Alumnus wins another Emmy for work on ‘Welcome to Wrexham’

From the Super Bowl, to the Olympics and now one of the most popular sports documentary series in “Welcome to Wrexham,” Michael Oliver has enjoyed a storied career in sports editing.

But he’s far from finished.

Oliver earned his degree in mass communications from St. Cloud University in 2004. He became involved with Husky Productions almost immediately when he first came to campus, and said eventually he ran Husky Productions for two years and was in charge of production for SCSU’s Division I men’s hockey team. He’d work hockey games on Fridays and Saturdays, and then go down to the Twin Cities on Sundays to work as a runner for Fox Sports on Minnesota Vikings games. Fox Sports approached Oliver about working for the company full time following graduation, so he moved out to Los Angeles in 2005 to start his career.

He worked for Fox Sports for about three years before deciding to freelance, which is when he said his career “really exploded.” He was a field producer for quite some time on shows such as HBO’s “24/7” program, in addition to boxing, NHL and NASCAR shows, among others. After getting married and planning to have children, he determined traveling for at least six months out of the year was no longer going to be possible.

Oliver then switched to editing full-time around 2014, which he said is where he felt most comfortable. In his first year, he won an Emmy for best long-form editing. His career took off from there and he’s been editing ever since. Oliver consistently works on both the men’s and women’s FIFA World Cup for Fox Sports as one of the main editors. He primarily puts together openers or teasers, often narrated by a celebrity, shown before the games and to pump up the crowds. He recently finished working on the Summer of Soccer with the Copa America and Euro 2024 games. He works on the Olympics — mainly the Winter Olympics, and has previously worked on the Super Bowl and World Series. While Oliver has worked just about every top sporting event there is, he said he’d be interested in getting to work on the Rugby World Cup after falling in love with the sport while traveling.

When the team behind the series “Welcome to Wrexham” needed a spot filled on their editing team, Oliver was recommended by an editor and mentor for the position. He’s now been a part of the crew since the show’s second season. After winning five Sports Emmy Awards throughout his career — two for editing and three for producing, Oliver won his first Primetime Emmy in September 2024 as part of the editing team behind “Welcome to Wrexham.”

He credits SCSU with first sparking his interest in editing.

“Where I really fell in love with it was at St. Cloud State University and Husky Productions. I knew right from there. I love the excitement, I love the rush of live program, I love creating stories,” he said. “I am a storyteller. I’ve always said that I love telling stories. And the best way for me to do it is visually — and that’s for editing and telling through other people’s words. SCSU is where I really fell in love; I knew right then and there when I was at St. Cloud that this is what I want to do.”

About 90 percent of Oliver’s work is sports-related, and that’s how he prefers it.

“I only like working in sports because we have to tell the truth. Because if we tell a little fib or a little lie, we get called out instantly, because unlike true crime shows — where maybe only a few people will know what actually happened — with sports, we’ve got millions of people following a team, following a league, so they will call us up,” he said. “I have worked on non-sports shows and I absolutely hated it. People were making me lie, making up stories and didn’t care how it would it reflect on the person. With sports you can’t do that. I’m a true person. I only like to tell the truth. We might leave out some information just to move the story along, but everything is true, so that’s why I mainly do sports.”

Oliver enjoys telling inspirational stories. He said there are numerous athletes who have worked their way from having next to nothing to get to where they are today, and sharing those stories has the power to influence others to never give up.

While he has worked on a number of national and international sports events, one of Oliver’s favorite projects is one with SCSU ties. On a “24/7” production surrounding an NHL game between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins played outdoors in what was then Heinz Field, things came full circle. As an avid hockey fan but also a Husky, Oliver worked on a game where fellow alumnus Matt Hendricks was on the ice for the Capitals.

“Me and Matt were really good friends, because I got to know all the hockey players while I was in college; I was with them all the time. Both of us were sharing the same experience. We’d both gotten to the top, where we wanted to be in our professions. And it wasn’t only that; we got to share the experience of the Winter Classic,” he said. “It was cool to share with somebody from my past who knew where I came from. We’d always joke about the St. Cloud days, but seeing him walk out to the ice rink from the Winter Classic in this big Heinz Stadium football field, it was the most magical thing. I’ve worked Super Bowls, I’ve worked World Series, I’ve worked them all, but that moment — seeing Matt come out and me being right there iceside was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

While the industry can be a tough one to break into, Oliver encouraged those interested to be patient and keep working at their craft.

“Don’t be afraid to take chances, take risks — which, what I mean by that is think outside of the box. Bring ideas, bring some creativeness to it. Bring something outside of the box. What I’ve noticed from people who come from St. Cloud State Husky Productions and UTVS is that we’re trained right away to think outside the box. We’re hands on. You can’t get hands-on experience, like we did in St. Cloud, anywhere else. We already have a head start leaving St. Cloud State, it’s just that you’ve got to be patient. You’ve got to think outside the box, and you really have to connect with people.”