Growing up in Nebraska, Oliver was 105-4 and was a National Junior Olympic champion in his home state and won a state championship at Technical High in Omaha.

He was inducted into the Nebraska Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1981.

A four-time NCAA qualifier and three-time All-American, he was inducted into the Arizona State University Hall of Fame in 1982.

A 150-pounder, he was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Team in 1984. Oliver was wrestling coach at Palomar College from 1986-92. His 1988 Comets team won a state championship and he was named Community College Coach of the Year.

He was on the coaching staff for the 1996 Olympics and was an assistant coach at Nebraska-Omaha from 1998-2003.

He returned to California and was head coach at Fallbrook High from 2003-08.

From Fallbrook, Oliver spent two years as an assistant coach at Cal Baptist University before joining the Army-Navy staff in 2010.

In 2017, he was named San Diego Section Coach of the Year after the Warriors had their first two state qualifiers with the school’s first state placer.

The accomplishment he’s most proud of, though, came in 2007 when he won the gold medal at the Veterans Freestyle World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey.