Dick Nelson has been an integral part of Grand Valley State University football for decades, but you won’t find him running up and down the sidelines at a game or on TV – Nelson is the man behind the microphone, whose voice has aired to Laker football fans for 35 years.

Nelson will reach a career-milestone on Saturday in Indianapolis, when he will broadcast his 400th
career game at GVSU. Nelson, the “voice of Laker football” has been traveling and doing play-by-play for the Lakers since 1977, and the
culmination of 400 career games is something he is appreciative of.

“I was going to move to Chicago when they conned me into doing this for one year, and I’ve been doing it every year since,” said Dick Nelson, a Chicago native. “This has been tremendously rewarding for both my wife and I. She comes to all the games and travels with me and we both enjoy it tremendously.”

Nelson’s path to GVSU was a long one, and he merrily stumbled upon the opportunity to work as the play-by-play announcer. As a boy growing up in Chicago, Nelson lived for baseball, working as a Chicago Cubs visiting team batboy during high school from 1952 to 1954. Following high school, Nelson left Chicago for Grand Rapids, hoping to find a way into the broadcasting field.

“ When I got into broadcasting, and started out as a disc jockey, and I just always wanted to get into sports because that was my background,”said Nelson. “I was working in Grand Rapids for John Fetzer, who at that time owned
the Detroit Tigers, and worked at WGEF.”

The early experience in broadcasting helped shape where Nelson wanted to go with his career, and after leaving the business for a short time, he came back as the sports director at WZZM– 13 News. That is where GVSU comes in. After leaving WZZM in 1977, Nelson came to GVSU on the invitation of then-Sports Information Director Don Thomas to set up a radio broadcast for the football team – and the rest is now history.

“I knew very little about football when I arrived – my whole life was all baseball – and [former GVSU head coach] Jim Harkema taught me the basics of football,” said Nelson. “We’ve just been blessed here, and I’ve learned from a lot of good coaches.”

Appreciation for coaches is something Nelson showed for every coach. From applauding Tom Beck as an “offensive genius” to talking about how now-Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly learned to coach at GVSU, Nelson cares about the football program and those he works with and they show the same care back.

“Nobody knows Grand Valley football better than Dick Nelson,” said Matt Mitchell, GVSU head football coach. “His excellence behind the mic has been constant for over three decades.”

Nelson has been around the program long enough to have seen it grow up. Aside from a down period in the mid-1980s, the Lakers have been a successful program with Nelson in the booth – shown by the team’s 299-98-2 record during that time.

“When I started, the program had established itself to a degree,” said Nelson. “But after hiring Tom Beck, we were in the playoffs yearly and by far the strongest program in the GLIAC, but the last ten years have just been sensational.”

From his vast knowledge of GVSU football to his sheer longevity in the booth, Nelson has positively impacted everyone he’s interacted with during his 35 years.

“His longevity has been just remarkable if you think about it,” said Steve Lloyd-Jones, Nelson’s partner in the booth for most GVSU broadcasts. “To be in your 70s and still have that passion and love for being there – I just hope at his age I can do it as well as he does.”