Chris Nelson: Driven by Entrepreneurial Spirit

February 11, 2021

An Entrepreneurial Spirit Drives Wisconsin’s Chris Nelson
 
The University of Wisconsin’s Chris Nelson helped the Badgers to the 1990 NCAA title in ice hockey found an array of life experiences and career opportunities through the sport.

Trying to break into baseball, basketball or football would have been much simpler. But former University of Wisconsin standout defenseman Chris Nelson wanted to become the first African American player to play ice hockey in the National Hockey League and at the Olympics.

“We’re talking 1987 when I set those goals,’’ said Nelson, “It’s like kids saying they want to be firefighters when they grow up.”

Nelson began his hockey career at age three in Hanover, New Hampshire, where his parents worked at Dartmouth College. When his parents acquired faculty positions with the University of California, Los Angeles, they warned their rising sixth grader that he would probably have to give up hockey when they moved to sunny Southern California.

“Ironically, we moved about two blocks from a hockey rink and they were having tryouts at the time,’’ he says. “I made the team, got better and better and then started making travel and all-star teams. I was spotted by a college scout and he advised me to hone my skills by going to a prep school.’’

Nelson followed the scout’s advice and transferred to the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield, Michigan, for his sophomore and junior years of high school. While at Cranbrook, Nelson was selected in the fifth round by the New Jersey Devils in the 1988 NHL entry draft.  Despite his desire to carve a path for African American athletes in professional ice hockey, he declined. “My parents were all about making sure I got a college education.’’

Around the same time, Nelson began receiving letters of interest from Wisconsin head coach Jeff Sauer. “I was a scrawny 162-pound kid and I figured I needed better competition before I headed off to Wisconsin,’’ he said of his decision to spend a gap year in the U.S. Hockey League (USHL). “Coach Sauer told me one year, not two or three, but only one year of Junior Hockey.”

His experience playing with the Rochester Minnesota Mustangs in 1987 presented Nelson some tough challenges. “We were playing in a lot of small towns, where people weren’t as socially acceptable to people of color in general,’’ he said. Still, Nelson made the USHL all-star team and toured Switzerland with the elite team that year.

Learn More: Chris Nelson, Ice Hockey