Mel Nash (born c. 1955) is a retired American swimmer who won a gold and a bronze medal at the world championships in 1973 and 1975. He also won the 100 m backstroke event at the

1971 Pan American Games * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

. In 1972, he was chosen by the '' Swimming World Magazine'' as the national high school swimmer of the year. Nash studied at a high school in

Monroeville, Pennsylvania Monroeville is a home rule municipality in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It is located about 10 miles east of Pittsburgh. Monroeville is a suburb with mixed residential and commercial developments. As of the 2020 census, Monroeville was ho ...

, and then at the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

. After graduating in 1976, he retired from swimming to become a swimming coach at the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of ...

. Aged 22, he was the youngest head coach of any sport in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

. After two years, his program was discontinued, and in the summer of 1979 Nash and his wife Carol moved to the

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. He stayed there until 2004, raising more than 60 national team members. Although he was eventually let go by the school. In 1982 and 1986 he was recognized as

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

men's coach of the year, and in 1987 as women's coach of the year. In 1991 he was the head coach of the national junior team. Nash has a daughter Kathryn and son Mel II; both are competitive swimmers. Nash senior himself continued competing in the 1980s in the masters category. He lives in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, where together with his wife runs the North Florida Swimming club.

References

External links

Profile of Melvin Nash II
American male swimmers American male backstroke swimmers Indiana University alumni Swimmers at the 1971 Pan American Games World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming {{US-swimming-bio-stub Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in swimming Medalists at the 1971 Pan American Games 20th-century American people 21st-century American people