Arizona Plays 'Four Bobbi'
Nearly a half-century ago, high school sweethearts Lute and Bobbi Olson began their life together in Minneapolis.
They met in tiny Mayville, N.D., 260 miles to the northwest, where her father owned a Dairy Queen.
They married when Olson was a sophomore at tiny Augsburg College, just down the road from the Metrodome, where his Arizona Wildcats play Michigan State on Saturday.
For five years, as he coached at Minnesota high schools, they built a family that has grown to five children and 13 grandchildren.
Olson brings a team to the Final Four for the fifth time this week, one at Iowa and four with Arizona. Yet it will be a bittersweet homecoming, because it is his first without Bobbi, who died of ovarian cancer on Jan. 1.
On the bus to the game, Olson will see a giant billboard that reads, "Four Bobbi." It is one of three in Minneapolis and four in Tucson erected by Arizona alumnus and billboard magnate Karl Eller, a close friend of the Olsons.
When the Wildcats arrived Thursday evening, a shivering Olson said Eller had asked his permission to put up the billboards.
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"I thought it was an awfully nice thing to do," Olson said.
The signs reflect how loved Olson's wife was by those in and around the Arizona program.
"She was the one who kept us at ease," said Eugene Edgerson, a fifth-year senior who played on Arizona's 1997 national championship team. "She always said if we ever had any problems, we could come and talk to her, and she would do her best to straighten them out."
Her husband can be stern an often is aloof. She was friendly, outgoing and seemed to know everyone. Her pecan pancakes often sealed the deal with recruits. The pep band would shout, "Hi, Bobbi!" when she came out to take her seat before a game.
The Wildcats want to win the national championship for Bobbi Olson, and for their coach who came back two weeks after his wife's death to lead his team to the Final Four.
"Just to see us win a championship, I think it'd bring a good smile to his face," Michael Wright said. "I haven't seen a lot of smiles."
The death of the coach's wife was the low point of a season that began awfully for the Wildcats, potentially "the greatest college team ever," center Loren Woods had said.
All five starters were nominated for the John Wooden Award as player of the year.
The problems began immediately.
Woods was suspended for the first six games for accepting improper benefits from a family friend. Richard Jefferson was suspended for a game for accepting a plane ticket to San Diego and a ticket to the NBA Finals from Bill Walton, whose son Luke plays for Arizona and is Jefferson's best friend.
Olson took a leave of absence Dec. 30 to be with his wife. For the first time, he broke down in front of his players when he told them he was leaving.
That night, Arizona lost to Mississippi State, the first defeat ever for the Wildcats' in their own Fiesta Bowl Classic tournament. Two days later, Bobbi Olson died.
A memorial service at McKale Center was televised live by two Tucson stations. The court was renamed Lute & Bobbi Olson Court.
The Wildcats, preseason No. 1, stumbled to an 8-5 record and fell to 21st in the rankings. They regrouped to win a pair at Washington and Washington State, then Olson returned for an emotional home victory over Southern California.
He thought it was a little too soon to come back, but he felt his team needed his leadership and some continuity.
Asked afterward if he felt his wife's presence that night, Olson's voice choked with emotion.
"We have been together for so long," he said, "that her presence is always there."
That night, Olson said later, "was the toughest it's going to be."
"Everything from that time," he said, "you just face up to it and go ahead."
The Wildcats are 17-2 since Olson returned and have won 10 in a row. Somewhere in the last month or so, they found the chemistry that had been lacking.
The 66-year-old Olson threw himself into his job, paying attention to detail even more than he did before, said Justin Wessel, another fifth-year senior who is as close to the coach as any of the players.
Olson knows he and the Wildcats are sentimental favorites.
"That's very kind that people are supporting us," he said, "and we'll do the best job that we can do. I think we've been doing that for some time now."
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