Michael E. Nesbitt Scholarship

Click here to donate to the Michael E. Nesbitt Scholarship

Former Winners

2010 - Sam Diaz

2011 - Ashley Schultejann and Senecca Allred

2012 - Amanda Silberschlag and Carolina Quintana

2013 - Daniel Gundy

2014 - Ben Kmetz

2015 - Chris Marquez

2016 - No recipient

2017 - Janae Anderson

About Mike Nesbitt

Mike Nesbitt served as the Head Athletic Trainer at Northern Arizona University for 36 years from 1970-2006 and oversaw tremendous growth in the department. With just five sports - football, men's basketball, men's track & field, baseball and wrestling - when he first started at NAU, Nesbitt was the leader of the Lumberjack Athletic Training department as the university broke ground with the addition of women's athletics, progressing through the ever-changing landscape of the Big Sky Conference.

Nesbitt is highly renowned and respected in the athletic training community at all levels, having been inducted in the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Arizona Athletic Trainers' Association (AzATA) and Rocky Mountain Athletic Trainers' Association (RMATA) Hall of Fames in 1996. He played a pivotal role in the state of Arizona, helping implement athletic training programs in state high schools. He served as AzATA President in the 1980s, on the NATA Board of Directors representing the states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico into the 1990s, and is still a member of the NATA Hall of Fame Selection Committee.

But Nesbitt was more than an athletic trainer. At NAU, where he is a member of the Athletics Hall of Fame since 1992, Nesbitt was an educator who helped establish a Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training. Having elevated to Associate Professor of Athletic Training Education from 1990 until his retirement in 2006, Nesbitt was an esteemed member of the NAU Faculty, having been recognized with the Distinguished Faculty Award in 1985.