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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Former Slippery Rock University men's soccer student-athlete Todd Olsen has compiled an impressive resume over the years, but that document is about to include a distinct additional honor.
The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) will induct Olsen as a member of the Capital One Academic All-America® Hall of Fame's silver-anniversary Class of 2012.
Olsen will be the first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference student-athlete inducted into the Hall. He is only the sixth student-athlete from a Pennsylvania college or university and the third non-Division I Pennsylvania student-athlete honored.
Induction ceremonies for the 2012 Academic All-America® Hall of Fame class will be the featured event at the June 25 Capital One Special Awards Gala held in conjunction with the CoSIDA national convention in St. Louis, Mo.
The Hall of Fame was created in 1988 to recognize Academic All-Americas who have achieved lifetime success in their professional careers and are committed to philanthropic causes in the communities where they reside.
With the addition of the Class of 2012, a select group of 121 Academic All-Americas have been inducted into the Hall since its inception.
CoSIDA has selected Academic All-America® teams since 1952 with corporate sponsorship support over the years from GTE, Verizon, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN and Capital One.
Olsen, a second-team At Large selection in 1984-85, is one of 62 Slippery Rock student-athletes who have earned Academic All-America honors since 1970-71. The Rock ranks fifth among all NCAA Division II institutions in the number of Academic All-America selections.
He is a member of an impressive group of former college student-athletes who comprise the Hall's silver-anniversary induction class. Joining him in the spotlight will be:
• Former Oklahoma men's basketball all-time leading scorer and rebounder and NBA Phoenix Suns standout
Alvan Adams;
• Former Harvard University men's basketball standout
Arne Duncan, currently the U.S. Education Secretary under President Barack Obama;
• Former University of Southern California swimmer
John Naber, a four-event gold medalist in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal;
• Former Notre Dame women's basketball standout
Ruth Riley, the 2001 Naismith Award winner as the nation's top player on the court.
As part of the Special Awards Gala, former Penn State University head football coach
Joe Paterno will be posthumously honored as the 2012 recipient of the Dick Enberg Award.
The Enberg Award is given annually to a person whose actions and commitment have furthered the meaning and reach of the Academic All-America® Teams Program and/or the student-athlete while promoting the values of education and academics. The award was created in part to recognize the nationally-recognized sportscaster's passion and support of the Academic All-America® program for the past 25 years and his dedication to education for more than four decades.
Click here to read the Lynchburg College press release on Olsen's selection.
Click here to read the official CoSIDA 2012 Capital One Academic All-America® Hall of Fame press release.
“I was very proud to have been selected as an Academic All-American during my playing days,” Olsen said. “I wasn't a great athlete but I worked hard at my academics, so it was nice to be honored for those efforts.”
“To be elected to the Academic All-America® Hall of Fame is extremely humbling,” he said. “It is an amazing honor. I am proud and privileged to represent Slippery Rock, Lynchburg and my family on this national stage.”
Olsen was originally nominated for Academic All-America® honors by then-SRU sports information director John Carpenter and later jointly nominated for the Hall of Fame by current SRU SID Bob McComas and Lynchburg SID Mike Carpenter, the youngest son of John Carpenter.
Throughout his career and even to this day, Olsen has displayed the qualities of a true “student-athlete.”
Olsen, SRU's 1984 “Physical Education Major of the Year” and a 1985 SRU summa cum laude graduate as a health and physical education major, gave an address at his December commencement., He earned two master's degrees and a Ph.D.
In 1987, while studying on a Rotary International Fellowship, he earned an M.S. degree in physical education and recreation/exercise physiology from Loughborough University of Technology in England. Six years later, in 1993, he earned both a Master of Public Health and Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh.
While immersed in academic work, Olsen found time to earn three letters and an All-PSAC honor in soccer at The Rock.
"Coach Jim Egli was a major influence in my life," Olsen said of the former SRU men's soccer coach who passed away in August 2011. "He took a chance on a player who wasn't that great of an athlete and allowed me to be part of his program and learn the finer points of the game."
"I have tried to model myself after Coach Egli in everything I do as a coach and as a person," Olsen said.
Following graduation from SRU, Olsen began a success-filled coaching career.
Olsen began his coaching career as head boys' soccer coach at his alma mater, Elderton High School, where he led his team to a Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) semifinal appearance in his fourth season (1989). A year later, he was named as assistant men's soccer coach at the University of Pittsburgh's Johnstown campus and the following year (1991) became the Mountain Cats' head coach.
Olsen compiled a 31-26-7 record in three seasons as UPJ's head coach before accepting his current assignment as head women's soccer coach at Lynchburg College in Virginia.
To say Olsen had been successful at Lynchburg would be a gross understatement. Since his arrival, the Hornets have posted 17 winning campaigns and advanced to the NCAA Division III tournament 12 of the last 15 seasons.
In 2000, Olsen, who has a 294-7-36 record in 18 seasons as the Hornets' head coach, led his team to the school's first-ever men's or women's NCAA tournament win. Since 2000, his squads have been to the Division III final-four competition once, the Elite Eight three times and the Sweet 16 five times.
Equally impressive, during his tenure, the Hornets have earned 54 all-region, 64 all-state, 128 All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), three Academic All- Americas, and nine NCAA All-America honors.
Olsen's leadership efforts have earned him seven ODAC, seven Virginia State Collegiate and two National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) regional “Coach of the Year” honors. He has also been a finalist for the NSCAA national Coach of the Year award on two occasions.
His honors aren't just limited to the athletic world.
In 2011, Olsen, an associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Development at Lynchburg, was named as the recipient of the college's Elsie Ervin Bock Award for Excellence in Citizenship and was nominated for a U.S. Professor of the Year Award.
Olsen also serves as a Public Health Epidemiology Consultant for the Sports Outreach Institute in East Africa. He has led groups of Lynchburg students on trips to Uganda, Kenya, Costa Rica and Argentina to help teach residents in those area proper community health practices.
He has presented more than 65 workshops related to community public health, gerontology and leadership to various colleges and community groups.
The roots to Olsen's caring for others can be traced back to his undergraduate days at The Rock and a special education course taught by the late David Auxter.
“Dr. Auxter was a terrific teacher and very involved in the Special Olympics,” Olsen recalled, “so I decided that was something I wanted to do, too. Looking back, I have to say, that was what got me thinking about helping people who were less fortunate than I am.”
“I am so thankful and God-blessed,”Olsen said. “I have an excellent job, I am around great kids everyday here at Lynchburg, I get to coach a sport I love and I get to do the things I love, which are helping others.”
Aside from his coaching and teaching responsibilities, Olsen and his wife, Gail, are the parents of one son, one daughter and one stepson.
Olsen joins Penn State graduates Todd Blackledge and David Joyner (currently PSU's athletic director), former Pennsylvania governor Raymond Shaffer (Allegheny), Haverford College graduate Dr. Joseph Taylor (Haverford) and Villanova's Carlton Taylor in the elite group of Pennsylvania college student-athletes who have been inducted into the Academic All-America® Hall of Fame.
Among the other inductees into the Hall are the late John Wooden, former Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White, West Virginia University AD Oliver Luck, current New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Kim Mulkey-Robertson, who coached the Baylor University women's basketball team to a perfect 40-0 record and an NCAA championship last winter.
The complete list of Capital One Academic All-America Hall of Fame inductees since 1988 includes:
CLASS OF 2011 -- Peter Metzelaars, Wabash '82; Dr. Megan Neyer, Florida '86; Dr. Randal Pinkett, Rutgers '94; Dr. Julie Bremner Romias, UCLA '94; *Dr. Carol Lally Shields, Notre Dame '79
CLASS OF 2010 -- Adonal Foyle, Colgate '99; Dr. James Kovach, Kentucky '79; Dewey Selmon, Oklahoma '76; *Anita DeFrantz, Connecticut College '74
CLASS OF 2009 -- Tom Clark, Mount Vernon Nazarene '87; Diane Dietz, Michigan '82; *Karch Kiraly, UCLA '83; Julie Roe Lach, Millikin '97; Dr. Patrick Tyrance, Nebraska '90
CLASS OF 2008 -- Dr. Kenneth Caldwell, The Citadel '79; *Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Duke '84; Karen Jennings, Nebraska '93; Rebecca Lobo, Connecticut '95; Amy Privette Perko, Wake Forest '87
CLASS OF 2007 -- Julie Foudy, Stanford '94; Joe Girardi, Northwestern '86; Lance Pilch, Air Force '93; Amy Sullivan Nordmann, Washington (Mo.) '94; *Steve Smith, Stanford '81
CLASS OF 2006 -- Dr. Robert Burger, Notre Dame '81; Dr. Hilarie Cranmer, Hofstra '88; Michael Gminski, Duke '80; Timothy Green, Syracuse '86; *Dr. Joseph H. Taylor, Haverford
CLASS OF 2005 -- Cormac Carney, UCLA '83; *Ken Dryden, Cornell '69; Dr. Claudia Henemyre Harris, Western Maryland '92; John Paxson, Notre Dame '83; Tracy Warren, Trenton State '87
CLASS OF 2004 -- Terry Hoage, Georgia '84; Dave Rimington, Nebraska '83; *Rolf Benirschke, UC Davis '77; Dylann Duncan Ceriani, Brigham Young '88; Gill Beck, Appalachian State '78
CLASS OF 2003 -- Kip Corrington, Texas A&M '87; Chris Howard, Air Force '91; *Donna Lopiano, Southern Connecticut '68; Kim Mulkey-Robertson, Louisana Tech '84; Steve Young, Brigham Young '84
CLASS OF 2002 -- Richard Balzhiser, Michigan '52; Susan Cassidy, Molloy College '86; *Raymond Shafer, Allegheny '38; John Stockton, Gonzaga '84; Susan Walsh, North Carolina '84
CLASS OF 2001 -- Lynn Barry, William & Mary '81; Cris Collinsworth, Florida '81; *Gary Hall, Sr., Indiana; John Hall, Vanderbilt '55; Jennifer Trosper, M.I.T. '91
CLASS OF 2000 -- Danny Ainge, Brigham Young '92; Regina Cavanaugh Murphy, Rice '87; Oliver Luck, West Virginia '82; Pablo Morales, Stanford '87; Sherwood Rowland, Ohio Wesleyan '48*
CLASS OF 1999 -- Val Ackerman, Virginia '81; John Fowler, Jr., UCLA '78; Chad Hennings, Air Force '88; Jeannie Henningsen, Buena Vista '87; Jolanda Jones, Houston '89
CLASS OF 1998 -- Leigh Curl, UConn '85; Bernie Kosar, Miami '85; *Marv Levy, Coe '50; Jack Mildren, Oklahoma '72; Jack Sikma, Illinois Wesleyan '77
CLASS OF 1997 -- Todd Blackledge, Penn State '83; Tracy Caulkins Stockwell, Florida '85; *Dick Enberg, Central Michigan '57; Tim Foley, Purdue '70; Ellen Mayer-Sabik, Cornell '84
CLASS OF 1996 -- Wade Mitchell, Georgia Tech '57; Ron Perry, Holy Cross '80; Bob Thomas, Notre Dame '74; *Byron White, Colorado '38; Carlton Young, Villanova '83
CLASS OF 1995 -- Doug Collins, Illinois State '81; Bob Elliott, Arizona '77; Michelle Johnson, Air Force '81; Pat Richter, Wisconsin '64
CLASS OF 1994 -- Anne Donovan, Old Dominion '83; Rich Mayo, Air Force '61; Lee Roy Selmon, Oklahoma '75; Bill Walton, UCLA '74; John Wooden, Purdue '32*
CLASS OF 1993 -- Raymond Berry, SMU '55; Dave Casper, Notre Dame '74; Jim Grabowski, Illinois '66; Kermit Washington, American '73
CLASS OF 1992 -- Alan Ameche, Wisconsin '55; Steve Eisenhauer, Navy '54; Randy Gradishar, Ohio State '74; Lynette Woodard, Kansas '81
CLASS OF 1991 -- Terry Baker, Oregon State '63; Joe Holland, Cornell '78; David Joyner, Penn State '72; Brock Strom, Air Force '59
CLASS OF 1990 -- *Lester Jordan, SMU; Steve Taylor, Delaware '78; Joe Theismann, Notre Dame '71; Howard Twilley, Tulsa '68; Jamaal Wilkes, UCLA '74
CLASS OF 1989 -- Carlos Alvarez, Florida '72; Willie Bogan, Dartmouth '71; Steve Bramwell, Washington '67; Joe Romig, Colorado '63; Jim Swink, Texas Christian '57; John Wilson, Michigan State '53
CLASS OF 1988 -- Bill Bradley, Princeton '65; Pete Dawkins, Army '59; Pat Haden, USC '75; Tom McMillen, Maryland '74; Donn Moomaw, UCLA '54; Merlin Olsen, Utah State '62
* Honorary inductee
