Joe Nuxhall stayed grounded in his Hamilton roots, where he grew up, and his adopted hometown of Fairfield, where he lived most of his adult life. He never embraced his celebrity. In fact, he didn’t like it but tried to do the most with his name, which included raising money for college-bound student-athletes with his annual golf outing and his support for those with developmental disabilities.
One of his legacies is the Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields on Groh Lane in northwestern Fairfield.
But if you ever met Joe, he was just Hamilton Joe, the Ol’ Lefthander, or most commonly, Nuxy.
His salt-of-the-earth philosophy was because of his dad, Orville, and his community, Hamilton’s North End, a neighborhood known for its blue-collar residents. That’s where he learned his life’s philosophy, which was encapsulated by a Joe Burrow Foundation t-shirt: Do Good.
“What a simple philosophy for life,” said son Kim Nuxhall, who, with his brother Phil Nuxhall, continue to carry on their father’s legacy of doing good nearly after Joe’s death nearly 16 years ago. “He, in essence, when he passed, gave us the torch to do something good, to keep doing the good.”
Kim, who taught gym for decades in the Fairfield City Schools, focused in his latter years on character education (and he can recite by memory an alphabetical listing, in order, of character qualities). And his dad had many of those qualities, like honor, loyalty, compassion, and generosity.
Though Joe Nuxhall was the epitome of a man of character, one of the most prominent qualities Kim said his dad possessed was humility.
“I think what stands out to me is how he treated people no matter who they were or what importance they were,” he said. “He looked at all people the same way, whether it was President (George) Bush he met in the clubhouse or the cab driver in New York. It didn’t matter to him.”
The elder Nuxhall died in November 2007 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer he had battled for years.
Being Joe Nuxhall’s son was both interesting and intimidating, said Phil. It was interesting because his dad was a professional ballplayer — and intimidating — because his dad was a professional ballplayer.
“When you grow up with someone like him, you constantly feel like, ‘How can I even begin to measure up,’” said Phil. “Then, as you get older, you realize you don’t have to. You have to be yourself. And that was a struggle for a long time.”
Then he learned he didn’t have to measure up. And life became easier as Phil and his dad shared a passion for music, and cherished their trips to concerts at Cincinnati’s Emery Theater.
Phil also inherited his dad’s love for adventure because he loves to “travel and explore, getting out into the world and stepping outside the box. That’s definitely my specialty.”
Nuxhall was also a gracious man, a character trait Phil and Kim say they carry with them today.
“I get up every morning, and I just thank the universe for everything I’ve got,” he said. ”That’s a big lesson. He didn’t take anything for granted.”
Now that’s a legacy.
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