USC basketball: Sixth man from USC’s 24-2 team from 1971 team dies of heart attack
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Monroe Nash, the sixth man on the 1971 USC men’s basketball team that finished 24-2 and is considered the school’s best team in history, died Monday of a heart attack in San Diego, according to a statement released from USC. Nash was 61.
Nash averaged 5.5 points that season, in which USC won its first 16 games, was ranked No. 1 by mid-season and finished fifth in the national polls.
Its only losses came to eventual Pacific 8 Conference and NCAA champion UCLA, but the Trojans didn’t advance to the NCAA tournament because only conference champions advanced then.
According to the statement, Nash, a prep All-American and the CIF San Diego Section player of the year at Morse High in San Diego, is survived by his mother, Bennie, and brothers Walter and Bill.
A memorial service will be at noon April 7 at Mt. Erie Baptist Church (511 S. 47th St., San Diego 92113), the statement said. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be sent to Mt. Erie Christian Academy (530 S. 47th St., San Diego 92113), the statement said.
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