Frank Thayer Nelson (May 22, 1887 – July 16, 1970) was an American athlete and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

and died in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Nelson competed for the United States in the 1912 Summer Olympics held in Stockholm, Sweden in the pole vault where he won the silver medal. At the same Olympics he competed in the baseball event, which was held as demonstration sport. Nelson was one of four Americans who played for the Swedish team. He graduated from Lawrenceville, class of 1906, and Yale, class of 1910. He was a lifelong member of the Les Cheneaux Club on Marquette Island in northern Lake Huron. Nelson also attended the all-boys Detroit University School from 1900 through his junior year, 1905. The school is now known as University Liggett School, located in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. Nelson's classmate John Neil Patterson DUS '06 was a member of the 1908 USA Olympic team as a high jumper (7th place) and a hurdler. Nelson was a late replacement in the pole vault competition for Paul Maxon, another 1906 DUS graduate.

References

1887 births 1970 deaths American male pole vaulters Olympic baseball players of the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 1912 Summer Olympics Baseball players at the 1912 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics {{US-athletics-Olympic-medalist-stub