National Football Foundation

Born in Concord, Mass., Nixon graduated from Leominster High School in Leominster, Mass., in 1949 as his class president and co-captain of the football team. Nixon then attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., where he again served as senior class president and co-captain of the football team. After graduating with honors in 1953, Nixon volunteered with the U.S. Army from 1953-55.
 
After returning from Korea, Nixon enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School and again served as class president and as a member of the Barristers’ Honor Society before graduating in 1968. Nixon used his law degree to win a seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1969-70. He then moved to the state senate in 1971-72, where he was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and in 1973-74 he became the president of the State Senate.
 
Nixon has been admitted to practice law before the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for New Hampshire, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston and the U.S. Supreme Court. He worked as the town moderator for New Boston, N.H. for 30 years, and he has won numerous professional awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Manchester Bar Association and the Chief Justice Frank R. Kenison Award for distinguished service to the public and profession of law from the New Hampshire Bar Foundation.
 
“Receiving a Chapter Leadership honor from the National Football Foundation means to me more than I can say,” said Nixon. “Football’s been a big part of my life - in high school, college, the Army and since 1986 with Coach Joe Yukica and the Joe Yukica Chapter of the National Football Foundation. To be honored for helping our chapter encourage, if not inspire, young scholar athletes to learn to work together in a selfless way to improve their teams and themselves, is something I’ll always remember with thanks and pride.”
 
Nixon helped create the Joe Yukica/New Hampshire Chapter in 1986, and he has served as the chapter’s secretary since 1990. He has been an integral part of the chapter’s success, organizing the annual scholar-athlete dinner and driving the chapter’s publicity efforts. The state of New Hampshire has seen football participation grow from 31 to 57 high schools in the quarter-century since the chapter’s creation. Nixon was honored with the Joe Yukica/New Hampshire Chapter’s Distinguished American Award in 2000.