Who is this guy?

"Hey Conway!" a builder asked my father-in-law, "what does the mortar do, hold the bricks together or keep them apart?"
"Keeps 'em from rattling" was the usual quick witted response from Conway Nelson, a six foot five inch, 260 plus pound giant of a man whose presence was larger than life even outdoors.

I met my future father-in-law in the summer of 1975 on a softball field in one of Chicago's south suburbs. A blue Cadillac Eldorado pulls up and immediately the guys were acting like a rock star just showed up. I was the new guy. My parents moved from my hometown forty miles away during my senior year in high school. I stayed with friends to finish rather than enrolling into gigantic Homewood-Flossmoor High School for two months. The day after my graduation, I moved in with my parents in their apartment and as such was expected to attend Church every Sunday as long as I was under their roof. Lucky for me this church had a very active youth group and that's how I ended up on that field that day.

"Who's that? I asked one of my new friends.
"That's Connie Nelson" he replied.
"He looks just like Dick Butkus" was the first thing I said..
The resemblance was uncanny, think Miller Lite, Tastes Great, bowling with Bubba Smith Dick Butkus.



Conway could be a stand-in on a Hollywood set for him. He once signed an autograph for a drunk in an airport lobby who told him "I know Dick, you're travelling incognito" despite his best efforts to convince him he was not the real Dick Butkus.
We met he told me he had met my Dad in church and then it happened. It happened to any young man  who met him. The Handshake. A death grip that tested your strength, stamina and pain tolerance all at once. You expect the normal 'how are you' hand shake and the next thing you see is a hand the size of a youth baseball mitt squeezing the life and feeling right out of your hand. The others guys laugh knowingly as they have seen this a million times before and were all once victims of the Handshake themselves.

I don't remember much else about that first meeting, except the last words he said to me. "I love you buddy". And off he went. He had that John Wayne, just got off a horse and enters the bar walk.


Adjusting his belt as he walked away you notice the slightly bowed legs and how huge his back and shoulders were. I was wondering why a forty something dude just stops by a church softball game for a few minutes. I was also curious as to the reception he got from the guys.

"He lost his only son a few months ago" my friend said, " he had a brain tumor. It was really sad".