Fast Diggers: The Demise of John Nelson

John Nelson was one of the most accomplished middle-distance riders to compete at the old Los Angeles Velodrome, racing on the wooden eight-lap track for the entirety of its second season (1900-1901). Nelson, who hailed from Chicago, made a name for himself while racing the eastern circuit early in his career but, in 1900, racing promoter Jack Prince, convinced "Johnny" Nelson to winter in Los Angeles where he would be afforded twice-weekly races at the track. Nelson accepted the invitation and enjoyed a successful five month season. As did most racers at that time, Nelson returned to the eastern states during the spring and summer of 1901 in order to compete in the, much more prestigious, races there.

In mid-August 1901 sources quote Nelson as saying that he intended to return to his southern California "home" for the winter. Whether or not Nelson was aware of the velodrome's demise by then, cannot be determined. In any case, the opportunity to winter in warmer climes would never be realized, and there would never be a follow-up season of racing in Los Angeles. 

On 4 September 1901 Nelson was engaged in a fifteen-mile motor-paced match against International star, and Welsh champion Jimmy Michael, at Madison Square Garden. Two miles into the race the rear wheel of Nelsons' pacing motorcycle exploded, violently crashing and bringing down Nelson, as well as Michael's motor-pacing machine. His left leg badly lacerated, Nelson was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors stated he would be out of the racing game for a year at the least. Two days later doctors announced that gangrene had set in, requiring Nelsons leg to be amputated, and the surgery took place at once. It was a rough go, with the surgeons at one point expressing grave concern that he would not survive the operation. An hour after, however, he was reported to be resting easily.

The optimism was short lived. The amputation was too late to prevent the spread of blood poisoning, and on the ninth of September 1901, twenty-one year old John Nelson died.

Recriminations began almost immediately, the harshest one being directed at Nelson's manager, F. Ed Spooner, whose motor cycles, during the previous winter in Los Angeles, were constantly malfunctioning and in need of repair. Nelson was "bitterly" vocal about the situation, but with Spooner in charge of the finances and unwilling to pay for any more than piecemeal repairs, there was nothing to be done. W. L. Loos, who officiated at most of the Los Angeles races, likely summed up the opinion of most followers of the game at that time: "It is too bad the little fellows' career was cut short, but perhaps it is just as well he died, for the amputation of his leg cut off his means of making a livelihood. I believe he would have been the champion pace follower with first-class machines and good riders to man them."

During his single season of racing in Los Angeles, Nelson won multiple races, including a much anticipated best of three matches against eastern speedster Earl Kiser (Nelson shut out Kiser in two straight races by dominating each), placed in more, and set new track, and international indoor motor-paced records.

As Arthur Bell recalls:

Arthur "Artie" Bell was a successful Los Angeles professional in his own right, but on the night of the fateful crash he was piloting, with Arthur Stone occupying the rear seat, the motor bicycle that was pacing Jimmy Michael. In late October Bell, having recovered from a broken arm and leg recounted the crash from his perspective: "I was steering Jimmy Michaels' motor in the ill-fated race. We were racing on the ten-lap track at Madison Square Gardens and started on opposite sides. For the first couple of miles we had it nip and tuck, but Michaels was in grand form and we gradually wore down Nelson's lead, until along in the fifth mile we crept up alongside. While we were making one of those nerve-racking [sic] attempts to pass, the rear tire of Nelson's wheel blew up... The track is banked as steep on the stretch as the turns were at the old Velodrome here (Los Angeles). All I know is that in the smash-up which followed I went through the air as though shot out of a gun and landed, stunned, up over the bank with a broken left ankle and left arm... People say that Michaels escaped injury by riding up the bank, but how he missed me is a mystery... Stone escaped with a severe shaking up and some bruises..." While Bell did not place blame for the crash on Spooner, he did say that "Spooner did not help his standing with the wheelmen by his actions after Nelson's death. The little Swede was bound to Spooner by an iron-clad contract and the latter for-profited very richly by the alliance, yet the funeral expenses of the working partner were limited to a very meager figure..."