Leighton Media’s Craig Olson to be Inducted into the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association’s Hall of Honor

(KNSI) – A longtime sports broadcaster will be honored this weekend with induction into the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association’s Hall of Honor.

Craig Olson is the Sports Director for KNSI parent company Leighton Media’s market in Fergus Falls.

Olson began his career in 1973 with Leighton’s KDLM in Detroit Lakes. After covering sports there for two years, he spent six years out of state, with three-year stints in both Missouri and Utah, before moving to Fergus Falls in 1981, where he’s worked ever since.

“It’s very humbling and very satisfying. I mean humbling in the sense that you never feel like you belong in something like that. I never expected it. When you get into your profession, I don’t think you get into it thinking someday, ‘I’m going to be in the hall of fame.’” Olson continued; “The satisfying part is when the people that you work with, your peers, in this case the coaches and other people in the schools around the area that we have covered over the years. When they feel that you’ve done your job to a point where they want to give you special recognition, it’s very satisfying to know that they feel you did your job at that level, but again, very humbling to be a part of the group of coaches and people that are in there.”

Olson credits early mentorship from his uncle, longtime Fergus Falls radio personality Oats LeGrand, and Ralph Anderson, a Detroit Lakes newspaper man who guided him in sports coverage.

Olson and other honorees will be honored at the MBCA Fall Clinic Awards Luncheon, which will be held at the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency on Friday, October 25, 2024.

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