealed on his Instagram account.
Aside from the occasional football related post, the feed is full of original paintings, detailed sketches and videos produced by the senior from Victorville, California.
A testament of his creative talent is shown in a post Forde shared in 2013 of an award given to him by University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The award acclaimed Forde as “Most Likely to Take the Art World By Storm.”

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Forde has always been an artist. As a digital arts major, his two main inspirations are animators Hayao Miyazaki and Erik Jones. He taught himself how to play the piano and guitar, draw, sculpt and paint.
“In high school, I would always paint and do random commissions for people,” said Forde. “I never went out, I just stayed in the house and drew and watched anime on Saturday nights. That’s all I would do in high school: football, draw and watch cartoons.
His artistic talents were recognized by fellow athletes at Oregon.
“In the nicest way possible, Ayele is an interesting guy,” laughed former Oregon linebacker Carlyle Garrick. “His mind is always thinking bigger and grander. He isn’t super open about being an artist, but it is something everyone on the (football) team just knows.”
In the months following his departure from the game of football, Forde has been able to pursue his artistic passions outside of athletics.
His current focus: a television show for Duck TV, the University of Oregon’s student-run television program.
“It has been really, really cool having Ayele on Duck TV this term,” said Duck TV executive producer Cody Byrne. “We were excited when he and Carlyle came out to show pitches with a concept for a series that is unlike anything we have ever had before.”
Titled “The Box,” the bi-weekly creative show explores the potential of the imagination and coincidence. The show is composed of small videos that Forde had written in the past, now constructed around a singular plot line and connected by one central character.
“The concept came from people always telling me ‘you gotta think outside the box,’” said Forde on the conception of the show. “Well I was like, what’s the thinking inside the box, nobody has ever thought about that.”
Forde recruited Garrick to be the lead producer after they swapped ideas while in Pasadena for the 2015 Rose Bowl. The two realized that they each bring key production strengths to the table.
“He brought me on to be sort of his mind, as far as his mind that is on earth,” said Garrick. “I’m like his interpreter when people are trying to figure out what he is trying to say about his thoughts.”
Two episodes of “The Box” have aired on public access channel 23 and are also available online at the Duck TV website. Forde say the feedback toward the show has been positive.
“From what people have told me is that they’re interested, confused and curious,” said Forde. “And someone told me today that they think that I’m raising the level of Duck TV and what type of things can be done.”
With his projected graduation date this spring, Forde is content that he has had an opportunity to see through the production of one of his creations.
And most importantly, he has had the opportunity to share a part of his true character and what he brings to the table off the field.
“I’m an athlete second, or fourth to everything. I’m definitely my own person first,” said Forde. “Just thinking of people just as athletes, as one thing, takes away from the other parts of who they are. Athletes definitely have negative stereotypes… Off the field you are what your interests are.”
Follow Sarah Scrivens on Twitter @sarahescrivens