University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Titans center Mike Olsen was selected as the NCAA Division III Rimington Trophy Award winner for the 2020 football season.
The Rimington Trophy honors the top center in the four NCAA football levels for their contributions on and off the field. This year’s selection process veered out of our normal evaluation techniques due to the global coronavirus pandemic and relied heavily on each center’s career prior to the delayed, shortened or canceled 2020 season.
UW Oshkosh didn’t play a game during the 2020 season after earning an 8-3 record, a share of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) title and a berth into the 32-team NCAA Division III Championship in 2019.
Olsen joins Landon Dickerson of the University of Alabama (NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision), AJ Farris of Monmouth University (New Jersey) (NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision) and Alfredo Fernandez of Angelo State University (Texas) (NCAA Division II) as winners of the 2020 Rimington Trophy Award.
Olsen is the first UWO recipient of the Rimington Trophy Award and just the third from the WIAC. Previous WIAC award winners were UW-Whitewater’s Nate Trewyn (2018) and Brent Allen (2007).
Zach Smith of Hope College (Michigan) won the NCAA Division III Rimington Trophy Award in 2019.
Olsen, who was named the 2020 recipient of the WIAC Max Sparger Football Scholar-Athlete Award, graduated last December with a 3.66 cumulative grade-point average as an academic major in both supply chain management and finance. Olsen attends graduate school at UWO and will play his senior football season for the Titans this fall.
Olsen was one of 40 NCAA Division III semifinalists (199 overall) for the National Football Foundation’s 2020 William V. Campbell Trophy, an award that recognizes the best football scholar-athlete in the nation. In 2019 he received the UWO Dr. Brent Bandy Scholarship for his high level of academic success and involvement in extracurricular activities (excluding athletics).
Olsen, a four-time member of the WIAC scholastic honor roll, was recognized on UWO’s dean’s list four times. The 2016 Arrowhead Union High School graduate served three years as president of UWO’s Supply Chain Management Club and participated in internships at Amcor and the Kohler Co.
On the football field, Olsen steered a UWO offensive line that led the WIAC with 14 sacks allowed and 4.7 yards per rushing attempt in 2019. Olsen and the Titan offensive line paved the way for UWO to rank second in the conference with 2,027 rushing yards. He was named D3football.com All-America Second Team, D3football.com All-West Region First Team and All-WIAC First Team in 2019.
UWO clinched a share of its 11th conference title in 2019 and secured the league’s automatic berth into the Division III Championship by defeating UW-Whitewater in the regular season finale in Oshkosh. The Titans’ fifth NCAA postseason appearance in eight seasons ended with a 38-37 overtime loss at Central College (Iowa) during the first round.
Olsen was a member of UWO’s 2017 team that compiled a 12-1 record, went undefeated in conference play and advanced to the semifinals of the Division III Championship.
Last summer Olsen received preseason All-America honors from College Football America, D3football.com, Lindy’s Sports and Street & Smith’s.
Dave Rimington, the award’s namesake, was a consensus first-team All-America center at the University of Nebraska in 1981 and 1982, during which time he became the John Outland Trophy’s only two-time winner as the nation’s finest college interior lineman.
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