Note: The following appears in the Charleston Southern football digital gameday guide, available HERE.
The Clemson Family lost a great former athlete and administrator on Sept. 3, 2026, when Nick Lomax passed away at his home in Clemson after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
The native of Abbeville, S.C. was an outstanding baseball player as a youth and played in the 1958 American Legion World Series for his Abbeville Post 20 team. I played in the 1973 American Legion World Series for West Hartford, Conn., and that gave us a unique bond.
Freshmen were not eligible to play on the varsity team when Lomax came to Clemson for the 1959-60 academic year. However, when he became eligible in the spring of 1961, he became an instant starter in left field. He was a mainstay on Head Coach Bill Wilhelm’s Clemson teams from 1961-63. A three-year starter in left field, he played 70 games over his three years. In the wooden-bat era, he batted a solid .287 during his career with 12 home runs and 47 RBIs.
Lomax’s best year was as a junior in 1962, when he was named Second-Team All-ACC and hit .292 with six home runs, a total that tied for the team lead. Clemson led the nation in home runs per game that year, one of just two Tiger teams to do that for a season. That 1962 Clemson team finished with a 17-8 record and would have been an NCAA Tournament team by today’s standards.
When Lomax graduated, his first job was on the Clemson grounds crew. He then served in the Army for a little over two years, and during that time, he wrote a letter to President Robert C. Edwards about the possibility of working in administration. Edwards found a place for him in the housing office.
After a few years, he impressed Edwards and many others with his dedication to the university and he was promoted to vice president for student affairs. Eventually, he became vice president for administration and secretary of the Board of Trustees. Altogether, he worked in Clemson administration for 31 years.
Lomax was never an All-American as an athlete and never became president of the university, but he would be considered among the most important Clemson administrators who also competed as a Tiger student-athlete.
I saw his influence on the athletic department and the overall university from close range during my first 18 years in the sports information department. When I became the director in 1989, I was involved in many meetings that had to do with important athletic department decisions.
Lomax was always at the forefront of those decisions, and I personally saw his wisdom in many instances.
“The organization chart of the Clemson administration dating to the 1950s had the athletic director reporting to the vice president of student affairs,” said Bobby Robinson, who was hired in 1970 to work in the Clemson housing office by Lomax. “It was a unique structure that dated to Walter Cox overseeing athletics when he was in that position.”
That meant when Robinson became athletic director in the spring of 1986, he reported to Lomax.
“Nick Lomax commanded respect whenever he entered a room, and when he spoke in a meeting, everyone listened. He was a true leader of the university along with the presidents he served under.”
With Lomax overseeing athletics, there were many significant decisions made when it came to investments in facilities, student-athlete academic services and personnel decisions.
“He was involved in a lot of important decisions and advancements when it came to athletics,” said Robinson. “He didn’t make impulsive decisions. You always felt he made a thorough evaluation before making a decision.”
Robinson added that Lomax was involved in all aspects of the university.
“He still oversaw housing, disciplinary matters and was a respected advisor to many other administrators.
“Nick was always doing things for the students and making decisions with the students in mind. When there was a student death, he was the person who communicated with the families and did a fantastic job helping that family through difficult times.”
In 2007, Lomax was honored with the Clemson Distinguished Service Award.
My relationship with Lomax continued after he retired in 1996. Long after his playing days were over, he had a unique ability to tell stories about Wilhelm’s baseball program. He loved to tell me about the 1962 game against South Carolina, when the Tigers hit a still-school-record eight home runs, including five in one inning. He hit one of those homers.
I pride myself in knowing Clemson athletic history, but he told me something I had never heard of a few years ago when he produced a game story and box score of Clemson’s 1963 win over Georgia, when the game was played with a 1-1 count to begin every plate appearance.
When I think about the “spirit of Clemson University” and the family atmosphere I see every day, I think of the many administrators with whom I dealt, those who set a standard when it came to doing the right thing for the students, whether they be athletes or not.
Nick Lomax has always been at the top of that list.