He was such a great guy and a great missionary. We talked byu football all the time. My uncle was one of the trainers on the byu football team at the time (now does men's volleyball). He actually sent me an email telling me that Ben Olson was coming to the mission and to look out for him. I met him at the Greyhound bus stop and said hi.
We became pretty good friends on the mission and often spoke about byu when we saw each other. My last area I spent the last three months in his district. He was in Raymond and I in Cardston.
Ben was a crazy good athlete. I saw him throw the football through the uprights while on his knees on the 50 yard line. Talk about arm strength!
He was getting a lot of letters from UCLA at the time. He was from orange county. UCLA was super close to home. He loved BYU and enjoyed his time there but he saw the writing on the wall it had a lot to do with John Beck. He didn't believe he would see much playing time at all with John Beck being a sophomore entering the 2004 season.
He kind of joked around about how much he liked UCLA's colors and helmets too.
I tried my hardest to keep him a cougar but I went home six weeks before he did.
I did end up seeing him in Las Vegas when they played BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl in 2007. We spoke briefly and i asked if he was going to play. He was hurt, I believe it was his hand. He had a career riddled with injuries