ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Central Washington University athletics has announced its 2024 Hall of Fame class to be inducted on May 4 inside Nicholson Arena. To purchase tickets, click HERE
 
Among those being inducted is former CWU football player and former CWU football and wrestling coach, Greg Olson.
 
Olson played football for the Wildcats from 1983 to 1986. After graduation, he attended Washington State and served on their football staff as a Graduate Assistant Coach for three seasons. He returned to Ellensburg to take over the Offensive Coordinator duties for the crimson and black for four seasons, while also taking over the wrestling program for the 1993 season. Olson moved on to NCAA Division I, serving as the Quarterbacks Coach at the University of Idaho for three seasons before accepting the same position at Big Ten Conference member Purdue University. In 2001 Olson cracked the National Football League and returned to the West Coast, becoming the Quarterbacks Coach for the San Francisco 49ers for one season before going back to Purdue as the Tight Ends Coach and Recruiting Coordinator for one season. 

In 2003 Olson returned to the NFL accepting the Quarterbacks Coach position with the Chicago Bears. After one season with the Bears, Olson moved to the Motor City to become the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach of the Detroit Lions for two seasons before a two-year stint for the St. Louis Rams as the Offensive Coordinator. He became the Quarterbacks Coach and later the Offensive Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over a four-year stint before moving to in-state rival the Jacksonville Jaguars to become the Assistant Head Coach and Quarterbacks Coach in 2012. 

Olson found himself back on the West Coast, becoming the Offensive Coordinator for the Oakland Raiders before making the jump back to the Jaguars to be the Offensive Coordinator for two seasons. Olson jumped back over to the West Coast taking over as the Quarterbacks Coach of the Los Angeles Rams in 2017 before becoming the Offensive Coordinator of the Oakland Raiders while they transitioned to Las Vegas. Olson went back to the Rams for one season as a Senior Offensive Assistant before landing back in his home state to become the Quarterbacks Coach of the Seattle Seahawks this season. 

Olson has worked with many big names in the NFL over the years including Geno Smith, Jared Goff, Blaine Gabbert, Josh Freeman, Drew Brees, and CWU Hall of Famer Jon Kitna to name a few. 
 
Below is a Q&A with Greg about his time, thoughts, and memories with CWU, the Ellensburg community, and his time coaching in the NFL.
 
Q: What was your reaction to learning from Dr. Francois that you were going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame?
 
Olson: Certainly, honored and humbled. I know there's a rich history of athletes and coaches that have gone through Central Washington, you know it was a teacher's college. Well, when I was fortunate to go back and coach at Central, I got the chance to recruit the state of Washington and see how many coaches and former athletes were out teaching throughout the state, so I got to know a number of alumni there. Like I said, I'm honored to be included in that group, a group of great, great, great athletes and coaches, so, just happy.
 
Q: Hailing from Richland, what drew you to Central to play quarterback for the Wildcats after your time at Spokane Falls Community College?
 
Olson: I broke my leg my freshman year there, and then finished my sophomore season at Spokane and transferred to Central. I really enjoyed my visit there in Ellensburg. Mike Dunbar was the coach at the time, so I got to meet with Mike and Scott Ricardo was an assistant there. I just enjoyed my visit, and one of the most influential people in my life was my high school coach Lonnie Pierson, from Richland. He became the head coach at Richland High School, but he played football at Central, and was my wrestling and football coach at Richland. He had a lot of influence on that decision. At that time, the program was doing really well. Marty Osborn was the quarterback, and I got the chance to meet with Marty, and Paul Peerboom, and Brian Frauenholtz who were on the team at the time, so I spent time with them on my visit. It just had a real good vibe when I got there, and it made the decision easy for me.
 
I know a lot of people are happy you decided to go to Central, I don't think a lot of people are complaining.
 
Olson: No, we used to always laugh when we were coaches and say, "all roads lead to Central." We might lose in the first go around when we're recruiting, and they might go somewhere else, but eventually they'll come around. They'll find a way to Ellensburg. We would get a lot of transfers you know at the time, when I was playing, we had guys that did transfer in from the number of junior colleges that were in the state, so you always had an influx of junior college players. Unfortunately, they dropped those programs in the state of Washington, but we had that back then. Then when I went back and was fortunate to coach there with Mike Dunbar and Jeff Zenisek, we were able to get a number of division one transfers that came to us from the Pac-10. So, it was just a good place. We had a great tradition, a great winning tradition in the sport of football, so it made it easy to attract those guys.
 
Q: After spending a few years at Washington State as a graduate assistant, you returned to Ellensburg, what was it like to start your coaching in a familiar place and also take over the CWU wrestling team?
 
Olson: Yeah, again, I enjoyed my experience when I was there as a student-athlete, but I really didn't get to experience the full gamut of what Ellensburg had to really offer. But I got to go back as a coach and got the chance to spend time with more people downtown, and visit the restaurants, and get out to the golf course, and meet a lot of the local people there. It really magnified the experience for me. So, it was great to me. I didn't probably appreciate it as much as I should have as a student, but then when I got back to spend the four years there as a coach, you know, it just grew on me, and I still have a number of good friends. Rick and Cindy at Campus U-Tote-Em, I still visit with them. I have a number of people, Bill Owens was one of my math professors there at Central, and he and I have stayed in contact since I left, and he was the announcer for our wrestling matches, so I got to know him much better. When I came back as a coach, I made some of my best, best friends, Bruce Walker, John Picha, Picha is still coaching there at Central, but we became lifelong friends. Charles Chandler, who unfortunately passed away a few years ago, but was one of my good friends. But you know, the friendships that I had, there's so many, so many players on the football team and on the wrestling team, so that was another thing.

My dad was an NCAA wrestling official, and a high school wrestling coach. So, he had a huge influence on me growing up. He introduced me to sports, and the outdoors, hunting, and fishing, which are two of my biggest passions now. So, you know, I was really fortunate to catch on with the wrestling program with Jim Heikes who at the time was the head coach and Eric Idler was the assistant coach and Eric was a longtime assistant wrestling coach there, but they brought me in and welcomed me and it was just a great experience overall. As a matter of fact, the last sport that I coached there or the last even I coached at Central was the national wrestling tournament in Butte, Montana, and we finished sixth my final year. I took over for Jim as head coach my final two years, but it was one of the greatest experiences that I've had as a coach, whether it be football or whatever sport, it didn't matter. It was a great experience for me, and one that I enjoyed. Oh, but you know all the athletes you know, I feel so fortunately. One, and I think every one of them influenced me into who I am today as a person, as a coach. I think a lot of kids when they start out going to college, have no idea what they want to do, and I was one of those kids. I knew I kind of wanted to be my dad, I wanted to be a coach. I wasn't sure what level, and then when I got to Central, when I got the chance to be around more college coaches and college athletes, I really enjoyed that level of coaching.

So, you know, I mentioned Paul Peerboom and Brian Frauenholtz, and Marty Osborn were some quarterbacks early that took me in. My teammates, Dennis Edwards, and gosh Ed Watson, Mark St. Louise, Kyle Fowler, Jim McCormick, Craig Warmenhoven, I could go on and on with the guys that I played with that made the experience a lot of fun for me. I went through some adversity at Central, I got benched, we had a really good football team my senior year. I started the year, and then was benched, and did not get the starting job back until we got into the playoffs against, or until we got to the last game of the year against Western Washington. I was able to start that game and then I got to start the playoff games against East Central (Oklahoma) and Central Arkansas, so I battled through some adversity, but it helped me grow as a man and an athlete, and it really gave me empathy for later on in my coaching career when I had to make decisions as a coach to bench guys. So, I learned a lot. But the biggest thing was that I had such great relationships with the players there, and the wrestlers, and it really launched my career obviously, and it really fueled my passion for coaching. I tell people, you know, I enjoyed coaching the wrestling team every bit as I did the football team, it just so happened that my path took me towards football which offered more opportunities for me. So, I was really lucky. I know Central launched my career, and you know, I also say that at the time I went to Central, there were a number of what I would call the pioneers of sports at Central when you look at it, Eric Beardsley, Bob Gregson, and Spike Arlt, Tom Parry, Dean Nicholson, those guys were just finishing up their careers. They had a great impact on me as well, not only as a student when I was there, but when I came back to coach, my first years in 1990. They were still around, so I still got to visit with Dean Nicholson, and Eric Beardsley, and Bob Gregson who was the greatest swim coach ever, and also Spike Arlt, my wife coached track with Spike, and got a chance to be around him. So, I was around some of the pioneers of coaching there at Central that also really fueled my interest and fueled my passion for going into the coaching profession.
 
I've only been at Central a little over a year now, but I recognize a lot of those names.
 
Olson: Again, they were just on their way out, but they were the pioneers of the coaches and the sports there at Central and I was fortunate to get the chance to meet those people before they left. I got in there, and really it was a great college, it was a teacher's college, a coach's college, so they impacted a lot of coaches throughout the state of Washington.
 
Q: What was it like to coach CWU Hall of Famer Jon Kitna, especially in your first full time coaching position?
 
Olson: When I got to Central, Mike Dunbar was the head coach, and again, I think I mentioned Bruce Walker and Charles Chandler, and Picha and Jeff Zenisek, we were the main assistants on the football team, and at the time, I had just left Washington State with Dennis Erickson and Mike Price and they were kind of the forefront of the spread offense, and so, I was able to learn it at the ground level and bring it to Central. Fortunately, Mike Dunbar was very open to changing offensively, to go to the spread offense, and again when you're on the forefront of something, you can catch a lot of people by surprise, not that these guys weren't great players that we had because they were great players, and certainly Jon was at the forefront, but it was unique, and it was new, and it was difficult to defend. So, we led the nation in a number of those early years, 90 through 93 with a top five or the top offense those years, but the year before I got there, Central had a very good football team. The 1989 football team was a very good football team, and they did it a different way. They did it defensively, and they did it with the rushing game, but we had changed the philosophy offensively, and I was fortunate enough to have been apart of recruiting Jon Kitna, and being apart of his career, and in many ways, he launched my career.

If it weren't for Jon Kitna, I wouldn't have had the opportunities that I've had in my life, so I owe an awful lot to Jon, and he was obviously a special player, but a special person too. He's been a special friend. He and I have stayed in contact over the years as well as I have with all of those quarterbacks early on, you know Terry Karg, I get a call from him every tew months, Terry and I visit. Beau Baldwin, and Ryan Fournier was a quarterback there as well that's still active there with Central. Love Ken Stradley, I had a number of quarterbacks that I had the chance to coach there, Matt Dietrick, were the quarterbacks that I really was fortunate enough to coach, but certainly Jon was at the top of the list. It was fun, it was a little bit, you know, it was because we were at the forefront of it. We just kind of opened it up and tried to experiment with some things, and we had some success. We had great receivers, Eric Boles, gosh there's just so many players that, Tyson Raley and Eric Boles, and James Atterberry, just a number of great players. It's funny, on those teams, as good as we were offensively, we were just as good defensively.

I remember James Mitchell was one of the great defensive backs that we had, and as I was coaching for the Seahawks this year, James is a police officer over in Seattle, so he was one of the ones that would lead us into the stadium on a motorcycle. It's crazy what a small world it is and how it's come back around full circle. Gosh, we had Marc Yonts, Brion Mattson, a bunch of guys that were great players at that time. Kenny Thompson, John Balmer, there's just so many to name. I don't want to leave anybody out because they were great, great, great, great, great players. Again, we were good on offense, but we were equally good on defense. Tracy Mckenzie, linebacker, another great player. I was fortunate. I was there at Central when the program started rolling, so it made it a lot easier to recruit. Again, had an unbelievable coaching staff that made it so enjoyable for me, as well as the players. A really fun coaching staff there at the time. We're all about the same age, Jeff Zenisek, myself, Charles Chandler, Bruce, and Picha, we were all the same age, so we had Dunbar, he was the, I always tell people I've always coached for how many head coaches now, like 15 head coaches, and I said "the hardest one I've ever coached for was Mike Dunbar, he paid me the least amount of money, but he was the hardest guy I've ever had to work for."
 
Q: After you left Central, you went to Idaho and then Purdue as the quarterbacks coach, and in the process, getting to work with NFL legend Drew Brees, what was that like?
 
Olson: It was great, obviously, Again, I have an affinity for every quarterback that I've ever coached, whether they were a starter or not. Beau Baldwin was a great backup for the most part of his career at Central to Jon Kitna, and yet, he still, I think, has the single game record for most yards passed for in a game. It may have been broken since, but you know, that's a small group, a small room that you work with in terms of as a coach, as a quarterbacks coach, there's only, two other, three other guys in the room at a time. So, you're always working with four or five guys, so you become close in that regard. I remember, I went to Purdue, and I brought Jon Kitna. He came out to Purdue and spent time with Drew Brees, and we spent an afternoon just competing one day, and that was kind of central to my coaching beliefs is to compete. So, we played basketball one afternoon on Gene Keady Court at Purdue. It was, you know, it was Drew Brees versus Jon Kitna, that gosh, it was as good a basketball game as I've ever seen. It was very competitive in that way, and I never try to compare players, but it takes a certain amount of intelligence, a certain amount of competitiveness to you, and a certain amount to me athleticism that those guys possess. Very smart players, both of them in their own rights. Both Academic All-Americans, Jon was a math guy, Drew a business guy, they were extremely intelligent players. Great students, really, students of the game, and just so competitive, which I always felt like you've got to find a guy that's competitive, a guy that's intelligent to play that position, and both of those guys possess that, so I was fortunate that way. Also, accurate, they were so accurate.
 
Q: In 2001 you made your NFL coaching debut as the quarterbacks coach with the San Francisco 49ers, what was that feeling like to get to do something that most football coaches dream about getting an opportunity to do?
 
Olson: Yeah, again, there would be a long number of people that I would need to thank for that opportunity. It wasn't me, believe me, it was the players that I had, not just the quarterbacks, but because if we didn't have a good team to back up those quarterbacks, I think unfortunately there's probably a lot of great coaches out there, that because they weren't on winning teams, they never got the opportunity to ascend in the profession. You know, I think that in the four years I was at Central, I don't think I ever coached after a loss, like we had three seasons that we were undefeated in league play, and then our losses were in the playoffs, so you didn't coach after the loss. That allowed me to get to Idaho, then we won at Idaho, which then got me to Purdue, and again we're still in the forefront of that spread offense and we won games at Purdue when they hadn't won in some time. Steve Mariucci was the head coach of the 49ers, and he took notice of Drew Brees and what we were doing at Purdue. So, he brought me in there for an interview with San Francisco, but none of that would've happened had it not been for the success of the quarterbacks of the teams before, so I was fortunate that way, certainly. Again, I was very fortunate to work for Dennis Erickson and Mike Price who taught me that spread offense and taught me some of those principles, and then a lot of it then filtered in the NFL, and well, now today.

When I went to San Francisco, when I was at Central and Purdue, we were in the shotgun probably 75 percent of the time, and then I remember meeting with Bill Walsh when I first got to San Francisco, and they were in the beginning stages of the shotgun, maybe three or four times a game. The arguments that we would have sometimes at staff meetings whether you could be in shotgun or not be in shotgun and recognize defenses from the shotgun formation. I think back, it blows my mind, looking back to it, how that was an actual conversation we had, and I was trying to defend it. Again, it was cutting edge at the time, but it was a neat deal because I grew up, believe it or not, because the Seahawks didn't come around until 76 in the state of Washington, and, so, I grew up a 49er fan. It was kind of a dream come true for me. My first NFL opportunity as a quarterback coach of the San Francisco 49ers. I grew up watching John Brodie, who was my guy, and Gene Washington, Dave Wilcox, a lot of the 49er greats. The first guy I met when I pulled into the parking lot was Tom Rathman, the fullback for the 49ers, and he was then on the staff as a coach. It was kind of cool start, it was certainly a dream that you never think coming out of the Tri-Cities and growing up in Richland, Washington and then attending Central, that you'd ever have the opportunity, but I'm certainly thankful for all the people that allowed it to happen for me.
 
Q: Since 2003, you've had the ability to work with multiple teams in their offenses. What was it like getting to work directly with names such as Jared Goff, Blaine Gabbert, and Geno Smith just to name a few?
 
Olson: It's fun, again, I've enjoyed every quarterback at every level. Jeff Garcia, the first quarterback I ever coached with San Francisco. Jeff Garcia, who at the time was the highest paid quarterback in the league, and very successful, we had a lot of success there with him. And I remember at the time, my first day working with him, he told me "Coach, do me a favor, and coach me like you coach Drew Brees. I want you to be hard on me like you would a college kid, don't worry about the fact that I'm an NFL quarterback." That's how most of them are. Really, every player just wants to get better, and if you can help them get better, then it's going to be a great relationship. I've been a lot of different places with a lot of different quarterbacks, which is good and bad. You know, I'd love to have been that, you know, 16 years with Tom Brady or however many years he played or spent my entire career with Drew Brees. But, you know what, it's been a great experience, and I've gotten to see a lot of the different parts of the country that I would never have seen, you know if I had stayed at one spot, if I'd have been John Picha and just hung out right there in Ellensburg my whole career (laughs). I've gotten the chance to see the entire country, meet a lot of great people, a lot of great coaches I've worked for. I've worked with Pete Carroll, most recently here, a hall of fame coach. So, I've got to meet a lot of really good people, and a lot of great quarterbacks. I have a lot of great relationships with those guys from my 20 plus years in the NFL. Again, 15 years in college, I still have a lot of great relationships with my quarterbacks in college as well.
 
Q: As you mentioned, last season you worked with the Seattle Seahawks as the quarterbacks coach, what was that experience like, especially getting the opportunity to coach back in your home state?
 
Olson: Yeah, that was a big draw for me. I wanted to stay on the west coast. I have a boy and girl twins, my daughter plays volleyball at UCLA, and my son plays football at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who went there to play for Beau Baldwin when Beau was the head coach there. It was important that I stay on the west coast, and you know, one of the dreams growing up in the state of Washington is getting to you know, work for the Seattle Seahawks. I got the phone call from Pete Carroll, and I was certainly excited about it, and he gave me the opportunity to come. He nor I thought that it would be a one-year deal, I expected he would coach throughout the rest of his contract, which he had three more years on his contract, and I figured he'd leave on his own terms. He'd expressed to me he wanted to coach at least three more years; it made the decision easy. I had the opportunity to go to Denver and work with Sean Payton, but I chose the Seahawks, and a chance to come back home. Like I said, it's kind of come full circle. I was able to connect with a lot of former Central teammates and classmates. Gosh, I got to meet Billy North, Billy North came down to a restaurant that I hung out at in Seattle, so I got to spend some time with Billy North, who's one CWU's greats. So, it was fun getting to be back in the Pacific Northwest and fun getting to reconnect with a lot of my teammates.
 
Q: Who do you think could throw the longer touchdown pass, you or John Picha?
 
Olson: (Instant laughing) Picha, well I could tell you some great stories of Picha, but I'll keep those to myself, as well as Bruce Walker. We had some fun, and again, we were young coaches, probably why Dunbar tried to keep us on a short leash. Central's so lucky to have John Picha for the entirety of his career. He's a great, great person, and a great coach. My wife got to coach with him on the track team when she came and coached track at Central and Picha was coaching the track team as well. He's been a great friend, he'll be a great friend my entire life, but to answer your question, Picha would have no chance.
 
Q: I'd just like to open it up for any further stories that you're willing to share with Wildcat nation?
 
Olson: Like I've said, there were so many people that were instrumental throughout my career. Gil Coleman, again God rest his soul, he became a great friend when I first got to Central. I still talk to his son, G.E. occasionally. Gosh, the friendships that I've made there, like I've said. Desi Storey took over the baseball program when I was there coaching and was playing when I was there as well, he became a player, and then became a coach. Gary Smith (Pal), everybody loved Pal. Jim Pappas, Ken Briggs who I think is still involved there around Central athletics. I've just met so many good people. Lonnie Pierson, my football coach, and he was my assistant wrestling coach, my head wrestling coach was Lamoin Merkley, and the Merkley twins were All-American wrestlers at Central, so people from Central had such a big impact on my career and on my life. I just feel blessed that I, like I said, "all roads lead to Central," and I found my way there as a student and later on as a coach. Some of my fondest memories, again are, coaching the wrestling team and the football team, you know Jason Stevenson is one of my all-time favorites, I have a picture of Jason in my office, he's one of my all-time favorite athletes. You know, he was unbelievable. Craig Iversen, wrestled for me, and I think he was inducted into the Washington State Hall of Fame as a coach at Marysville-Pilchuck. I just had such great memories of the athletes that I was fortunate enough to have coached at Central, and it helps when you win, when you win it makes everything fun. So, that was part of it. It's also to me, the journey, the struggle, the wrestling team, we struggled a little bit, but then we put it all together my final year there. Adam Scanlon, Joe Knox, they were some of my players there, Paul Martinez, guys that we took to nationals, that really overachieved and did a great job at the national tournament. That's a big part of the fun of coaching and the enjoyment was the relationships and the growth that you see in your players or athletes.

I'm just very fortunate, but as far as sharing stories, I think all of those stories from The Pav, and the Oak Rail Tavern, the Horseshoe, and I know there's a lot of locals that took a lot of my money out at the golf course on men's night, shooting dice, they probably don't do that anymore. They used to have men's night and we'd throw a little dice out there and did a little gambling, so I know a lot of locals there in Ellensburg that got a lot of my money there in their pockets. Hopefully, someday, I'm going to come back and get it back.