The Nashville Athletic Club (NAC) was a sports club for young men founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1884.[1] The NAC was responsible for helping popularize the sports of baseball, football, basketball, athletics, gymnastics and swimming in the Nashville area. The NAC also featured a swimming pool, a gymnasium, Turkish and Russian baths and choice exercise equipment.[2] It was based for some time at 520 Commerce Street in downtown Nashville.[3]
The NAC originally had the only regulation size baseball diamond in Nashville located at Sulpher Springs Bottom (later called Athletic Park, then Sulphur Dell).[4]
The NAC is believed to have played the first organized football game in Nashville on Thanksgiving Day, 1885 against the Nashville Football Club,[5] winning 6-4 in a game played at Athletic Park.[6] They lost their only recorded game against Vanderbilt in 1895, 20-4.[7]
The NAC also played some of the first organized basketball games in Nashville, forming the Nashville Athletic Club Basket Ball League in 1895.[8] They played 13 recorded games against Vanderbilt between 1900 and 1909, winning 4 and losing 9.[9]