Judi Ford Nash — Miss America 1969 and accomplished activist who served on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition — will return to the University, her alma mater, on Friday as homecoming parade grand marshal. 

Nash said she is honored that she was granted the position and is excited to return to the University as grand marshal. Billy Hamer, homecoming parade chair and junior in ACES, headed a committee that decided Nash would be this year’s grand marshal. He said Nash was chosen because of her role in reshaping how female athletes are perceived in society and because of her involvement as an activist for women’s equality in athletics.

Before the Title IX amendment of 1972, which mandates “gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding,” most high schools and colleges did not have girls’ sports teams. Nash recalls blatant sexism in athletics before the amendment was passed. 

“A lot of people thought of (pageantry and athleticism) as being things that just didn’t go together,” she said.

In spite of this, Nash stunned critics in the 1969 Miss America pageant when she performed her talent: a trampoline routine.

She meshed her athletic style, a maverick endeavor at the time, with grace and won Miss America in 1969, overcoming skepticism even from her coaches. To them, she had three strikes against her: she was blonde (a blonde had not won for 12 years), she was only 18 years old and her talent involved athletics. Nash recounts the coaches saying her talent “could go either way” because “Miss America isn’t supposed to sweat.”

This view went against what Nash loved when growing up in Belvidere, Ill. She said that from playing outside every day as a little girl to performing trampoline acrobatics to win Miss America, she always loved athletics and physical fitness. 

In fact, she is a self-proclaimed “tomboy” and entered pageantry on a whim, thinking it would be fun. In preparing for Miss America, Nash went to a modeling agency in Chicago, where her agent told her she walked like an athlete. Nash answered with a matter-of-fact “thank you.” The agent responded saying that was not a compliment.  

“It was so foreign to me,” Nash said, regarding pageantry. “I was like, ‘I don’t do that kind of stuff.’” 

But Nash loved athletics, and her interest in fitness evolved into what would eventually be her life’s work. 

Before pursuing physical education at the University, Nash toured with the Miss America organization for about a year. Her tour included visiting Vietnam with the United Service Organizations and performing for U.S. soldiers overseas.

“That was probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, something that I’m very proud we had a chance to do,” she said.

At the University, Nash studied what was then called “physical education for women,” part of a larger program that has since been renamed kinesiology, and was a Delta Gamma sorority member. Nash went on to teach elementary physical education and coach high school girls’ golf, along with middle school basketball and track for 18 years. After winning Miss America, Nash served on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition for eight years. The council currently includes noted athletes, such as football player Drew Brees, gymnast Dominique Dawes, and NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. 

Nash’s work on the council and as a physical education teacher was part of an effort to get people to live healthier, happier lives, she said.

“My goal for my (students) was to have them come to my class and find that physical fitness and physical education can be fun,” she said.

She currently lives with her husband Jim in Geneseo, Ill., and has 11 grandchildren. 

She said she feels honored to return to the University as homecoming parade grand marshal and loves to support the University in any way she can.

Matt can be reached at [email protected].