Augustana College Athletics

To this day Roger Nelsen ranks as one of the finest tennis players to ever swing a racquet at Augustana College. A standout player at DeKalb High School, Nelsen compiled a career record of 54-15 that is third on the all-time list in terms of victories. His 19 wins in a superb 19-1 1975 campaign are still the single season school record for wins and that .950 winning percentage is second. His .783 career winning percentage is fourth on the all-time list. He won the CCIW title at number one singles in 1977 and at number four in 1975. He teamed with Erik Rossing, his former high school teammate, to earn NCAA Division III All-American honors in doubles in 1977. Nelsen and Rossing won three straight CCIW titles at number one doubles from 1975-77 and the duo went 11-0 in 1975, 12-1 in 1976 and 15-2 in 1977 and finished their career with a school record .927 winning percentage at 38-3. They qualified for the national tournament in both 1976 and 1977.

His wife Cary is a 1978 Augustana graduate and the two had a daughter Ashley and a son Wesley. Nelsen received his master’s degree in finance from Northern Illinois in 1983 and he is currently the chief operating officer at Prairie Grove Farms. He was a math and economics major at Augustana and he serves as a deacon for the First Congregational Church of DeKalb. The Nelsens currently reside in Clare, Illinois.