Orson Christensen served as NWU’s head football coach from 1982 to 1986, compiling a 30–20 record and leading the Plainsmen to two Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC) championships. Christensen succeeded longtime coach Harold Chaffee and ushered NWU football into a new era of competitiveness. He introduced a passing game that gave the program an identity the conference had never seen. In 1983, he guided NWU to a share of the NIAC title, and in 1986, delivered an outright conference championship with a perfect league record and a top-15 national ranking.
In his final year at NWU, Christensen also stepped in to lead the softball program to one of the most dramatic turnarounds in school history, guiding the team from the bottom of the NIAC standings to the program’s only outright regular season conference championship.
Following his tenure at NWU, Christensen became head football coach at Eastern Oregon University, where he rebuilt a program that had not won a game in three years. He later served as an assistant coach at Western Washington University before retiring in 2000.
He continued to coach in retirement at the high school level, ultimately accumulating over 50 years of football coaching experience.
Off the field, he and his wife Diana have been married 67 years. They’ve built a vibrant family that includes two daughters, Cindy and Kris, and a son, Gerry. Together, they have seven grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren.
