Former UND football coach and Potato Bowl founder Jerry Olson has died at 89

Feb. 25—GRAND FORKS — Former UND football coach Jerry Olson, one of the founders of the school's Potato Bowl tradition, died Saturday morning at 89.

During Olson's time at UND, the Fighting Sioux won North Central Conference Championships in 1971, 1972, 1974 and 1975.

At the end of the 1971 season, Olson was named the District Coach of the Year and earned the title of the North Dakota College Coach of the Year in 1972. For his contributions to the program, Olson was inducted into the UND Athletic Hall of Fame in the fall of 1981.

Olson, a Hoople, N.D., native, was the first North Dakota native to be head coach of the football program. He spent 10 years as head coach, compiling a 54-39-4 record.

"He was really serious, old school," said former UND football player Dale Lian, who played from 1975-78 and was Sioux teammates with Jerry's son, Steve. "It was the Bear Bryant type. Hard work, discipline. He had a light side, too. He was a really good guy."

With Olson in charge, UND had a key moment in the in-state rivalry against North Dakota State.

In 1971, Olson's Sioux snapped NDSU's 35-game winning streak with a 23-7 win in Fargo.

The Bison were coming off a 1970 Camellia Bowl dominant win over Montana.

UND held the Bison to minus-76 rushing yards and minus-11 yards in total offense.

The 1971 team beat Montana State (17-15) and tied Nevada-Las Vegas (17-17).

UND's punishing defense was led by linebacker Jim LeClair, who went on to a lengthy NFL career, and defensive back Dan Martinsen. Both players were AP All-Americans.

"He was very strict and authoritative," said former UND defensive lineman Charlie Bridgeford, who played for the Sioux from 1971-74. "Everyone was a little intimidated by him. Once you got to know him after you're done playing football, he was a great guy."

In 1972, Olson's Sioux team went 10-1 and beat Cal Poly 38-21 in the Camellia Bowl in Sacramento.

UND ran for 266 yards on 70 attempts, led by Mike Deutsch's 119 yards on 41 carries.

Current UND football coach Bubba Schweigert remembers being a seventh-grader at Memorial Stadium in 1975 and watching Olson lead the Sioux out to play Morningside, a 49-7 UND win.

"It was a really impressive win, and it was really hard-nosed, tough football," Schweigert said. "For a kid from Zeeland, Memorial was like the LA Coliseum."

Olson's last season leading UND was 1977, when he retired at an early age of 42 from coaching football. Lian said Olson timed his retirement just right to set the stage for UND to name assistant and friend Gene Murphy as the next head coach.

"He didn't retire right after my junior season (1977), but he waited to the day before spring football so that the athletic director wouldn't have a choice but to name Murphy," Lian said. "It worked."

Olson, who farmed near Hoople, N.D., before and after his football coaching career, left another legacy on UND football as he's considered a founder of the Potato Bowl.

The Potato Bowl USA was created in 1965 by then UND Athletic Director Len Marti, head coach Marv Helling, assistant coach Jerry Olson and sports information director Lee Bohnet. The first Potato Bowl USA was played in 1966, when North Dakota shut out Idaho State 41-0 in a battle for pride among potato growing regions. Potato Bowl USA still exists today, and North Dakota is 44-12 in Potato Bowl USA history, most recently defeating then-ranked No. 24 Northern Iowa, 29-27, inside the Alerus Center on Sept. 10, 2022.

Olson, who was born on a Walsh County farm in 1933, attended college at Valley City State, where he lettered in football, basketball and baseball.

Jerry and his wife Nadine, who have a football scholarship endowment at UND, had four children.