Burlington has a long and notable sports history that includes many outstanding athletes, coaches, officials, media, and volunteers. The Burlington Sports Hall of Fame (BSHOF) is dedicated to identifying and honouring these individuals who have created this rich tradition. This year, BSHOF is celebrating its 17th year and is proud to be inducting six new honorees at its 2025 induction ceremony on Tuesday, May 27, at the Burlington Golf and Country Club.
Our next inductee is Dave Nelson.
Many in the Burlington sporting community who hear the name Dave Nelson will know him as a long-time, successful high school basketball coach at various Burlington schools, mostly at M.M. Robinson —but that’s not the reason for his BSHOF induction. Other people will know Dave Nelson for his involvement in the Burlington International Games, where he was either an athlete, a coach, an organizer or an executive for all but two BIG Games from 1969-2009 — but none of those are the reason either.
Dave Nelson, the 1982 A.J. Dunn Award winner as Burlington’s Sportsperson of the Year, is being inducted into the Builders category of the Burlington Sports Hall of Fame for his decades-long involvement and leadership in touch football at the local, provincial, national, and international levels.
This lifelong devotion to Burlington sports can be traced to the coaching path of his father. A longtime hockey coach, Dave admired the way his dad carried himself with young athletes and knew early that he too would be a coach and sport organizer.
A bit of touch football history before continuing Dave’s story. The first organized touch football league was formed in Montreal in 1961 by Frank Bolla, who moved to Hamilton in the early 70s — the sport followed. Bolla and others connected through a love of the sport. Small leagues were forming across Ontario, and inter-league exhibition games began to take place. The Burlington Men’s Touch Football League (BMTFL) was formed in 1968 with six teams.
Back to Dave.
Dave began playing in the BMTFL in 1973 when he was 18 years old. This sport organizer and budding touch football pioneer realized immediately that the sport was very popular and that its growth needed direction. Fledgling sports can fall apart if not well-organized, so Dave volunteered to take a position on the executive to ensure the sport he loved would grow. And grow it did, with local clubs and organizations across the province starting up.
He stepped up to the challenge and hasn’t stepped down since.
In 1980, Dave and his good friend Rick Little formed the Golden Horseshoe Touch Football Association (GHTFA) in Burlington, with teams from around the surrounding area. The association grew, creating A-, B-, and C-level competitive divisions as well as Women’s and Masters (over 35) categories. By 1990, the GHTFA had 48 teams.
At the head of all this growth? Dave Nelson has been the president of the GHTFA for the past 45 years.
Wanting the growth of the sport that he loved so much was the simple driving force behind Dave’s involvement. The sport also needed criteria and a qualifying system based on tournament results for entry into regional and provincial championships. The top teams from the various levels of provincial
championships would then advance to the Canadian National Championships. Dave would come to play a role in all of this.
He became vice president of the Ontario Amateur Football Association in 1978, and in 1982, he assumed the role of president, a position he held for 20 years. During his tenure at what would become Touch Football Ontario, the sport exploded, and by the early 90s, there were over 200 leagues and 3000 teams across the province.
Back to the local scene. In 1975, Dave organized the first Early Bird Tournament in Burlington with eight teams from Burlington and Hamilton. It was one of the first touch football tournaments held in Canada, and it was and still is immensely popular as the kickoff event for teams for their upcoming seasons.
The Early Bird tournament ultimately became the largest touch football tournament in North America, where Burlington would host over 80 teams from across Ontario, Quebec, and the U.S.A. The tournament peaked at 96 teams and had to regularly use 16 football fields in the area, needing 80 referees, of which Dave was one. In 2010, Touch Football Ontario took over the running of the tournament and renamed it the Dave Nelson Early Bird Tournament. This was to honour the man who, in 52 years in touch football, organized over 100 tournaments that led to so much growth in the sport.
Dave Nelson was also a participant at the highest level. Winning several provincial titles, he competed in two World Championships, in Australia in 1988 and Dallas in 1992. He played with the Canadian team at 12 U.S. National Championships, where relationships were formed that brought the game to the world stage.
In 1984, Dave and Burlington hosted the Presidents of the U.S. Flag and Touch Football Association and the Australian Touch Football Association at the Bud Bowl Championships, where discussions took place about creating a World Championship of Touch Football. In 1986, he attended the Australian National Touch Championships in Perth, where Dave played in the tournament but also participated in meetings as a delegate of Football Canada that resulted in the creation of the Federation of International Touch (FIT). He was appointed vice president of FIT, as well as president of FIT Canada. The first FIT World Championships were held in Brisbane, Australia, in 1988, and included four Canadian teams.
This Hall of Famer was motivated to expand the game of touch football at the world level simply because he loved the game so much, and he wanted athletes to enjoy competing with others internationally. He felt a responsibility to help bring the sport to the highest level.
Flag football, a spinoff of touch football with similar rules, and with NFL sponsorship, will be a new sport at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. This is proof that the sport has garnered worldwide success and recognition, and that in no small way is because of the effort of people like Dave Nelson.
Starting a career from the model of his father’s involvement in sport, Dave Nelson is a true pioneer in the sport of touch football, having already been inducted into the Golden Horseshoe Touch Football Hall of Fame in 2001. He was also honoured in 2019 when he received the Governor General’s Sovereign Medal at a presentation from Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.
The circle is now complete as the Burlington Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducts Dave Nelson into the Builder’s Category.
This year’s induction reception will be held on Tuesday, May 27, at the Burlington Golf and Country Club with Steve Foxcroft as emcee. The event is sold out.
