University of Nevada Athletics

Football & Baseball (1958-61)
Jim Whitaker lettered four years in football and three times in baseball from 1958-1961. He was named to the All-Far West Conference team three times, earning first-team honors twice on both offense and defense. He was also chosen as a second-team Little All-America baseball player. Whitaker’s athletic career began at Ukiah High School in northern California where he was a three-sport athlete, competing in baseball, basketball and football. He earned Nevada’s Doc Martie Award in 1961, an honor given to the outstanding senior athlete of the year. Whitaker was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League and the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League, but a military commitment kept him from playing professionally. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1962, Whitaker was a part of the only Nike Hercules missile unit in the world and was deployed to Johnston Island in the South Pacific where his unit spent two years living in austere conditions to protect the nation’s nuclear capabilities and response during the Cold War.