Olsons, McDevitts Inducted into Omaha Sports Hall of Fame

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Longtime Metro area coach Bill Olson and son Gregg, a standout at Omaha Northwest High who had a fourteen-year career as a relief pitcher in the Major Leagues, were inducted together into the Omaha Sports Hall of Fame Wednesday night.  Gregg returned to Omaha from his home in California for the event.  Coach Olson is the Dean of Instruction at the Ultimate Baseball Academy in Omaha.

Two of the greatest names in Nebraska baseball - Olson and McDevitts - were honored at the 3rd Annual Omaha Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Wednesday evening, April 29 at the Durham Museum.  Legendary coach Bill Olson, and his son Gregg, who was one of Major League Baseball's premier relievers during a fourteen-year career, were inducted alongside the first-ever team to enter the hall -- the 1939 Omaha McDevitts.  Other inductees in Wednesday evening's ceremony were former Central High and UNL basketball standout Maurtice Ivy, UNO wrestling coach Mike Denney, Creighton soccer coach Bob Warming and the late Tom Novak, legendary football center at the University of Nebraska.

Coach Olson was the head coach at Omaha Northwest for twenty-five years - from 1971 until 1996 - during which period his teams recorded more than 1,500 wins, won six state championships, including four consecutive ones, and eight Legion state championships.  His '83-85 teams compiled a fifty-three game consecutive win streak.  Coach Olson is currently Dean of Instruction at the Ultimate Baseball Academy in Omaha. 

His son Gregg, a 1985 graduate of Omaha Northwest High School, was a dominant high school pitcher (27-0 career) as well as one of the top hitters in the state.  A two-time All-American at Auburn, Gregg was the #4 overall pick in the 1988 draft and earned Rookie of the Year honors the following year for the Baltimore Orioles.  As the teams' career saves leader, he was elected to the Orioles' Hall of Fame in 2008. 

The 1939 McDevitts' hold the distinction of being the only Nebraska Legion team ever to have won the American Legion World Series and did so during the heyday of the sport when more than 30,000 teams nationally competed for the top prize.  The McDevitts team was crowned national champs at Omaha's Fontenelle Park, current home of Omaha North, with a 6-2 victory over Berwyn, Illinois played before a crowd of more than 13,000 fans on September 3, 1939.  Former first baseman Francis "Link" Lynam, father of Papillion LaVista South head coach Bill Lynam, is one of three surviving team members who were present for the recognition given seventy years after the team made local sports history.  Retired Omaha dentist Dr. Sam Buda and Sam Russo of Sun City, Arizona were also present, along with three sons -- Frank, Jr., Jim and John -- of deceased teammate Frank Mancuso, and John Markey of California, son of the late Frank Markey, an outfielder on the team.  

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