FARGO – Grant Olson remembers it like it was yesterday.
“There was snow on the ground and he came and sat on the couch for a few hours and that was a big moment for me,” Olson said.
The moment was when Craig Bohl came to his home in Plymouth, Minnesota and offered him a scholarship to North Dakota State.
North Dakota State’s current defensive coordinator and former All-American linebacker admits he will be nervous this weekend about his former coach returning to town.
“I don’t know if he’ll put the headset on or not, but it’s an absolute honor for him to be here. I think a lot of Coach Bohl. I’m going to have tears in my eyes, it’s going to be a cool moment,” Olson said.
Bohl, the school’s all-time winningest player and architect of the Division I dynasty, will be inducted into the Bison Hall of Fame this weekend.
After an exciting start to the D-1 era, NDSU fell into a slump with seasons of 6-5 and 3-8 in 2008 and 2009, respectively. It wasn’t until after the 2009 season that Bohl realized what type of players he needed to win in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
The winter of 2009 and early 2010 saw the best player turnover in NDSU football history.
Billy Turner. Christian Dudzik. Kyle Emanuel. Colton Heagle. Carlton Littlejohn. Grant Olson. Ryan Smith. Travis Beck. Zach Vraa.
Each of them will be inducted into the Bohl Hall of Fame in due course. This was the foundation for NDSU’s first three national championships.
“After my official visit, coach (Brent) Vigen, (Scott) Hazelton and he came to the school and said that some coaches were no longer going to be in the program, and that transparency resonated with me.
Carrie Snyder/Forum Communications Co.
I called my dad and said I knew where I wanted to play,” Olson said.
Littlejohn was a four-year starter at linebacker alongside Olson from 2011 to 2014. This season, he was hired by new coach Tim Polasek as the team’s defensive ends coach.
Littlejohn remembers Bohl and Vigen coming to the back door of his house during a snowstorm because the porch light wasn’t on. Littlejohn’s mother had a notebook full of questions.
“I remember being embarrassed at 17, but she went through her checklist and asked him question after question,” Littlejohn said.
Bohl left NDSU after the 2013 season, after winning its third consecutive national championship, to take the job at Wyoming, where he spent the last decade as coach before announcing his retirement at the end of last season.
On stage in Frisco after the 35-7 win over Towson, Olson made sure Bohl knew how he felt.
“It was my last game and winning a national title. For him, it was a farewell to take another chance. I am grateful to him for everything he did for me.”
His legacy will be honored this weekend at the Hall of Fame banquet on Friday and then at halftime of Saturday’s game, where his former players will have a chance to finally say thank you.
“It’s a huge achievement and I can’t wait to be a part of it, talk to him and experience it with him,” Littlejohn said.
Olson added: “There will be a lot of former players there and that will hit him hard.
I can’t thank the man enough.”
Dom Izzo is the sports director for WDAY-TV. He started working at WDAY in 2006 as a weekend sports anchor and was promoted to sports director in 2010.
