When Ed Nymeyer was 73, his three-man basketball team finished ninth in the national championships of the Senior Olympics. At 75, his team finished sixth. He never stopped playing basketball.
Last summer, the three-time Flowing Wells High School state championship coach, phoned to ask if I could help spread the word that he was looking for teammates in a three-times-a-week game at a local YMCA. "I'm not planning on stopping," he said. "I've played basketball since I was 5 years old living in Globe against kids much older."
Sadly, Nymeyer has stopped playing basketball. He died last week at a health care facility in Safford after a short illness. He was 89. The story of his wonderful career could fill a large book.
Recruited to Arizona from Globe High School in 1954, Nymeyer led the Wildcats in scoring in 1956, 1957 and 1958, completing his UA career with a record 1,225 points. He was a go-getter. When he coached Flowing Wells to the 1963 state boys basketball championship, he also coached the school's cross country and golf teams. In 1991, he coached the Caballeros girls volleyball team to a state championship. He was inducted into five Halls of Fame. What a winner. He was known for his kindness as much as his winning and competitiveness.
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Ed Nymeyer, left, and Ernie McCray, former Arizona basketball star, in March, 1961, in Tucson.
In the mid ’80s, I played for a Mormon church basketball team, a league that was wickedly competitive. One night, we played against a Latter-day Saints team whose point guard was Arizona's 1965 All-WAC star Warren Rustand. Another night, I showed up at the gym and my teammate Gene Widmer, a former starting forward for a Utah State NCAA Tournament team, told me I was going to guard "that guy." He pointed toward Nymeyer, who was probably in his 50s at the time. I had been in Tucson for such a short time I knew nothing about him.
By halftime, Nymeyer must've had 20 points. I had 20 bruises. I had no chance to stop him; he was so competitive, so aggressive and so full of energy.
I was delighted to reconnect with him when his granddaughter, Lacey Nymeyer John, became the NCAA Woman of the Year after she was a 27-time All-American swimmer at Arizona. In 2008, she won a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics. Good genes, right?
Ed Nymeyer was a scratch golfer, a former high school all-state football player and the nicest man you could meet. Most people called him "Easy Ed." The legacy he left in Tucson, as an educator, coach and athlete will resonate for decades.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, April 3, at the Tucson North Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 939 W. Chapala Dr.
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