John Nix (Australian footballer)
John Nix is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Richmond in the Victorian Football League.
Nix, a centreman recruited from Trafalgar, debuted at VFL level aged just 17. He made 95 league appearances for Richmond, between 1949 and 1956. His best season was in 1952, when he played in all of Richmond’s 19 games and polled eight Brownlow Medal votes.
At the end of the 1956 season, Nix was appointed playing coach of Latrobe Valley Football League side Sale. He won the league’s best and fairest award in 1957 and also steered Sale to that year's premiership. Sale were premiers again in 1959, Nix's third and final season at the club. From 1960 to 1962, Nix was captain-coach of Mornington, in the Mornington Peninsula Football League. He led them to a premiership in his first season.
In 1966, Nix returned to the Tigers as Reserve Grade coach, and led them to a premiership in his first season. Nix’ Tiger Reserves won all twenty games – including the second semi and Grand Final – on the scoreboard, but were denied an official perfect season because they played an unregistered player, Frank Loughran, in three games against Carlton, Footscray and Collingwood Reserves. Nix would continue as Tiger Reserves coach for a further three seasons, during which the team reached the finals every year but were defeated in both the 1967 and 1968 Grand Finals, and finished second before losing both their finals in 1969.
