Elliot was born in Lexington, Missouri, to Lenvil Nelson and Helen Constance (Williams) Elliott.
His Richmond coach, Tom Adams, summed up Elliott's high school career reflecting on Elliott's final prep game by scoring all 19 points and running for 201 yards against a Slater team that had lost just one game: "It was a cold, nasty night and no one was real excited about playing," Adams said.
"I thought at one point I had lost him to Texas-El Paso, but he called me at home and asked if he could still come to Northeast Missouri," Sloan recalled.
He was one of the Bulldogs' top sprinters as a senior, running a leg on the 440-yard relay team and finishing third in the MIAA outdoor triple jump.
At NMSU, among his big games was when his three touchdowns led the Bulldogs to a 20–7 win to spoil Missouri State University's homecoming.
The Bengals posted a 10–4 record before losing in the first round of the AFC Playoffs to the eventual Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins.
He also had the longest reception of his career, a 45-yard touchdown pass from Joe Montana in the third quarter to give the 49ers a 20–14 lead over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before finally falling 24–23.
[5] In the 1981 postseason, he played a key role in the 49ers' NFC Championship Game victory over the Dallas Cowboys on January 10, 1982, at Candlestick Park after being activated just a week earlier after a knee injury.
Elliott rushed four times for 31 yards on the 49ers' 89-yard final drive, culminating in "The Catch", Dwight Clark's famous six-yard touchdown reception from Joe Montana with 51 seconds left in the game.
Elliott suited up but did not play (due to his knee injury) but he earned a Super Bowl ring in the 49ers' victory over his old team, the Cincinnati Bengals.
[2] Elliott died of a heart attack at 11:10 p.m., Sunday, October 12, 2008, at the Ray County, Missouri Memorial Hospital in Richmond.