Old Missoula

From a Family of eight children – The Athletic Olsen Brothers – Ray, Louis and Vern

Instant recall by John T. Campbell

One of the most unusual sports figures on the local scene that I have ever known, a man so likable and loyal and so full of infectious laughter, is the incomparable Charles Raymond Olsen.

There are just a handful of men left today who played in the fabled City baseball league back in the 1920s, and Ray Olsen is one of them. But one would never know it because the jolly fellow simply belies his age. Life to him is a great big glass of bubbling champagne, a symbol of happiness and joie de vivre. It would be absolutely impossible to chronicle a low-profile on Ray Olsen.

I mention the man’s cheerful demeanor, his good-hearted joshing and name calling because these traits, so noticeable at first, are the ones which make him such an unforgettable character. His voice, a loud cackle, set the tone for any conversation, and it can’t be very serious when “Oly” is around. Ask any of his contemporaries – Butch Madsen, Dutch Meyer, Herb Baker – they’ll all tell you that Ray Olsen is funny without even trying and that his infinite cheer makes you feel good all over.

Ray is retired, in a way, but manages to keep up to date on major sports events, principally through television. He follows all local teams and, nationally, he practically memorizes the progress of his beloved Yankees. If you missed a New York box score in the paper, call him and he’ll recite it over the phone – with gusto.

Ray Olsen was part of a family that produced some good athletes 50 years ago. His high school days were spent in Livingston. From there he became a Gonzaga Bulldog and was a scintillating stalwart for Mike Pecarovich’s Spokane Bullies. In the mid-‘30s he teamed with All-American Automatic Karamatic as the ‘Dogs battled traditional grid foes, including Montana. Olsen was a sensational punter, a loose-limbed athlete with leverage, like Ray Guy.

Baseball found Ray in a Mint uniform back in the late ‘20s, teaming with Orin Dishman, Tom Mitchell, Harold Bishop, Clarence Coyle, Wally Schact and others, all considerably older. Olsen, a third baseman, had a throwing arm like Al Kaline’s, a regular rifle.

When semi-pro State League baseball prospered here before World War II, Ray and his brother, Louis, were very much in demand. Lou Olsen was a rangy righthander, a pitcher with superb control, a sharp curve and blazing smoke. The brothers parlayed stints with the Bonner Lumberjacks and Missoula Pirates. Ray often was stationed at right field where his strong throwing arm would cut down runners trying to stretch an extra base. A batter from the port side, Ray’s average was never prodigious, but always over .300.

It was just 40 years ago this summer that Ray and the late Sandy Durrant teamed up to sponsor the Missoula entry in the State League. The war and military draft gradually depleted the ranks, but the season was finished by a lonely Durrant as Olsen had heeded the call to army service.

In those fun-time days, it was Olsen who maintained spirited antics and answers. In the dugout it was always the chipper Olsen who told his mates how to bat. “Just cut and slash,” he’d bellow with another hearty roar. Eddie Rathjen, who inherited the nickname “Knees” from Olsen, will certainly recall those halcyon days.

Law enforcement work, as a deputy sheriff and then as Highway Patrol captain, formed Ray Olsen’s civilian career. He has a younger brother, Vernon, who lives in Eureka, Calif., and often visits him, and sees coast league and major league games.

Despite his incessant chuckling, Ray Olsen was extremely competitive. He played hard with an insatiable desire to win. And he played the game for pleasure. That is really Ray Olsen’s answer to life itself.

 

The above article appeared in John T. Campbell’s Instant recall column of the Missoulian on July 21, 1981.

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Vern Olsen Story of Missoula 1930’s

Instant Recall by John T. Campbell

‘Ole’ Writes of the ‘30s

(Memory note: Vernon Olsen is a native of Missoula and a 1935 graduate of Missoula County high. In his sports salad days, he was slightly overshadowed by two older brothers, Ray and Lou, both of whom starred for Missoula and Bonner baseball nines in the old State League. Ray also was a standout member of the 1935-36 Gonzaga football teams).

Vern Olsen is a retired licensed forester and lives in Eureka, Calif. His son, Bill, was a top southpaw pitcher a decade ago and was signed by the New York Yankees. However, tendinitis of the elbow cut short a promising career. A daughter is married to the Nashville Network program director, so Vern and his wife have become acquainted with many stars of the Grand Ol’ Opry. Vern’s recent letter contained many memories which he describes as Not-So-Instant Recalls. In Missoula, he lived on Nora St., just across from today’s Meadow Gold Dairy.

Here’s Ole:

“I sure remember September of 1931 when the high school burned down. Like a lot of other freshmen, I had classes in the Willard grade school and we had lots of snow that year. You and I scrawled our names with fancy writing, pretending we were bank presidents.

“In that winter, I would go to the boxing matches at the old Loyola gym. Billy McFarland and Orin Dishman were running the shows. We didn’t have any money, but always seemed to get in. McFarland put my brother, Ray, on a card as a part of a curtain-raiser. “Kid” Olsen had a draw.

“I was a Missoulian newspaper delivery boy and saw how tough the competition was. The afternoon paper, the Sentinel, sold for 15 cents a week. Greg Rice got his papers from Mr. Healy and then raced toward the NP Depot. He would sell about 50 before starting his regular route. My route was on W. Front St., which was a red-light district. The ladies had more money and were great customers.

“I hung around the old NP baseball park all the time. In those Depression days of 1932, there were bums who slept at the ballpark. I sure do remember watching Ownie Kelley. He used to crowd the plate and was tough to get out.

“I was hiking up Grant Creek in December of 1932 with a neighbor, Bob Lund. He had a .22-caliber revolver and when we were sitting by a campfire, it accidently went off. The bullet hit me at the corner of my mouth. We ran down the road and a car, driven by a Mr. Schramm, stopped and took me to the hospital. Dr. Thornton said if the bullet had been a quarter-of-an-inch farther away, I would have had it.

“I really got a bang out of playing with the 1937 Forest Service fastpitch softball team. Tony Schumacher put the team together. I think Tony lives in Polson now. We had Jim Spittler, Bill Holman, the Lee brothers and a Larry Schneider. We went back to the nationals in Chicago and played games on the way in Billings, Bismarck and Fargo, N.D., and Minneapolis. At Soldiers Field, four games were played at the same time. Windmill Watson, of Phoenix, Ariz., beat us 4-0.

“When we played on a Missoula south-side softball park, I did manage to rob you of a big hit. Your father saw the game and the senator said I had made a great catch.

“In later years, I played with a Tacoma team that won 53 straight games.

“I sure did enjoy seeing so many old friends at the high school reunion in Missoula last summer. When I saw Guy Rogers, I was reminded of the time our Legion baseball team was beaten in Great Falls. It was a lopsided score and I was pitching and unable to get the batters out. That reunion for Coach Sam Kain in 1984 was a peach. It was great to see guys like Byron Murphey, George Cote, Elmer Barrett, Gem Mercer, Herb Searles, Ray and Burton Perry and Ray Lawrence.

“And then there was Ray Rocene. The Missoulian-Sentinel sports writer was really one of the town’s characters. I can still see that peculiar stride of his. He always walked real fast. Guess he was like a good newspaperman – he always beat the deadline.”

 

The above article appeared in John T. Campbell’s Instant Recall column of the Sunday Missoulian on January 25, 1987.

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Nancy Olsen Morse remembers Missoula’s downtown.

In one of reporter Steve Smith’s columns in the Missoulian – Oct. 13, 1984 – Nancy Morse was quoted as follows:

“I was born in Missoula in 1940 and spent a very happy childhood across the street from Lowell School on the West Side. I am from the Olsen family (my dad was Louis Olsen, a noted baseball pitcher. . . My uncle, the late Ray Olsen, was the captain of the Highway Patrol, from which he retired in 1971.)

“I have been away from Missoula since 1964, but I still maintain there was a café on the east side of Higgins between Front Street and the Northern Pacific depot. You could get ice cream there and eat lunch. I don’t know if it was a full restaurant, but my older relatives would take me there. It was north of the Mercantile.

“I’m not talking about the Chinese restaurant or the little chili place down by the depot. It was a café or soda fountain. My brother, Tom, or T.O., says there was never anything like that on Higgins. I’m only talking about the ‘40s and doubt if it was still there in the ‘50s. He says no.

“If you could find out the name of it, and which block it was in, I’d win this bet. I especially want to know its name.”

 

Reporter Steve Smith soon responded:

“Nancy and T.O., for what it’s worth, a very nice old man named Mr. Raymond had a hole-in-the-wall doughnut shop/soda fountain/lunch counter in the 100 block of North Higgins near East Main Street. The name of the place escapes me, but he served the best chocolate milkshake and ham sandwich to be found in what I would guess was the late 1940s or early ‘50s.

In the window, visible from the sidewalk, was a Rube Goldberg doughnut-making machine that stopped foot traffic whenever it was operating. On the south wall of the place was a sign that read as follows: “As you wander down life’s path/Whatever be your goal/Keep your eye upon the donut/And not upon the hole.”

Mr. Raymond, who came here from Butte, lived on Mount Avenue and was in his 90s when he died.

Does that ring any bells? If not, maybe a reader can help out.

 

The Steve Smith article quoted above appeared in the Missoulian on October 13, 1984.

 

However, in a later Steve Smith article, it was acknowledged by Nancy Morse that the name of the establishment was Super Cream Café at 322 N. Higgins (later site of Army/Navy Store).

The Olsen brothers were part of a large Missoula family of eight children, born to Louis Anton Olsen and Hattie Ethel Wilborn Olsen.