John Olsson was a schoolboy champion athlete and at sports day in 1949 won the Craven Cup as Senior School Champion, the H.H. Roberts Cup for the senior 880 yards, and cups for winning the 100, 200 and 440 yards championships.
In 1950 John moved to the family property in the Mallee at Moorlands and farmed it until his death in 2003.
John Olsson made a generous bequest to the Masonic Foundation in South Australia which agreed to provide in his memory the annual perpetual J.R. Olsson Freemasons Memorial Scholarship to assist with boarding fees for a student at Prince Alfred College. The scholarship is to give young men from a similar rural background as himself the opportunity to study at the school he loved so much.