William Keith Nash’s son is off the hook.
As Nash sits in the stands, watching his son Wenstone Nash play football for Southside, he sees his son get beat while playing defensive back. The receiver Wenstone is covering breaks free, setting himself up to potentially score a touchdown against the Rebels.
Yet the quarterback doesn’t throw the ball that direction. Maybe he’s rattled by pressure or doesn’t see the open receiver. But Wenstone’s gaffe will not come back to haunt the Rebels. He can come back to the line of scrimmage with a sense of relief.
Or so he thinks.
William Keith is not satisfied. He will remind his son that he still got burned, even if the ball didn’t happen to go that way. He will shout it out right there in front of everyone. He will do so in his booming voice, one that can be heard from just about anywhere in a football stadium.
A football helmet can help shield a football player from some of the stadium’s various noises, but it is no match for William Keith’s voice. Wenstone can hear him loud and clear.
Hundreds of community members attend the wake and funeral of William Keith Nash. Nash, who is survived by 10 sons and his wife, Staci, died on Dec. 2 after a five-year battle with cancer.
Wenstone has a clear advantage in hearing that voice. It’s his own father’s, so he is better equipped to pick it out when others might struggle. But his teammates remind him this is not about a family bond. They can hear his father loud and clear as well. It doesn’t matter if he’s upset with something on the field, maybe the officials, or if he is excited about what is developing in the game. His voice is heard. Another son, McKenzee Nash, remembers times when he could hear his father’s voice, but not the play his team was running.
“I definitely heard Dad everywhere,” Wenstone said. “On a basketball court, it was terrible. Because you were in a closed area, and Dad’s voice echoed like no other. So you heard him no matter what, no matter what.”
William Keith Nash died on Dec. 2 after a battle with cancer. He was 59 years old. His voice will now only be heard in memories, not just by his family, but by the countless players, officials and other spectators he encountered during his life, plus all of the people he knew outside of sports.
He was often found at Southside High School athletic events, the alma mater of five of his 10 sons. As his health declined, he rarely, if ever, acknowledged his own mortality, but he did tell his wife, Staci Nash, that he wanted to wear a Southside sweatshirt to his own funeral.
So those who came to pay their respects at Glad Tidings Church saw him lying in an open casket sporting his Rebel pride. And he wasn’t the only one. Staci Nash wore a red jacket. Wenstone and his brothers wore white dress shirts and matching red bowties.
Several of his sons’ former teammates came to the viewing wearing their Southside letter jackets to pay their last respects to a man whose voice they so often heard.
Those attendees who wore their Rebel jackets didn’t just interact with William Keith at their games. The Nashes’ home was known to be a gathering place for the sons and their friends.
William Keith Nash and his wife Staci pose for a picture in matching Southside sweatshirts.
More than just a fan
When one of his sons brought a new friend to the house, William Keith was quickly able to find common ground and forge a connection. As McKenzee describes it, he called the new friend a “knucklehead” or found some other good-natured joke as a way to build a bridge.
McKenzee remembers friends sometimes being nervous about meeting his father. At the time, he was a person they didn’t know, one they saw yelling at the referees at their games. William Keith was able to quickly break down those barriers.
“When they actually got to meet him, they would really like him,” McKenzee said. “And they would come in and always say something to him and respect him.”
As his sons describe it, William Keith usually came to see those new friends as honorary members of the Nash family. If there were food available in the house, they were welcome to it just as his own sons were. If there was a chore to be done, the visitor was just as likely to get pulled into duty as the resident sons.
And their father kept his eyes and ears open around those friends. When a sports season was beginning, William Keith had a keen eye for spotting a son’s teammate who couldn’t afford the proper shoes. Without thinking much of his own finances, he purchased the shoes that player needed.
One son, Justin Nash, has several such memories, mostly in middle school. He never recalls a teammate asking for such a gift; his father just swooped in when he saw a need.
“They’d be speechless, they didn’t know what to say,” Justin said.
Some of those friends particularly enjoyed the hospitality at the Nashes’ home, and ended up living with the family for an extended period of time. Even with a large family of their own filling up their home, the Nashes never hesitated to make room for one more.
Jamill Smith was one such friend. McKenzee recalls his father being just as proud of Smith as he was of any of his own sons. Smith worked his way to a successful career at Ball State and earned a position on the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks.
When McKenzee looks back on the time Smith lived in his home, he says Smith was like an 11th Nash brother. Staci then interjects, saying Smith is still considered an 11th Nash brother, even though he has now been able to branch out on his own.
McKenzee and Smith were teammates at Ball State in the 2013 season, as McKenzee joined the team as a walk-on after his high-school career at Southside. William Keith was beaming with pride, and told Smith that as his family saw it, they had two players on the Ball State football team now.
Hundreds of community members attend the wake and funeral of William Keith Nash. Nash, who is survived by 10 sons and his wife, Staci, died on Dec. 2 after a five-year battle with cancer.
After that season, Smith’s Cardinal career was over and William Keith would again have to settle for having just one boy on the Ball State team. But Smith said William Keith’s excitement upon hearing of his opportunity in Ottawa rivaled the way he felt when he learned Smith would be playing at Ball State.
“The same exact emotion,” Smith said. “Just because he was proud that I had stuck with it.”
And Smith isn’t the only one who stayed for an extended period at the Nash home. As the family discusses the matter, the list of friends who spent time living at their house builds. Staci said it would begin with the friend staying for one night, only to continue indefinitely.
“We just felt the need, we just wanted to love people,” Staci said.
William Keith didn’t get a chance to build lasting connections with many of McKenzee’s Cardinal teammates, but he did get to know fellow running back Teddy Williamson.
Williamson remembers the first time he met William Keith. The running back was new to Ball State and was attending one of his team’s community events in downtown Muncie. William Keith, who loved to grill for a large crowd, was cooking food.
Upon meeting Williamson, William Keith’s first instinct was to hand him a plate and offer him a meal. Williamson said he had a sense he was meeting a genuine person and felt immediately accepted as he introduced himself.
Williamson is from Missouri, so he ventured a significant distance from his family to play for the Cardinals. The Nashes took it upon themselves to make Williamson more comfortable in his new surroundings. Staci began helping him with things his own mother typically would have, and William Keith also did what he could to make sure his son’s teammate was happy in Muncie.
“It wasn’t much,” Williamson said. “But just, being away from home, just the acceptance, saying that I could come over if I needed anything, or if I ever needed anything to contact them, and giving me his number. Just those little things.”
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Needing to be there
While William Keith enjoyed interacting with his sons and their friends at his home, he was always intent to leave the house when one of his sons had a game.
The only time William Keith’s sons didn’t see him at their games was when the game happened to conflict with another brother’s event. In those cases, their mother and father would split up to attend the separate games, and if necessary, their grandparents would go to another location to make sure every son had some amount of family support.
Eventually, his health forced him to stay home at game time. His three youngest sons, Samuel Nash, Nehemiah Nash and Israel Nash, went to Monroe Central after Southside’s conversion to a middle school. The move coincided with a turn for the worse in their father’s health (he took a fall in August), so he was unable to attend their Golden Bear games, but not for a lack of desire. Staci would call him with frequent updates.
He set a goal to attend his sons’ Sept. 19 football game at Tri-Central, a game that would turn into a 26-20 victory that is almost undeniably the biggest win in the program’s young history.
But William Keith’s body wasn’t on board with the goal his heart had set, and he was unable to make the trip. Samuel broke a long touchdown run early in the game, and at that point was still clinging to hope his father had made the trip. He would later learn that was not the case.
When his family returned home, William Keith excitedly watched the highlights on a computer screen with them.
“He got just as excited seeing them do it as he would be if he was there,” son Chad Nash said.
When asked what his father thought of that long touchdown run when he finally saw it , Samuel’s response is simple.
“He loved it,” he said.
As William Keith’s health declined, the rest of his family continued to attend his sons’ game until the end.
A very difficult day
The day William Keith passed away will likely go down as the only day in Nash family history when nobody wanted to go to the game.
Hundreds of community members attend the wake and funeral of William Keith Nash. Nash, who is survived by 10 sons and his wife, Staci, died on Dec. 2 after a five-year battle with cancer.
Samuel and Israel and the Monroe Central basketball team had a game against Blackford that day. But as various family members came to the house to see William Keith, they could sense something was wrong. They lost their own desires to go to the game, instead becoming intent on spending time with him.
Justin had sensed something was wrong on Sunday and indicated he didn’t want to go to work on Monday and Tuesday. Justin works at Nash & Sons Trucking, the business his father started. He’s since found it difficult to go back after his father’s passing.
William Keith had always told people he would get better. He talked of returning to work, and all of his grand ambitions for post-recovery.
He would never say he had cancer, simply saying that he had a “disease” and reassuring people he would get better.
Staci and William Keith were close friends before they became a couple, and their close bond meant Staci went to his doctor’s appointments and heard of his condition directly. William Keith wasn’t keen on sharing that information beyond those doctor’s office rooms, even with his own sons.
McKenzee learned of his father’s condition as his mother tried to help him put a football injury in perspective. She told him not to tell his father that he knew.
For much of his illness, William Keith was able to go about his business without others knowing. Eventually his condition led him to lose a considerable amount of weight, but he would tell people he had been eating better and avoiding soda.
But on that Sunday before he died, Justin was beginning to sense the harsh realities of his disease, a cancer that began in his prostate but had already spread before it was diagnosed.
When that Tuesday came, Staci began to sense something was amiss. She decided she wouldn’t be going to the game. But Nashes always play in front of family, so Wenstone, McKenzee and Nehemiah were drafted as that night’s cheering section. As much as they wanted to watch their brothers, they were also intent on spending time with their father. Even McKenzee’s dog wouldn’t leave William Keith’s side that day.
Samuel and Israel were given explicit instructions not to come home between the school day and their game. Their family was afraid they wouldn’t want to go to the game either.
As the prognosis became more clear, the three brothers heading for Hartford City were told to bring their brothers home, that they wouldn’t be playing.
Willliam Keith was struggling to breathe that day. At one point, he opened his eyes, looked at his wife and pointed to the sky, sensing it was his time. So Staci called her husband’s siblings who live in the area, giving them one last chance to see their brother.
After his siblings took Staci up on that opportunity, his wife came to see him again. He perked up, opening his eyes to see his wife, and she delivered a message.
“I said, ‘You were the best husband, the best father, the best role model,'” Staci said. “And I said, ‘I couldn’t have asked for anything more.’ And he breathed his last breath. So he actually waited until I got there by his side. And he still acknowledged me.”
Twitter seemed to explode upon hearing of William Keith’s passing. People from all over Muncie, not just the south side, wanted to weigh in about the impact he had in their lives. Even people from beyond Muncie who had occasion to meet him shared their thoughts .
McKenzee jokes that he thought his father would turn into a trending topic on the social media site, a distinction usually reserved for members of the Kardashian family, Manchester United soccer matches, and other things that attract a worldwide audience.
Eventually, that Twitter rush cooled and the process of returning to normalcy slowly began. His family took comfort in knowing he didn’t suffer for an extended period of time and began the grieving process.
A few days after their father’s death, Samuel and Israel played in Monroe Central’s game against Daleville. There was a clear sense their father wanted them to play.
Their family made sure to assemble an army of relatives to attend that win over the Broncos. Because even if their biggest fan isn’t in the stands, the Nashes always play in front of family support.
Contact prep sports reporter Sam Wilson at (765) 213-5807. Follow him on Twitter @SamWilsonTSP.
Hundreds of community members attend the wake and funeral of William Keith Nash. Nash, who is survived by 10 sons and his wife, Staci, died on Dec. 2 after a five-year battle with cancer.