College Mourns Passing of Nan Nichols, Pioneer in Women's Sports

Retired coach and administrator was 72

WOOSTER, Ohio, June 19, 2012 – Nan Nichols, a pioneer in women’s sports and legendary coach and administrator at The College of Wooster for 32 years, died Sunday, June 17, at Westview Manor in Wooster. She was 72.

Nichols was renowned for her tireless work as an advocate for equality in women’s athletics. As director of women’s athletics at Wooster, she developed six women’s teams in less than a decade and built a broad-based varsity women’s athletic program that served as a successful model for colleges and universities across the nation.  As women’s basketball coach for 22 of her 32 years at Wooster, she amassed 186 wins, still a school record, and led her teams to two berths in the NCAA Div. III tournament, in 1984 and 1985, and a share of the inaugural North Coast Athletic Conference championship in 1985. Nichols retired from the college in 1995.

When Nichols was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, she made a point of turning the focus back to her student-athletes. “I’m really the most proud of what my players did and what they’ve gone on to do,” she said. “They were tremendous people and had a tremendous work ethic. That helped us do some pretty good things.”

Services will be Saturday in Nichols' hometown of Tipton, Ind. A complete obituary can be found here.