Thanks to a unique coincidence involving a fictional character in an NCAA public-service announcement, Jay Campbell’s memories of his days as a student-athlete have been etched in film.

One of the latest commercials in the NCAA branding campaign features two boys bragging about their NCAA “trading cards” of student-athletes shown in their non-sports professions. One of the boys excitedly announces he has the rookie card of Jay Campbell, who is pictured wearing a lab coat and peering through a microscope over the job title “Medical Researcher.”

The second boy grabs the card from his friend and says, “No way! That guy dominates in the lab.” The final exchange has the first boy looking at the back of the card and saying, “I didn’t know he minored in French.”

The characters on the cards were pulled from a fictitious hat, but there’s also a Jay Campbell who was a placekicker at Lenoir-Rhyne from 1985 to 1987. And even more coincidentally – he works in the sciences. He even minored in a language (OK, so it’s English and not French).

The student-athlete Campbell is now the Northeast regional sales manager for Harlan Inc., a global leader in research models and services. Harlan is based in Indianapolis, and Campbell makes monthly visits to the Midwest from his home in Lowell, Massachusetts.

He didn’t know anything about the NCAA ad campaign until his friends and colleagues began calling him about it.

“Everyone that I possibly knew called me when they saw it on television,” said Campbell, who completed his marketing and advertising degree at Alabama in December 1988. “It was the fact that I played football in college, and they saw the science thing and made the connection.”

Even longtime friends thought he was the basis for the character in the PSA.

“The funniest thing is most of them would say, ‘I didn’t know you were a French minor,’ ” said Campbell.

He first saw the PSA during the national semifinal between North Carolina and Kansas during the Men’s Final Four in April. “I just had to get a copy of it,” Campbell said.

A few phone calls later, he did.

Campbell believes in the message behind the campaign because he is one of the former student-athletes that went pro in something other than sports.

His parents always stressed the importance of developing his mind in the classroom. His kicking abilities also were noticed in high school.

Many of the Division I programs around his Birmingham, Alabama, home were interested in him. In the fall of 1984, he walked on to the football team at Auburn. But a coach pulled him aside and told him about an opportunity he should look into at Lenoir-Rhyne. After a recruiting visit, Campbell packed his bags for Hickory, North Carolina, where he received a grant-in-aid that lessened his financial burden.

After exhausting his eligibility, he moved back to Alabama to finish his degree. Since 1992, he has worked in marketing and sales in the life-sciences field. So, life after his place-kicking days has turned out pretty well.

“The message of the PSAs is right to the point,” Campbell said. “It’s exactly what kids need to learn. Going to college and competing in sports is a great opportunity, and not everyone gets that chance. Even if you do, the opportunity isn’t guaranteed when you get there. You need to get your education.”

And don’t forget to minor in French … or English.