February 17, 1999

Ralph Engelstad

Huck Olson

The man behind the naming of the Huck Olson Memorial Civic Center in Thief River Falls will be in town Thursday, February 25, to award trophies to the winners following the championship game of the Section 8A hockey tournament.

Ralph Engelstad of Las Vegas, NV, a member of the 1945 Lincoln high school Prowler hockey team which was the first to play in the state tournament, has accepted an invitation from the regional tournament committee to present the awards.

The tournament program contains information about Huck Olson and the building named for him, and about Engelstad, who provided funding to the City of Thief River Falls to effect the name change and provide signs and identification.

"I'm sure that all of the young skaters and most of the fans participating in or attending events at the civic center really have no idea of who Huck Olson was," states Jim Sims, athletic director at Lincoln high school and a member of the regional tournament committee.

"We thought it would be appropriate to tell about Huck in the tournament program book," he added, "and since Ralph Engelstad headed the effort to name the arena for him, we would invite Ralph to take part in the tournament festivities. We are extremely pleased that he has accepted our invitation."

Information in the program book explains that Huck Olson was sports editor at the Thief River Falls Times for more than 30 years until his death in 1968 at age 62. More to young people than a reporter of their athletic exploits, however, he gave much of his own resources to provide transportation and purchase items of sporting equipment to help those without the means to provide their own.

Further, he refused to be critical in his stories or "Keeping Score" column of the mistakes made by young people while participating in high school and other amateur athletics. Never married and having no family responsibilities, Huck devoted most of his life to the local sports scene and those who were a part of it. An athlete himself until he lost a lung punctured in a football mishap, he lived his sports interest in the lives of others.

While his name had been mentioned for some time as a possible name for the ice arena built in 1969-70, impetus for that naming came from members of the 1945 Prowler hockey team. The group held a reunion at the state high school hockey tournament and agreed that they would like to have the arena named for Huck. Ralph Engelstad followed through with that idea and offered to provide $20,000 to the city to cover costs of the name change, noting in his letter to the city council that Huck Olson "did more to inspire the young athletes of Thief River than any one person and I believe that his name deserves recognition."

On March 10, 1992, the city council approved the naming of the arena as the Huck Olson Memorial Civic Center and it was dedicated on December 8, 1992.

Ralph Engelstad was born at Thief River Falls, attended the local schools and went on to the University of North Dakota where he was a goalie on the hockey team.

During his last year of college he worked as a subcontractor, erecting farm storage buildings throughout North Dakota. He then formed his own company with $1,500 of borrowed money to purchase equipment. He devoted 18-hour days to his work, building restaurants, motels, bowling alleys and apartment complexes for resale.

In 1960 he moved to Las Vegas to build tract houses and commercial buildings. In 1965 he bought the Thunderbird Airfield (now known as the Las Vegas Air Terminal) and in 1967 sold it to Howard Hughes.

In 1971 he purchased the grounds and building of the old Flamingo Capri Motel on the Las Vegas Strip and the next year began gaming there. This has developed into the Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino which has 2,700 rooms and is the world's largest hotel owned by an individual. The building also houses his auto collection, considered to be one of the finest in the world.

Engelstad's properties also include the Imperial Palace in Biloxi, MS, part of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and numerous office buildings and warehouses throughout the United States. Ralph Engelstad Arena at the University of North Dakota was named in his honor and he recently donated $100 million to UND, of which $40 million to $50 million is to be used to build a new hockey facility.

Attributing his business success and wealth to the puritan ethic handed down by his Norwegian parents, Engelstad lives by two mottos: No Dream Comes True Until You Wake Up And Go To Work and The Harder I Work, the Luckier I Get.

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