Cutting Loose : Football: Cal Lutheran’s Fredrik Nanhed has gone from anonymity to record-holder in six weeks.

Fredrik Nanhed was surrounded by fans and admirers, including a female student photographer who said she had photos of him playing football.

She gave Nanhed her phone number.

Other well-wishers had high-fives and pats on the back to offer after Nanhed helped Cal Lutheran rout Whittier, 42-0, last Saturday.

Hard to think, but not long ago, Cal Lutheran fans might have asked, “Fredrik who?”

Nanhed isn’t even pictured in the school’s football program because he arrived on the campus on Sept. 11, only five days before the team’s opener at Chapman.

And Nanhed didn’t exactly tear it up in Cal Lutheran’s 38-7 loss against the Panthers. A 6-foot-1, 190-pound tailback from Malmo, Sweden, Nanhed rushed for 18 yards in 12 carries in his college debut.

But like a fine wine, Nanhed has improved with time. Three games later he broke the 100-yard mark. The next game, he set school records, rushing for 313 yards in 46 carries. He also scored two touchdowns.

“He’s been very consistent in the last three weeks and he’s gained a lot of tough yards,” Cal Lutheran Coach Joe Harper said. “He’s a good, tough ballcarrier and he’s very reliable. He’s an all-around ballplayer.”

Just like that, Nanhed, who has short, cropped sandy blond hair and a boyish smile, became big man on campus. Fans chant his name during games and hoot and holler when he carries the ball.

Against Whittier, Nanhed gained 218 yards and scored a touchdown in 27 carries.

Cal Lutheran improved to 3-2-1 overall and 3-0 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Nanhed is averaging 148 yards per game, second in the SCIAC behind La Verne’s Anthony Jones, who averages 161.7.

“He’s impressive. He cuts well and he runs real good,” Whittier Coach Kirk Hoza said.

Nanhed, 22, grew up riding horses and running track in Sweden. It wasn’t until he lived in New Hampshire as a high school exchange student in 1990 that he was introduced to football.

“When I went back home I started lifting weights like the football players in America,” Nanhed said. “Then I joined a club team in my hometown.”

Nanhed played three seasons for the Limhamn Griffins and twice was the Swedish American Football Federation’s most valuable player. He started off as a linebacker and moved to running back a year later.

It wasn’t long before Nanhed caught on and fell in love with what is still considered a foreign game in his country.

The Griffins won back-to-back Swedish national championships and went undefeated for 2 1/2 seasons while Nanhed was on the team.

John Burton, who coaches Cal Lutheran’s running backs, has been an assistant with the Lidon Vikings, a rival SAFF team, the past five years.

“When I heard he was coming I was excited because I knew what he was all about,” Burton said. “I had been talking about him for a couple of years.”

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Burton believes that Nanhed would have been recruited by Division I universities had he played high school football in the United States.

Because Nanhed started playing only five years ago and the game is not as sophisticated and developed in Sweden, his coaches say Nanhed is far from reaching his potential.

“A man with his intelligence and physical gift would have been recruited by a school like Stanford,” Burton said. “He’s also very motivated and driven. He’s a coach’s dream.”

Nanhed’s last-minute decision to play college football came after he failed to get accepted to the veterinarian school of his choice in Sweden.

When Nanhed told his best friend, Mattias Wikstrom, that he was going to play football in California, Wikstrom tagged along. He is Cal Lutheran’s starting free safety.

Nanhed and Wikstrom often compare the way football is played in Sweden with the way it is played in America.

Big difference .

“A lot of people tackle a lot better here,” Nanhed said. “And everything is a lot faster and the game is more intense. In Sweden most people don’t even know the rules. It’s not so big like it is here.”

And it will probably never be as popular as Nanhed has become at Cal Lutheran.