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12 Facts About Mike Nixon

1.

Michael Regis Nixon was an American football player, coach and scout.

2.

The son of an immigrant coal miner, Mike Nixon was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area community of Masontown, Pennsylvania, and attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he played three seasons under the legendary Jock Sutherland, including action in the 1933 Rose Bowl.

3.

When Sutherland resigned on March 6,1939, Mike Nixon stayed on for a year before joining Bill Kern's staff at West Virginia University.

4.

Mike Nixon departed after two seasons to return to the professional level as an assistant with the NFL's Brooklyn Dodgers.

5.

Mike Nixon stayed in that role for the next six seasons, but left on June 3,1952, to join Joe Kuharich, who had been named head coach with the Chicago Cardinals.

6.

Kuharich's tenure with the team was brief, but when he was named as head coach of the Redskins after the 1953 NFL season, Mike Nixon followed him to the nation's capital.

7.

Mike Nixon was fired after the season ended, but found work a few months later, again with Kuharich, now the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

8.

Once again, Mike Nixon was looking for work after Kuharich was dismissed after the arrival of new owner Leonard Tose.

9.

On July 1,1969, Mike Nixon was signed as a scout for the Cleveland Browns, spending his first season looking only at teams in the American Football League.

10.

In subsequent years, Mike Nixon focused on college scouting, becoming the team's director of college scouting on February 20,1974.

11.

Mike Nixon kept that role until his retirement in the early 1980s.

12.

Mike Nixon died in 2000 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.