Cotton Nash

Charles Francis Nash

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 6", Weight 220 lb.
• School University of Kentucky
• High School Jeffersonville High School, Lake Charles High School
• Debut September 1, 1967
• Final Game October 1, 1970
• Born July 24, 1942 in Jersey City, NJ USA
• Died May 23, 2023 in Lexington, KY USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Cotton Nash was a better basketball player than baseball player, a distinction he shared with the likes of Dave DeBusschere, Danny Ainge, and several others. If he had to do it all over again, though, Nash says he would have stuck with baseball instead of trying to juggle the majors and the NBA. He also played in the NBA's rival in the 1970s, the American Basketball Association (ABA). He set the career scoring record at the University of Kentucky in the 1960s with 1,770 points for the Wildcats; it was surpassed by future NBA star Dan Issel in 1970. He was such a star in college basketball that he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated on December 10, 1962.

As a baseball player, he was originally signed by the Los Angeles Angels as an amateur free agent in 1964, one year before the institution of the amateur draft. He was drafted by the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers as a first-rounder that same year. After playing both sports for a year, he gave up on basketball for a time to concentrate on his first love, baseball, and reached the majors with the Chicago White Sox for a cup of coffee at the end of the 1967 season, going 0 for 3 in 3 games. When the ABA was formed that same year, the Kentucky Colonels persuaded the hometown legend to play both sports again, but he left the team when spring training started a few months later, giving up basketball for good. He made it back to majors in 1969, playing six games for the Minnesota Twins, then played another 4 games with the Twins at the end of the 1970 season. The Twins won a division title both years, but he wasn't on the postseason roster. In all, he went 3 for 16 (.188) in 13 major league games. His minor league career lasted nine seasons, from 1964 to 1972 and he played at least some games in AAA every year except for 1965, when he was with the AA El Paso Sun Kings.

After his baseball career, he settled down in Lexington, KY - he had met his wife Julie there when they were both students. His main sporting interest after retirement was breeding thoroughbred horses. He passed away there in 2023 at 80.

Further Reading

• Mark Story: "Cotton Nash, once a Kentucky basketball ‘rock star,’ dies at age 80", Lexington Herald Leader, May 23, 2023. [1]

Related Sites

• Cotton Nash at the SABR Bio Project
• Basketball-Reference page