George Olson, 93, of St. Charles, a former Wheaton College wrestling coach and Illinois Wrestling Hall of Famer, died Saturday, June 8, in Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, from heart failure.
Born in Wheaton, Mr. Olson grew up watching former Chicago Bears player and football great Harold “Red” Grange play at Wheaton High School. Grange also delivered blocks of ice to the Olson home during his college years-summers and would chat and talk sports with Mr. Olson, then a teenager.
Mr. Olson graduated from Wheaton High School, where he was captain of the football team.
In 1934, he received a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College, the third generation of his family to graduate from the college.
According to family members, he loved to recount how he lined up opposite Ronald Reagan in 1933, when Wheaton College beat Eureka College, 15-0.
“He distinctly remembered Ronald Reagan because he said he was really nice,” said his daughter Jody Green. “He remembered him for his sportsmanship.”
After college, Mr. Olson began his coaching career as athletic director and baseball coach at North Park College in Chicago.
He then went on to serve four years in the Navy in World War II, where he taught at the Iowa City Preflight School and was later based aboard an aircraft carrier as a lieutenant commander. He also attended Annapolis.
Eager to resume a career in college sports, Mr. Olson returned to his alma mater in 1945, where he was appointed the head wrestling, baseball and tennis coach of the Wheaton College Crusaders. In addition, he served as an assistant football coach. His stints as tennis and baseball coach lasted until 1948, and he was the assistant football coach until 1962. He was also the line coach for the college’s football teams, which won nine conference championships from 1949 to 1959.
But Mr. Olson’s greatest coaching success was on the mat, where he coached the college’s wrestling program for 29 years, from 1945 until his retirement in 1974. During his 29 years of coaching, he accumulated 28 winning seasons.
During his summers, he also worked at numerous sports camps, including Camp Brookwood in New Hampshire and Camp of the Woods in New York.
In 2001, Mr. Olson was inducted into the NCAA Division III Wrestling Hall of Fame. Earlier he was inducted into the Illinois Wrestling Hall of Fame, after being sponsored by U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who wrestled for Olson at Wheaton College and considered him a mentor during his own 16 years of coaching high school wrestling in Illinois.
Mr. Olson was also inducted into the Wheaton College Hall of Honor and honored for his mentoring of six NCAA All-Americans, including Wheaton’s first individual national champion in any sport, Tom Jarman, who won the NCAA Small College Division Championship in 1963.
“He was a very creative coach. He worked with each player according to their individual needs, talents and goals,” his daughter said.
In his retirement, Mr. Olson moved to Palmer Lake, Colo., where he lived for 15 years. He then moved to Asheville, N.C., where he resided for the next 10 years, prior to returning to Wheaton three years ago. He recently moved to a retirement community in St. Charles.
A gifted artist, Mr. Olson took up woodcarving in his later life and became an expert at carving birds. He taught Hastert the art, and the two exchanged wooden ducks. His duck sits on a mantle in the speaker’s House office.
Mr. Olson is also survived by another daughter, Libby McKechnie, and four grandchildren.
A memorial visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday in the Fireside Room in the College Church, at Seminary and Washington streets, Wheaton. A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Friday in the sanctuary in the College Church.
