Jim Lemon, who played for the White Sox with Fox in 1963, said that Fox's cancer "had to be incurable – because if it wasn't, Nellie would have beat it." Former White Sox manager Al López described how Fox had found success through hard work rather than natural ability: "He wasn't fast and didn't have an arm, but he worked hard to develop what he needed to make himself a good all-around ballplayer. If you had eight Nellie Foxes, all with his spirit and determination, I think you'd have a winning team." On May 1, 1976, Fox's uniform number 2 was retired by the White Sox; he is the second of ten White Sox players to have his uniform number retired.