Background
C. E. "Pat" Olsen was born to Norwegian immigrants in Clifton, Texas on August 3, 1902.
C. E. "Pat" Olsen was born to Norwegian immigrants in Clifton, Texas on August 3, 1902.
He had nine siblings. An older brother attended Texas Agricultural and Mechanical and was a baseball letterman between 1914 and 1916.
He played college baseball at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University and was briefly with the New York Yankees organization. He founded a manufacturing and oil exploration company after leaving baseball. Olsen financially supported Texas Agricultural and Mechanical, his hometown of Clifton, Texas and Major League Baseball.
He is the namesake for the baseball field at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical.
Olsen was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical and was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame, the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Athletic Hall of Fame and the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
After Olsen died, a legal battle ensued between his family and Texas Agricultural and Mechanical over the rights to his multimillion dollar estate. Upon his graduation in 1923, Olsen entered professional baseball.
He was signed to the New York Yankees organization and was a spring training roommate of Lou Gehrig, but he never made the Yankees major league roster. Olsen founded Gearench Manufacturing Company in Houston in 1927.
The company"s earliest product, the Gearench, was a tool for working with small-diameter pipe.
Olsen sold the company, which included facilities in Houston and Clifton, in 1978. Pat Olsen donated the first Gearench building in Clifton, the former Clifton Lutheran College, to house the Bosque County Conservatory of Fine Arts. Olsen remained attached to baseball throughout his life and made significant financial contributions to various aspects of the game.
In 1978, Olsen Field was dedicated as Texas Agricultural and Mechanical"s baseball field
By the 1980s, Olsen had attended more than fifty All-Star Games and more than half of the World Series in baseball history. He was asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in game one of the 1984 World Series.
Former Texas Agricultural and Mechanical pitcher Mark Thurmond was one of the starting pitchers in the game. He was named a Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Distinguished Alumnus in 1981.
Texas Agricultural and Mechanical awards the C. East. "Pat" Olsen Outstanding Pitcher Award.
Pat Olsen died in Kingwood, Texas on May 11, 2000. In 2002, Olsen"s family sued the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Foundation in a dispute over the rights to Olsen"s estate. The family said that a 1987 will would have left the $1.1 million estate to Olsen"s son, but that he had been coerced to amend the will in 1994 and to leave his estate to the university.
A Harris County probate court ruled in favor of the family in 2002.
In 2010, Blue Bell Creameries pledged $7 million to renovate Olsen Field and to rename it Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. In May 2013, family members criticized the removal of lettering with Olsen"s name that had long been located at the entrance to the field
Olsen was a member of the Ross Volunteers and lettered as a baseball pitcher between 1921 and 1923. He was also a member of the New York Yankees Alumni Club and he donated to the Major League Baseball pension plan. Olsen is a member of the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame and the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical Athletic Hall of Fame.
In 1991, he was a member of the second class inducted into the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
