Jay Bryan Nash (1886-1965) was born October 17, 1886, in Ohio. He graduated from Oberlin College, then moved to Oakland, California where he was the athletic director at Fremont High School in 1911. He was appointed assistant superintendent of recreation for the city of Oakland and became superintendent and supervisor of physical education for the Oakland Public Schools in 1916. There he founded what is believed to be the first municipal adult recreation program in the nation. Nash left Oakland in 1926 to become a professor of education at New York University, and was head of its Department of Physical Education, Health, and Recreation from 1930 until his retirement in 1953. He then moved to Brigham Young University in Utah to serve as dean of the College of Recreation. Nash died in 1965 in New York. He was considered a pioneer figure in public recreation in the United States.

The College of Recreation, Physical and Health Education, and Athletics was established in 1955 at Brigham Young University. It was responsible for administering the academic departments responsible for recreation, scouting, health, safety, and physical education, as well as managing the intramural and intercollegiate sports programs. The college was renamed the College of Physical Education in 1960.