Safety Ron Olson Was Huskies' Smash Hit: Just Ask Earl Campbell

Earl Campbell, the greatest running back to emerge from the football-crazy state of Texas, walks gingerly with a cane or rides in a wheelchair these days, left immobilized by all the punishment he absorbed as a collegian and a pro player. Everything hurts.

Then there's Ron Olson, a former Washington strong safety who still looks rock solid, fit and healthy. He's one of the reasons Campbell, a bowling-ball-like runner with 34-inch thighs and sprinter speed, suffers so much now.

They met on the football field in Austin in 1974 and in Seattle in 1975, in games won by Campbell and his Longhorns 35-21 and 28-10. Yet the Huskies and fearless players such as Olson always left their mark with violent hits.

"He was a big man," Olson said of Campbell, who rushed for 198 yards and three touchdowns at Husky Stadium, including a 61-yard burst for six. "He ran like a 4.3 40 and he was 230 or 240 and his legs were like tree trunks. He was big and tough, and I remember him taking a few guys with him. I took him down by myself."

Olson, who wore No. 17 and had blond hair and a distinctive rugged chin, played at the end of the Jim Owens regime and the beginning of the Don James era. He was the last of a special breed of Seattle athlete.

At Ingraham High School, this son of a cement-truck driver emerged as a three-sport player, a starter in football, basketball and baseball. He played in the shadows of Gary Larson, possibly the greatest high school linebacker produced by the city and later a Washington State standout, and Ken Phelps, a big-league slugger for the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians and Oakland A's.

Olson was best known as an All-Metro defensive back who went about his business in an overly physical manner but without any theatrics. He would spend an entire game taking people head on without a word and would come up afterward and compliment you if you didn't back down (I know this personally).

"When that guy hit you, you really got hit," said Mike Rohrbach, a linebacker and Olson teammate at Ingraham and the UW. "He was one of the fiercest hitters in the league."

Olson became a UW starter as a sophomore in 1973, but lasted just 16 plays into his first opening assignment against Syracuse before he blew a knee and was done for the season.

He bounced back to regain his starting job as a junior and show that he was more than a vicious tackler. In his first meeting with Texas and Campbell on the road, he stepped in front of a Marty Akins pass and returned it 30 yards for a third-quarter touchdown.

"It was a good interception but they weren't known for passing," he said.

As a senior, Olson was one of the mainstays for James' first Husky defense, a gritty group that settled down after a rough start to win hard-nosed games over USC 8-7 in Seattle and UCLA 17-13 in Los Angeles. He intercepted passes against Stanford and Oregon State.

Today, Olson is retired after working for Ingersoll Rand, an Irish-based industrial manufacturer of hoists, tools and material-handling equipment.

He has an 80-inch TV at home where he watches the Husky games. He's forthright in his opinion of the latest breed of UW players -- he'd like to see them play more together. He's enthused that the defensive-minded Jimmy Lake is running the show now.

"He seems like a good coach and knows what he's doing, but time will tell," he said, followed by a wisecrack. "Who would want to be a head coach? You take all the pressure and get none of the glory."

Sort of like Olson when he took on Earl Campbell.