Charles Francis "Cotton" Nash was an American professional basketball and baseball player. He played as a forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Los Angeles Lakers and San Francisco Warriors, and in the American Basketball Association (ABA) for the Kentucky Colonels. He was an outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins.

The Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association (ABA) for all of the league's nine years. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky Colonels. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of any franchise in the league's history, but the team did not join the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 1976 ABA–NBA merger. The downtown Louisville Convention Center was the Colonels' venue for their first three seasons before moving to Freedom Hall for the remaining seasons, beginning with the 1970–71 schedule.