Born in Minneapolis, Nelson attended Washburn High School and began competing in middle distance events there.

He was the team's captain in both track and field and cross country and won seven titles and 12 All-American honours during his four years representing the institution.

He won the Amateur Athletic Union six-mile title then completed a 5000 meters/10,000 meters track double at the 1967 World Student Games.

He repeated this feat at the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, becoming the second man to complete the long-distance double after Argentina's Osvaldo Suárez.

Cloud State in 1969, but the year after he suffered a serious back injury due to heavy lifting and the surgery that followed impaired his running ability.