VANCOUVER -
Shawn Olson, the last quarterback to lead the UBC Thunderbirds to a Vanier Cup title, was named the Thunderbirds' head football coach on Wednesday by UBC athletic director Bob Philip.
Olson, who navigated UBC to the 1997 Vanier Cup title, returns to Point Grey as the 17th head coach in the program's history. The Surrey, BC native had an extremely successful professional playing career in Europe and numerous impressive coaching stops after graduating from UBC. Most recently, he spent the last three seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach of the Simon Fraser University Clan, helping turn that program from a winless team in 2007 to Hardy Cup finalists in 2008.
“We are very excited to welcome Shawn back to the UBC Thunderbirds as our football head coach,” said UBC athletic director Bob Philip. “Shawn has shown that as a player and a coach he understands what it takes to win. His charismatic, upbeat personality, in addition to his strong connections with our UBC alumni, are going to be huge additions to our football program. We believe he has all the tools to be an extremely successful head coach in the CIS.”
Olson spent five seasons under centre for the T-Birds from 1996-2000, quarterbacking UBC to the Vanier Cup in just his first year as the everyday starter. During his five seasons, the T-Birds had a record of 30-17-1 and made four Hardy Cup appearances. Olson finished his university career with 9,953 yards passing, 1,276 yards rushing and 65 total touchdowns (55 passing and 10 rushing) to rank among the school's most prolific offensive players of all-time.
After graduating from UBC with a double major in History and English, Olson spent one season on the coaching staff at the University of Calgary before moving on to star in the AFL (Europe) with the Chrysler/Dodge Vienna Vikings.
A player-coach from 2002-2005, Olson led the Vikings to Austrian Bowls in 2002, 2003, and 2005 as well as back-to-back Euro Bowls in 2004 and 2005. A team MVP and captain during his tenure, Olson was named the Vikings offensive coordinator and QB coach in 2005.
During his two seasons as a full-time staff member of the Vikings, Olson helped lead the Austrian team to a pair of Euro Bowls (2006, 2007) and two AFL Division I titles (2006 and 2007).
He returned to the lower mainland in 2007 as the offensive coordinator and QB Coach for the SFU Clan as part of a staff tasked with turning around a once powerful program. During his first season in charge of the offence, SFU averaged only 271 yards and 8.8 points per game, however, in 2009 Olson had built the Clan's attack into one of the strongest in the Canada West. In 2009, the Clan finished second in total offence (404 yards per game) and third in scoring (25.6 points per game) during conference play.
