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Lon Olson signals a foul in his final varsity game on the Dayton High School Gym maple earlier this week. Olson, 80, has been officiating varsity basketball since 1974, and chose reffing a Dayton-Waitsburg home game for his last game.
Referees, from left, Jim Sanders, Lon Olson and Casey Waddell were all smiles before officiating the Dayton-Waitsburg v. Walla Walla Valley Academy boys game last Tuesday night, Olson's final game in a 54-year stretch of officiating high school athletics.
DAYTON–Last Tuesday's basketball game was a special one at the Dayton High School gym...not because of a winning streak or a long shot swished, but because the game marked the final high school contest to be officiated by 80-year-old Lon Olson.
Olson chose to ref this DW versus Walla Walla Valley Academy game as his last "because I can," he told the Dayton Chronicle, and because he had just turned 80 in December. "I want to officiate one more boy's varsity game then ride into the sunset," Olson said.
"Dayton is my very best place to officiate," he continued. "I've been very blessed: my knees still work, and three-man mechanics [the practice of three officials working the game] have saved a lot of old people.
"Dayton will be my official last game," Olson said.
Dayton announcer Jeff Turner appropriately recognized Olson in an impromptu, brief pre-game recognition, pointing out that many of the spectators, himself included, were players in games Olson officiated over the decades.
Olson's first year whistling fouls was 1968. He had been hired at Davis Grade School in College Place and a colleague, Max Sinn, had been hired to teach fifth grade. "He said 'let's go officiate basketball,'" Olson remembered.
It wasn't until 1974 when Olson worked his first varsity game with Vic Walker, and he didn't get the call to ref playoffs until 1986.
