Wilson was born in Maricopa, California. At age 16, he played for the Montgomery Wards baseball team that won the 1928 American League Junior Series. The team, considered "Oakland\'s first World Champion Baseball team", won 18 straight games, including 14 by shutouts, in the national junior baseball tournament sponsored by the American Legion. As the team advanced, the Oakland newspapers covered the games and the players on a daily basis, as reflected in the following account: "The excitement that gripped Oakland as their 14 boys progressed through the tournament finals jumps out of the old news clippings. Game results were featured on Page One of the Oakland papers, individual players being written up day after day." When the team returned to Oakland, the headline in the Oakland Tribune read, "Welcome Home World Champions", and the team was greeted at the train station with a victory parade: "Straight up Broadway the lads were paraded, led by a band and drum corps and surrounded by thousands of cheering Oaklanders."\n', '

At San Leandro High School in San Leandro, California, Wilson was a star in football and baseball.\n', '

After graduating from high school, Wilson enrolled at St. Mary\'s College in Moraga, California. From 1931–1934, he starred in both football and baseball for the "Galloping Gaels." During the 1930s, St. Mary\'s football coach, Slip Madigan (later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame), was an active and colorful promoter of the exploits of his players. One of the tactics Madigan used to promote his players was by "bolstering their reputations with nicknames that promised to titillate the fans and writers in distant cities." John Podesto became "Presto Podesto from Modesto", and it was Madigan who reportedly bestowed the nickname "Icehouse" on his star halfback. The nickname was reportedly given to Wilson because of "his coolness under competitive fire."\n', '

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