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Charles “Cotton” Nash was a basketball star at the University of Kentucky in the 1960s who went on to play both basketball and baseball professionally.
Charles “Cotton” Nash’s legacy
Nash played both basketball and baseball at Kentucky, where he was named a first-team All-American in 1964 for his basketball success. After his 1964 graduation, he signed with both the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB), one of only 13 players in sports history to play in both leagues.
Nash’s NBA career was brief; he played for the Lakers through 1965 and spent part of that year with the San Francisco Warriors, then spent 1967 and 1968 with the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association (ABA). His biggest years in baseball began while he was in the ABA, having signed with the Chicago White Sox in 1967. He played two seasons for the Sox before being traded to the Minnesota Twins.
Tributes to Charles “Cotton” Nash
Full obituary: ESPN
