Photo illustration by azcentral sports.
Position, years at UA: Back, 1936-38
Honors, accomplishments at UA: Was a Little All-American in 1937. … Was the first UA player to appear in the East-West Shrine Game, doing so in 1939. … Became the first first-round NFL draft pick in school history.
Why he made our list: Walter Nielsen, from Los Angeles, picked UA over USC to help control his asthma, and his first game with the Wildcats showed the player he could become.
A UPI story from 1936 said Nielsen earned his nickname “Hoss” during the season-opening 32-6 victory over BYU. The UPI wrote: “(H)e carried a trio of Brigham Young University tacklers a good 10 yards pickaback after he had already negotiated 23 yards through a broken field.”
Nielsen, a 220-pound fullback who also was a sprinter and competed in field events, was UA’s best runner in the first half of the 20th century, helping lead the talented 1937 “Blue Brigade” that opened with a 20-6 victory over Arizona State and ended with a 20-6 victory over Oregon, the latter propelling the Ducks to swipe coach Tex Oliver from the Wildcats.
Following his All-American season in 1937, “Hoss” was limited by a knee injury in 1938, but he was healthy enough to leave a big impression on Marquette late in the season.
The Milwaukee Sentinel reported that Marquette hadn’t met “such a combination of size, brute strength, amazing speed and passing and punting ability all wrapped up in one human package.”
Life after college: The New York Giants selected Nielsen with the 10th pick in the 1939 draft, although he played that season with Jersey City Giants, a farm club of the NFL team, because he “succumbed to hay fever,” according to a wire story from the day. He played for the New York Giants in 1940, rushing 73 times for 269 yards, then joined the Army and never returned to football.
Nielsen landed on Omaha Beach in France two days after D-Day, according to a 1994 story in the Tucson Citizen, which wrote that he “would continue by serving in a reconnaissance mission and driving armored cars ahead of the Allied tanks to scout out Nazi positions.”
Nielsen told the Citizen: “When we landed, we were in 4 feet of water while we unloaded. We moved in behind the infantry and settled in their area. We went across Europe fast and we were the first Americans to arrive in Belgium since we were out in front.”
He worked in private business upon his return to Arizona, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
Nielsen died in September 2006 in Tucson. He was 89.
In partnership with the Arizona Republic, we are counting down the top 50 football players in Arizona Wildcats history. Leave your top 10 at AG’s Wildcat Report on Facebook, and check out azcentral.com for the countdown of ASU’s Top 50 football players.
Arizona’s top 50
No. 50 — LaMonte Hunley
No. 49 — Hubie Oliver
No. 48 — Rob Gronkowski
No. 47 — Jim Donarski
No. 46 — Ontiwaun Carter
No. 45 — Steve McLaughlin
No. 44 — John Fina
No. 43 — Glenn Parker
No. 42 — Bobby Lee Thompson
No. 41 — Marcus Bell
No. 40 — Fred W. Enke
No. 39 — Ka’Deem Carey
No. 38 — Juron Criner
No. 37 — Dana Wells
No. 36 — Tom Tunnicliffe
No. 35 — Bruce Hill
No. 34 — Chuck Osborne
No. 33 — Brandon Sanders
No. 32 — Sean Harris
No. 31 — Mike Thomas
No. 30 — Bobby Wade
No. 29 — T Bell
No. 28 — Joe Salave’a
No. 27 — Eddie Wilson
No. 26 — Chuck Levy
No. 25 — Allan Durden
No. 24 — Nick Foles
No. 23 — Tony Bouie
No. 22 — ‘King Kong’ Nolan
No. 21 — Bill Lueck