Phil Olsen
Encyclopedia
Phillip Vernor Olsen is a former center
and defensive tackle in the National Football League
for the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Broncos
and the son of Lynn Jay and Merle Olsen. He also was a member of the Buffalo Bills
. He is the younger brother of Pro Football Hall of Fame
r Merlin Olsen
.
Olsen was voted All-Division, All-Region, All-State, All-American recognition in football as well as voted All-Division, All-Region in basketball (averaging 18 points a game as a senior). He was on the Top 100 recruits list in football in 1966. He received over 40 college football scholarship offers, making campus visits to Stanford, the University of Iowa
, University of Utah
, Brigham Young University
, and Purdue University
.
selection for the Utah State University
Aggies, in Logan, UT. Olsen was an Alpha Sigma Nu
Honorary as one of top 12 USU Seniors, 1970, and like his brother Merlin is a member of the Sigma Chi
Fraternity. Olsen was also the Aggie Team Captain, 1969 Team MVP, and the 1969 USU Athlete of the Year. Wayne Estes Memorial Award, 1970 for "Top USU Student/Athlete/Citizen". His jersey #90 was retired in 1970. After his senior season he played in the East West Shrine Game, the Hula Bowl
, and College All-Star games.
In Olsen's junior year of 1968 the Aggies were 7-3 and had wins over the University of Wisconsin
, Memphis State University, West Texas State, Utah and BYU. He was voted honorable mention All-America honors that season.
In his sophomore year of 1967 the Aggies were 7-2-1 that year and were seven points from a 10-0 season. USU lost to Colorado State University
16-14 on a controversial officiating call that cost the team potential game-winning field goal attempt. The Aggies also lost to New Mexico State 10-9 on a failed two-point conversion that tipped off the receiver’s hands in the end zone which would have won the game. USU tied Wichita State 3-3 in the season opener in which the Aggie defense held Wichita State to 65 total yards and -2 yards rushing. (Former Dallas Cowboys
and Miami Dolphins
coach Jimmy Johnson
was the WSU coaching staff at that time). Wichita State amassed only 65 yards in that game, the third-best effort in USU history. The Aggies held San Diego State University to -5 yards rushing and the University of the Pacific to -35 yards rushing, setting the then school record in that category in the process.
Olsen was co-Captain of the freshman football Team and played on the freshman basketball team as well. (Freshman were not allowed to play NCAA varsity sports until 1972). Dale Brown
, of LSU fame, was Olsen's hoops coach as a freshman. That 1966-67 freshman basketball team still holds the record for most wins by a freshman team at USU.
Member of the State of Utah’s Sports Hall of Fame (inducted 1985) and USU’s All-Century Football Team. Inducted into the Utah State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2000, was selected by Sports Illustrated as one of the State of Utah’s Top 50 Athletes of the Century. From 2002-2006 was a finalist for the College Football Hall of Fame
. He is also a Sigma Chi from the Gamma Kappa Chapter at Utah State University.
of the University of Notre Dame
, fell on his right knee, ending his 1970 season.
Traded to the Rams before the 1971 season for a #1 draft choice and additional financial compensation. Suffered a second injury to the same knee after winning the starting position at right defensive tackle, yet was able to come back after five weeks and be the starter for the Rams in 1971 and 1972 next to his brother, Merlin Olsen
. Merlin and Phil played side-by-side as defensive tackles for the Los Angeles Rams in 1971 and 1972, the only time in NFL history this has ever happened. A younger brother Orrin, played for the Kansas City Chiefs
in 1976. Merlin, Phil and Orrin were all playing in the NFL in 1976, which is one of the few times in NFL history that three brothers have ever played at the same time.
In 1973 and 1974 Phil was moved to defensive end where he backed up Fred Dryer
and Jack Youngblood
. Traded to the Broncos in 1975 where he reunited with Coach John Ralston who had recruited him out of high school to Stanford and had coached him the East-West Shrine Game
. Olsen switched positions again, this time to center where he played through 1976.
Olsen was the captain of the Broncos return teams both seasons there. In 1976 Rick Upchurch
had a spectacular year as a rookie kick returner. That year, the Broncos tied the then-NFL record with 6 kicks returned for touchdowns, with Upchurch setting the NFL mark for punt returns for a touchdown in a season with four. That same season, in addition to starting more than half the games at center, Olsen blocked four kicks (a punt, two PATs and a field goal). The Broncos beat the New York Giants
14-13 after Olsen blocked a PAT and for his efforts he was presented a game ball.
He moved on to the Buffalo Bills
to reunite with his Ram coach Chuck Knox as one of the "Knox's Guys". These were players who Chuck Knox
would bring into his teams to provide leadership, skill and experience. However Phil subsequently suffered a third knee injury and spent his time in Buffalo on the injured reserve unit.
Center (American football)
Center is a position in American football and Canadian football . The center is the innermost lineman of the offensive line on a football team's offense...
and defensive tackle in the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
for the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the son of Lynn Jay and Merle Olsen. He also was a member of the Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. He is the younger brother of Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
r Merlin Olsen
Merlin Olsen
Merlin Jay Olsen was an American football player in the National Football League, NFL commentator, and actor. He played his entire 15-year career with the Los Angeles Rams and was elected to the Pro Bowl in 14 of those seasons, a current record shared with Bruce Matthews...
.
High school
Olsen attended Logan High School, Logan, UT from 1963-1966. He was a three-year starter on the varsity football team as defensive tackle and offensive tackle. An all around athlete, he earned 8 varsity letters in football, basketball and track. While a Logan High GrizzlyGrizzly
Grizzly may refer to:* Grizzly bear , a North American bear* Grizzly , a Marvel Comics character* Grizzly , a novel in Gary Paulsen's World of Adventure series...
Olsen was voted All-Division, All-Region, All-State, All-American recognition in football as well as voted All-Division, All-Region in basketball (averaging 18 points a game as a senior). He was on the Top 100 recruits list in football in 1966. He received over 40 college football scholarship offers, making campus visits to Stanford, the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
, University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
, Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
, and Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
.
College
Phil Olsen was a three-year letterman and three-year starter and in 1969 was a consensus All-America1969 College Football All-America Team
The 1969 College Football All-America team is composed of various organizations that choose College All-America teams that season. The organizations that chose the teams were Associated Press, United Press International, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Central Press Association, Football Writers...
selection for the Utah State University
Utah State University
Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....
Aggies, in Logan, UT. Olsen was an Alpha Sigma Nu
Alpha Sigma Nu
Alpha Sigma Nu was founded at Marquette University in 1915 by John Danihy, S.J., Dean of Journalism. In his travels and reading, Father Danihy had encountered and admired honor societies...
Honorary as one of top 12 USU Seniors, 1970, and like his brother Merlin is a member of the Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi is the largest and one of the oldest college Greek-letter secret and social fraternities in North America with 244 active chapters and more than . Sigma Chi was founded on June 28, 1855 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio when members split from Delta Kappa Epsilon...
Fraternity. Olsen was also the Aggie Team Captain, 1969 Team MVP, and the 1969 USU Athlete of the Year. Wayne Estes Memorial Award, 1970 for "Top USU Student/Athlete/Citizen". His jersey #90 was retired in 1970. After his senior season he played in the East West Shrine Game, the Hula Bowl
Hula Bowl
The Hula Bowl was an independently administered post-season invitational college football game held each year in Hawaii from 1947 to 2008. The game was last played at Aloha Stadium in the Hālawa district of Honolulu, Hawaii. At one point the longest-running sporting event in Hawaii, it had been...
, and College All-Star games.
In Olsen's junior year of 1968 the Aggies were 7-3 and had wins over the University of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, Memphis State University, West Texas State, Utah and BYU. He was voted honorable mention All-America honors that season.
In his sophomore year of 1967 the Aggies were 7-2-1 that year and were seven points from a 10-0 season. USU lost to Colorado State University
Colorado State University
Colorado State University is a public research university located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The university is the state's land grant university, and the flagship university of the Colorado State University System.The enrollment is approximately 29,932 students, including resident and...
16-14 on a controversial officiating call that cost the team potential game-winning field goal attempt. The Aggies also lost to New Mexico State 10-9 on a failed two-point conversion that tipped off the receiver’s hands in the end zone which would have won the game. USU tied Wichita State 3-3 in the season opener in which the Aggie defense held Wichita State to 65 total yards and -2 yards rushing. (Former Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
and Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
coach Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson (American football coach)
James William "Jimmy" Johnson is an American former NCAA and National Football League head coach. As of 2010, he is currently an analyst for Fox NFL Sunday, the Fox network's NFL pregame show. He was the first football coach whose teams won both an NCAA Division 1A National Championship and a...
was the WSU coaching staff at that time). Wichita State amassed only 65 yards in that game, the third-best effort in USU history. The Aggies held San Diego State University to -5 yards rushing and the University of the Pacific to -35 yards rushing, setting the then school record in that category in the process.
Olsen was co-Captain of the freshman football Team and played on the freshman basketball team as well. (Freshman were not allowed to play NCAA varsity sports until 1972). Dale Brown
Dale Brown (basketball)
Dale Duward Brown is an American former college basketball coach who spent 25 years leading the LSU Tigers. His team earned Final Four appearances in 1981 and 1986. He is also remembered as one of the most vocal critics of the NCAA because he said it legislated against human dignity.-Life in...
, of LSU fame, was Olsen's hoops coach as a freshman. That 1966-67 freshman basketball team still holds the record for most wins by a freshman team at USU.
Member of the State of Utah’s Sports Hall of Fame (inducted 1985) and USU’s All-Century Football Team. Inducted into the Utah State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2000, was selected by Sports Illustrated as one of the State of Utah’s Top 50 Athletes of the Century. From 2002-2006 was a finalist for the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
. He is also a Sigma Chi from the Gamma Kappa Chapter at Utah State University.
NFL career
Drafted in the first round (overall #4) of the 1970 draft by the Boston Patriots. Prior to reporting to the Patriots, he suffered a severe knee injury in practice the week of the College All-Star game in Chicago, IL when DT Mike McCoyMike McCoy (defensive tackle)
Michael Patrick McCoy played for the Green Bay Packers, the Oakland Raiders, the New York Giants, and the Detroit Lions. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame, where he was a unanimous first-team All-American and Heisman Trophy candidate in 1969...
of the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, fell on his right knee, ending his 1970 season.
Traded to the Rams before the 1971 season for a #1 draft choice and additional financial compensation. Suffered a second injury to the same knee after winning the starting position at right defensive tackle, yet was able to come back after five weeks and be the starter for the Rams in 1971 and 1972 next to his brother, Merlin Olsen
Merlin Olsen
Merlin Jay Olsen was an American football player in the National Football League, NFL commentator, and actor. He played his entire 15-year career with the Los Angeles Rams and was elected to the Pro Bowl in 14 of those seasons, a current record shared with Bruce Matthews...
. Merlin and Phil played side-by-side as defensive tackles for the Los Angeles Rams in 1971 and 1972, the only time in NFL history this has ever happened. A younger brother Orrin, played for the Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
in 1976. Merlin, Phil and Orrin were all playing in the NFL in 1976, which is one of the few times in NFL history that three brothers have ever played at the same time.
In 1973 and 1974 Phil was moved to defensive end where he backed up Fred Dryer
Fred Dryer
John Frederick "Fred" Dryer is an American actor and former football defensive end in the National Football League . Dryer played 13 years in the NFL, playing 176 games, starting 166, and recording 104 career sacks with the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams...
and Jack Youngblood
Jack Youngblood
Herbert Jackson "Jack" Youngblood, III is a former American college and professional football player who was a defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League for fourteen seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. He was a five-time consensus All-Pro and a seven-time Pro Bowl...
. Traded to the Broncos in 1975 where he reunited with Coach John Ralston who had recruited him out of high school to Stanford and had coached him the East-West Shrine Game
East-West Shrine Game
The East–West Shrine Game is an annual post-season college football all-star game played each January since 1925. The game is sponsored by the fraternal group Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and the net proceeds are earmarked to some of the Shrine's charitable works, most notably the Shriners...
. Olsen switched positions again, this time to center where he played through 1976.
Olsen was the captain of the Broncos return teams both seasons there. In 1976 Rick Upchurch
Rick Upchurch
Richard “Rick” Upchurch is a former professional American football player who played wide receiver for the Denver Broncos of the NFL. Before his NFL career, he played for Centerville Community College in Centerville, Iowa and the University of Minnesota and went to high school at Springfield...
had a spectacular year as a rookie kick returner. That year, the Broncos tied the then-NFL record with 6 kicks returned for touchdowns, with Upchurch setting the NFL mark for punt returns for a touchdown in a season with four. That same season, in addition to starting more than half the games at center, Olsen blocked four kicks (a punt, two PATs and a field goal). The Broncos beat the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
14-13 after Olsen blocked a PAT and for his efforts he was presented a game ball.
He moved on to the Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
to reunite with his Ram coach Chuck Knox as one of the "Knox's Guys". These were players who Chuck Knox
Chuck Knox
Charles Robert "Chuck" Knox is a former American football coach at the high school, collegiate and professional levels. He is best remembered as head coach of three National Football League teams, the Seattle Seahawks, the Buffalo Bills, and the Los Angeles Rams, serving two separate stints with...
would bring into his teams to provide leadership, skill and experience. However Phil subsequently suffered a third knee injury and spent his time in Buffalo on the injured reserve unit.
Other activities
- With his brothers, Merlin and Orrin, ran the Olsen Brothers All-Sports Camps from 1971 through 1978 which was an introductory all sports camps for youngsters ages 8–17.
- He first obtained his real estate license in 1974, and during his NFL years and cultivated his interest in commercial industrial real estate through personal investments and partnership syndications. From 1984 to 1992, he was a licensed California real estate broker and a licensed securities dealer. Currently, he is a licensed real estate broker in the state of Montana with expertise in real estate brokerage and real estate development, as well as investor equity funding.
- He is currently the president of Know Your Strengths in Bozeman, MT. Olsen spends most of his time guiding clients and executive-level management through processes dealing with talent discovery, recruiting, job matching, training, motivating, managing and retention.
- Olsen is a Certified DynaMetrics Professional (CDMP) by Professional DynaMetric Programs. CDMP is their highest attainable credential dealing with the recognition of human potential and its applications in human performance. He is also credentialed by the Society for Human Resource ManagementSociety for Human Resource ManagementThe Society for Human Resource Management is a professional human resources association headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. The largest such association in its field, SHRM promotes the role of HR as a profession and provides education, certification, and networking to its members while lobbying...
as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
- Olsen is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys huntingHuntingHunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
, fishingFishingFishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, hikingHikingHiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
, and horseback riding.