Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Boxing Champs: Boxers Scott, left, and Dave Nelson are the only father-son team to both individually win the National Collegiate Boxing Association Championship title. Dave, a Willow Glen resident, graduated from San Jose State University, while son Scott is a Santa Clara University graduate and was recently inducted into the school's Hall of Fame.
Father-son boxers celebrate son's induction to sports Hall of Fame
Willow Glen's Nelsons only father and son to win national collegiate boxing championships
By Kate Carter
Willow Glen's most successful boxing father and son duo was reunited this month for a special ceremony.
Scott "Corky" Nelson, 37, the 1988 and 1989 National Collegiate Boxing Association featherweight champion, was inducted into Santa Clara University's Sports Hall of Fame on May 10, while his dad and former boxing coach, Dave, 66, watched proudly.
The scene was familiar to Dave. He had been inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame of his alma mater, San Jose State University, as the 1960 National Collegiate Athletic Association's featherweight champion. Dave and Scott are the only father and son to both be national collegiate boxing champions.
Dave was also reminded of watching his son win his two national championships from the corner of the boxing ring, as the man who coached his son to get there.
"I knew exactly what he was going through," Dave says of the induction ceremony. "All this hard work that you did, there's a reason for it. I knew he was thinking, deep down inside, 'I worked hard for that.'"
Scott says he was lucky to have his dad as his coach, especially because he, as a competitive athlete, could trust his dad's experienced opinion.
"My dad is a great coach," Scott says. "He had been there, done that. I had the wonderful opportunity to be exposed to a coach who teaches the psychology part."
After graduating from San Jose State in 1960, with a degree in physical education, Dave began teaching and coaching sports in local secondary schools. After Scott was born, Dave began bringing him along to gyms, courts and fields throughout the Bay Area.
"I was a gym rat," Scott says.
That exposure, coupled with Scott's work ethic and natural talent, had him playing nearly every sport, as a youth growing up in Willow Glen.
After he graduated from Gunderson High School in 1982, Scott began actively training as a Greco-Roman wrestler. He began his junior year in 1987, at Santa Clara University with dreams of competing in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea as a Greco-Roman wrestler, but was eliminated from the final U.S. Olympic qualifying tournament by the wrestler who eventually won fourth place at the Olympics.
Scott was also in the midst of competing on the university's boxing team, while voluntarily coached by his dad. It was the first time he had ever seriously competed as a boxer. Remarkably, only weeks before his defeat at the Olympic trials, Scott had already won the national boxing title in his 125-pound weight class.
"Those are both sports you just don't get recognized for," Scott says of being honored for his wrestling and boxing successes. "It was overwhelming that I was inducted."
"He is probably one of our finest athletes," says Jerry Kerr, executive director of Santa Clara University's alumni office, which chose to place Scott in the Hall of Fame. The university's Hall of Fame was begun in 1962, he says, and so far includes 215 individuals and one team. Kerr says Scott is only the fifth boxer to receive the honor, which not only recognizes excellent athletic abilities, but also a commitment to the school's values.
That whole-life approach to sports is something that Scott and Dave both value.
Dave credits his high school boxing coaches for encouraging him to use his skills as a way to go to college, something the son of a valley orchard foreman hadn't thought could be in his future.
Scott says the discipline of playing sports helps one have discipline to achieve in other areas of life.
"To be a success in any sport, especially an individual sport, you have to be focused," Scott says. "You have to be self-disciplined, also, to get through a school like Santa Clara."
Dave, a teacher at San Jose High Academy, says that sports also bring people together for a common purpose.
"Playing sports is a very sociable thing. It's a great place to get people together," Scott says.
Scott, who now lives in Hawaii working in real estate, fishing and coaching high school wrestling, says he still looks to Dave for guidance.
"I have a great respect and admiration for my father," Scott says. "I hope I learn from him and am able to pass that along, when I coach."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
