An overworked national star in the late 1950s on NBC’s college football, NBA basketball, and ML baseball broadcasts, Nelson surprisingly accepted a job with the expansion New York Mets in 1962 and became their top announcer for 19 seasons. He worked with Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy throughout his Mets career. Nelson’s garish plaid sports coats matched the colorfully inept early Mets beautifully, and in 1965 he broadcast a Mets-Astros game from a gondola suspended from the Astrodome roof. Equally adept at television and radio, Nelson also broadcast Notre Dame football games from 1967 to 1979, and after three seasons with the San Francisco Giants, taught broadcasting seminars at his alma mater, the University of Tennessee. Twice named National Sportscaster of the Year, Nelson also broadcast 26 Cotton Bowls. He was inducted into the Writers Wing of the Hall of Fame in 1988.
