Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks Hall of Fame Inductee (2012) Nelson Elijah Townsend (May 16, 1941 – January 8, 2015) was an American college athletics administrator.
In 1981, Townsend made a bold appointment hiring Joseph Purzycki as the first white man to ever be named a head football coach at a historically black college or University.
Townsend has, also, been credited for adding Super Bowl wide receiver John Taylor to the Delaware State Hornets in 1983 as the last scholarship player without Coach Purzycki's knowledge but to his pleasant surprise.
At Florida A&M University, Townsend was hired by the school in 1986 to guide the school back to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference after a failed attempt as an independent and again in 2005 after FAMU's failed attempt to be the first and only historically black college or University to move up to Division I-A status.
Townsend served the University at Buffalo for twelve years with the last two as associate vice president for student affairs.