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| No. 12, 30 | |
| Born: | (1911-11-21)November 21, 1911 Masontown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Died: | September 22, 2000(2000-09-22) (aged 88) Schaumburg, Illinois, U.S. |
| Career information | |
| Position(s) | Halfback |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) |
| Weight | 181 lb (82 kg) |
| College | Pittsburgh |
| Career history | |
| As coach | |
| 1936–1939 | Pittsburgh Steelers (assistant) |
| 1940–1941 | West Virginia (assistant) |
| 1946-1951 | Pittsburgh Steelers (assistant) |
| 1952–1953 | Chicago Cardinals (assistant) |
| 1954–1958 | Washington Redskins (assistant) |
| 1959–1960 | Washington Redskins |
| 1961–1964 | Pittsburgh Steelers (assistant) |
| 1965 | Pittsburgh Steelers |
| 1966–1968 | Philadelphia Eagles (assistant) |
| As player | |
| 1935 | Pittsburgh Pirates |
| 1942 | Brooklyn Dodgers |
| As scout | |
| 1969 – c. 1981 | Cleveland Browns |
| Career stats | |
| |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service |  U.S. Navy |
| Years of service | 1943–1946 |
| Rank |  Lieutenant |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Michael Regis Nixon (November 21, 1911 – September 22, 2000) was anAmerican football player, coach and scout. His most prominent positions were as head coach of theNational Football League (NFL)'sWashington Redskins andPittsburgh Steelers.
The son of an immigrant coal miner, Mike was born and raised in thePittsburgh area community ofMasontown, Pennsylvania, and attended theUniversity of Pittsburgh, where he played three seasons under the legendaryJock Sutherland, including action in the 1933Rose Bowl. At Pitt, he won All-America recognition as a running back, while also working summers in the same coal mines as his father. He then advanced to the NFL, but played just one season with the Steelers in 1935 before entering the coaching fraternity at his alma mater the next year.
During this same period, he also played third base in minor league baseball'sSouthern Association, while seeking other coaching opportunities. When Sutherland resigned on March 6, 1939, Nixon stayed on for a year before joiningBill Kern's staff atWest Virginia University.
Nixon departed after two seasons to return to the professional level as an assistant with the NFL'sBrooklyn Dodgers. With player shortages beginning that year due to World War II, Nixon briefly resumed his playing career by signing a contract with the team on November 19, 1942. Nixon himself eventually left to serve as a lieutenant in theU.S. Navy for three years, but returned in 1946 as a Steelers assistant under his former coach Sutherland.
He stayed in that role for the next six seasons, but left on June 3, 1952, to joinJoe Kuharich, who had been named head coach with theChicago Cardinals. Kuharich's tenure with the team was brief, but when he was named as head coach of the Redskins after the1953 NFL season, Nixon followed him to the nation's capital.
Kuharich's five-year tenure in Washington was only slightly better than his Cardinals stint, with the mentor leaving for the head coaching position at theUniversity of Notre Dame following the conclusion of the1958 NFL season. On December 22 of that year, Nixon earned his first head coaching position when he was promoted by Redskins' ownerGeorge Preston Marshall.
The next two years would be miserable for Nixon, who watched his team compile a record of 4–18–2, predictably resulting in his dismissal after the1960 NFL season had ended. After seeking another head coaching job, Nixon settled for an assistant's role on February 11, 1961, back with the Steelers underBuddy Parker. After a 6-8 campaign in his first year, the team improved to a 9–5 record the following year, and was one game away from winning the Eastern Conference title in 1963. However, by the time the next season started, age and injuries had caught up with the Steelers. Two weeks before the start of the1965 NFL season, Parker abruptly quit. Nixon was promoted to head coach the next day, but endured (up to that time) the franchise's worst season with a 2–12 mark.
Nixon was fired after the season ended, but found work a few months later, again with Kuharich, now the head coach of thePhiladelphia Eagles. Following a 9–5 season in 1966, the team won three fewer games the following year, then bottomed out with a 2–12 mark in 1968. Once again, Nixon was looking for work after Kuharich was dismissed after the arrival of new ownerLeonard Tose.
On July 1, 1969, Nixon was signed as a scout for theCleveland Browns, spending his first season looking only at teams in the American Football League. The strategy was for Nixon to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of the teams that would be facing the Browns after they changed leagues because theAFL–NFL merger. In subsequent years, Nixon focused on college scouting, becoming the team's director of college scouting on February 20, 1974. He kept that role until his retirement in the early 1980s.
Nixon died in 2000 and was buried inArlington National Cemetery.[1]