1950-1958

Willard Nixon was born on July 17, 1928, in Taylorsville, Georgia. By the time he graduated from high school, he was a veteran of four seasons of textile ball, as part of an informal effort to keep baseball alive despite wartime conditions.

By 1945, 17-year-old Willard was the acknowledged ace of the Pepperell Mills’ pitching staff. When Pepperell became league champion in 1946, by winning two postseason series, he was the workhorse and the show horse. He pitched in six games and played left field in the other four. 

In 1947, the Detroit Tigers offered him a contract after graduation from McHenry High, but he chose to accept a grant-in-aid from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University). He led Auburn to a second-place Southeastern Conference finish, then rejoined Pepperell, and again was the undisputed star of the postseason. 

In Auburn’s 1948 conference opener, Willard struck out 20 Ole Miss batters to set a new SEC record. His 145 strikeouts set an SEC standard that stood for 39 years and also led Auburn with a .448 batting average. Two days after the season ended, he signed a contract with the Red Sox. 

The Sox optioned him to Scranton in the Class A Eastern League and closed the regular season with six consecutive victories. He added two postseason complete-game victories as Scranton won the Eastern League Championship.

Willard started the 1949 season with Louisville in the Triple-A American Association. After recording three losses in four games, he was demoted to the Birmingham Barons in the Double-A Southern Association. He finished the season at 14-7 and his .345 batting average led the Barons.

During spring training in 1950, he struggled with his control and again was optioned to Triple-A Louisville. In July, when he was promoted to the parent club, his 97 strikeouts led the American Association, and he was batting .345. By season’s end, he had appeared in 22 games, compiling a record of 8-6 with an ERA of 6.04. 

Spring training in 1951 was a time of optimism for the Boston Red Sox and for Willard, starting a pattern that persisted throughout his career. The regular seasons never lived up to those rosy forecasts. He never achieved the stardom that seemed so likely every spring. He consistently struggled with his control, and he often tired in the middle and late innings and late in the season. He had a tendency to give up runs in bunches because he could not always control his emotions. When things went badly, he got angry with himself, sometimes with the umpires and did not pitch well when angry.

He spent 1951 shuttling between the bullpen and brief stints as a starter. In August, he pulled a tendon in his right thigh while pitching after a rain delay, and his season went downhill.

In 1952, he was no longer as a member of the starting rotation. He appeared in 33 games—13 as a starter, 10 in relief, and 10 as a left-handed pinch-hitter. Injuries plagued him however, and coaches and sportswriters suggested that his temper was adversely affecting his performance.

After a miserable spring in 1953, he did not start a game until May. He struggled to a record of 4-8, his first-ever losing season.

He got his first start of 1954 in April and his record was 11-12.  Nine of those victories came against two clubs—the Tigers (five) and the Yankees (four). Despite his losing record, 1954 was a breakthrough season for him because he established himself as a dependable starter. 

A successful spring reputation earned him the honor of starting the Red Sox’ 1955 home opener and as usual, Willard’s success was short-lived. In eight starts, he was charged with five losses, including two to the Yankees—one that eliminated the Red Sox from the pennant race and one that clinched the pennant for New York. During this period, he showed increasingly frequent demonstrations of his legendary temper and finished with a 12-10 record and 4.07 ERA.

Willard pitched well during spring training in 1956. He started for the Sox in the home opener and lost. After that game, an ailing right shoulder that had troubled him since March kept him out of action for a month. At midseason, he returned to the rotation, despite an ailing back that persisted even after his sore arm improved. When he came back, he resumed his pattern of alternating wins and losses. In September, he aggravated his sore arm and had to leave the game in the first inning. His season was over, a season of higher highs and lower lows than ever before.

Throughout the 1957 season, he ignored continuous arm pain and a pulled tendon in his left leg, to make regular starts and generally pitched well. Despite a losing record of 12-13, it was one of the better years of his career. He overcame chronic arm troubles and a nagging leg injury to complete 11 of his 29 starts and to compile a career-best ERA of 3.68. He also led American League pitchers with a .293 batting average.

When 1958 opened, Willard had the longest tenure with the Red Sox of any player other than Ted Williams. But he had his arm troubles return and unfortunately, his injury was far from temporary. His season record was 1-7, the worst on the team. It was little consolation that he was leading the team in hitting .312. It would turn out to be his last major-league season. After three weeks of pitching batting practice to test his arm, he made what would be his final major-league appearance in July at Fenway. The Red Sox brass put Nixon on the disabled list in mid-July, and he went home, where he sold real estate and played golf. His 1958 won-loss record of 1-7 was by far the worst of his career.

But Willard did not believe that his career was finished. In 1959, he reported to the Red Sox’ spring training site hoping to earn the roster spot that would garner the added pension benefits, that came with being a 10-year veteran. But his arm still bothered him, and he received his outright release.

He immediately signed with the Minneapolis Millers in the Triple-A American Association, a minor leaguer again. Despite two trips to the disabled list, he pitched 98 innings in 26 games. When he pitched ineffectively early in the league’s postseason tournament, he was dropped from the active roster and became the first-base coach.

The Red Sox offered him a position as a scout and after five years as a Red Sox scout, covering five Southeastern states, he rejoined Pepperell Mills (now West Point-Pepperell, Inc.) as purchasing agent.

In 1968, the Floyd County Board of Commissioners named him clerk of the board. He resigned that position in 1971 to become a county court investigator and was appointed chief of police for Floyd County in 1973. After four years, he went back to West Point-Pepperell to work in the shipping department. Two years later, he moved to the Floyd County school system, where he served as transportation director, until he retired in 1989.

Willard first learned to play golf while caddying as a youngster, and he played throughout his baseball career. In retirement, he became one of the most popular and most successful amateur golfers in Northwest Georgia and maintained this status until heart trouble slowed him down in his early 60s. 

In 1971, Willard was among the seven people chosen for the inaugural class of the Rome-Floyd County Sports Hall of Fame, and he was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2002, a plaque bearing his name was added to the Tiger Trail—a “Walk of Fame” composed of markers embedded in the streets of Auburn.