By MARK MOSCHETTI
 
SEATTLE – It was love at first throw.
 
Ask Mike Olson to describe his special kinship with a ball of steel that he would launch as far as he could, and those are exactly the words that came to mind.
 
Not, "I was built like a shot putter.." (He was.) Not, "I was a big body, strong, and worked hard." (He did.)
 
Instead …
 
"It was love at first throw."
 
That kinship eventually blossomed into a championship – two of them actually – at the NCAA national track and field meet.
 
But while a  6-foot-4, 300-plus pounder might come across as at least a little bit intimidating to those who don't know him, those who do know him are much more likely to describe Olson as a "gentle giant." Quiet in his own way, he spoke loud and clear in the throwing circle during his stellar career at Seattle Pacific.
 
Winner of the 1992 NCAA outdoor shot put title and the 1993 indoor crown, and owner of three school records, what Olson did and how he went about doing it will come through loud and clear again on Saturday, Feb. 7, when he is enshrined into the SPU Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
The ceremony for Olson and six other inductees will take place in the on-campus E.E. Bach Theatre beginning at 10:00 a.m. It is free and open to the public.
 
"Sports were so good for helping me grow up. Being a good athlete made me a better student, and I grew in my faith," Olson said. "A lot of our meets were against Pac-10 schools, and I was beating them all, and I thought, 'This is really neat.' Then I realized that I'm representing the Lord, and I'm representing our school. I learned that by being at SPU, and I was blown away."
 
FINDING HIS WAY TO THE FALCONS
Given his size and build, it would be easy to think Olson might have starred on the football gridiron.
 
Nope. From the time he was a freshman at Sunset High School in Beaverton, Oregon, he was a track guy – or more to the point, a field guy.
 
"I just loved track," he said. "To be able to keep doing it all the way through school and have national championships and school records and being on TV and meeting all the people – none of that was ever planned. I said, 'Lord, I don't know why you're so nice to me, but thanks for these gifts.'"
 
By his senior year at Sunset, Olson's plans included attending SPU. Once he had been accepted, he wrote a note to legendary coach Dr. Ken Foreman letting him know that he would be coming in the fall, included his height and weight, and some of his best marks, and said he'd like to keep throwing if an opportunity was available.
 
Equally legendary coach Doris Heritage took a trip to Oregon to watch the district championship meet later that spring.
 
"We had 10 guys over 50 feet in the shot put – it was pretty stacked," Olson recalled. "I won the district. I was a good thrower, but not a great thrower. … My technique was deplorable.
 
"Doris took some video, and the next thing I know, they reached out with a half scholarship. They must have thought, 'OK, if he can throw that far with technique that bad, we can probably go somewhere with it. We can teach him how to really throw.'"

Even today, former Falcons coach Jack Hoyt recalls his first impression of Olson.
 
"We hadn't had any big men, then Mike came and filled up the doorway to the lower gym," Hoyt said. "He had this crazy goatee and mullet. But he was 100 percent bought into his craft and throwing the shot, and what it took in the weight room. He would be there for hours in the lower gym."
 
SPINNING TO TITLES AND RECORDS
An injury sidelined Olson for about half of his freshman season in 1990. He was back at full strength in 1991 and placed third at the NCAA outdoor meet with a personal-best mark of 54 feet, 8¼ inches. That made him an All-American – and made him aware of what was possible.
 
"I PR'd by a lot; If you look at the result, the next guy was 54-5, then 54-2, and I caught a vision of 'I think I can win this next year,'" Olson said. "I convinced Coach Foreman to let me switch to a rotary style of shot put (spinning around the circle before throwing instead of gliding backward, then turning and throwing). I said, 'Can I at least try it?'"
 
Working out in Brougham Pavilion's lower gym, Olson said the distance from one end to the other was about 55 feet. He took a throw, and it ricocheted off the far wall, rolling back to where Foreman was sitting.
 
"I could see his wheels turning, and he said, 'Well, all right,'" Olson recalled with a laugh.
The first 1991 outdoor meet was at the University of Washington, and Olson came through with a mark of 59-1.
 
"I went from a nobody to 'the man' in literally one meet," Olson said. "That throw put me No. 1 in the country for the whole year, but then I never improved on it."
 
Until he got to the NCAAs in San Angelo, Texas. Olson came through with his school-record throw of 59-2¼. That was more than a foot farther than the second-place mark of 57-9 ½.
 
"I remember walking to the podium, and I was like, 'I can't believe this is happening – I just won the national championship,'" Olson said. "I was just kind of a meatball thrower, and all of a sudden, things were coming together. It opened up some doors to kind of represent the school."
Olson went on to win the 1993 NCAA indoor title with a throw of 59-7¾. Only one other Falcon all-time has reached 50 feet outdoors, and no one has thrown that far indoors.
 
Along with owning both school shot put records, Olson also still has the discus record of 162-7 (set in 1992). He was a five-time All-American (all in the shot put).
 
Now 55, Olson is married to former SPU track athlete Jenny Vale (still No. 2 on the school women's 400-meter hurdles list), and together they have three children. One of them, Molly, won the NCAA D2 javelin title for Azusa Pacific in 2023 – ironically, the one throwing event that dad Mike never tried.
 
Olson stepped away from competition after finishing his SPU career in 1994. He earned his history degree, his secondary education certificate, and went right to work at Bellevue Christian School, where he has been for the past 32 years. He is now head of school (and Jenny works there, as well).
 
"I feel like my career represented all that is great about athletics," Olson said, "particularly athletics from a Christian perspective – the joy in it, the stewardship of the gifts God gave me, and the opportunities those created. Ultimately, it was easy to walk away because I'd had this tremendous experience, it helped me grow up and matured me in so many ways, and it was a ton of fun."
 
And, it was love at first throw.
 
Olson and the other six inductees will be honored at halftime of both Falcon basketball games following the ceremony. The women play Saint Martin's at 2:00 p.m., and the men tangle with Western Washington at 4:15.
 
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