Henry O. "Hammerin' Hank" Nichols (born July 20, 1936) is an American
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
and later supervisor of officials. In 2012, he was inducted as a member of the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...
.
Nichols is also a member of the
Philadelphia Big 5
The Big 5 is an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is not a conference, but rather a group of NCAA Division I basketball schools who compete for the city’s collegiate championship.
The Big 5 c ...
Hall of Fame, Villanova Athletic Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Athletic Hall of Fame, the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, and the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
He officiated 10 National Collegiate Athletic Association(NCAA)
Final Fours
This is a list of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four participants (a third-place game was played from 1946 to 1981).
Participants
Teams marked with an * vacated its Final Four appearances due to violations of National ...
, a record 6
NCAA Men's Basketball National Championships, 3
NIT Finals, 2
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
and 1
European Championships
The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...
. He was also the first official to work with both the NIT and NCAA Championship Basketball Finals in a single year, and the first National Coordinator of Officials.
Since 2004, he has worked as an Umpire Observer for
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
.
Early life
Nichols grew up in
Niagara Falls, New York
Niagara Falls is a City (New York), city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagara ...
. In high school, he attended Bishop Duffy High and lettered in three sports.
He earned a scholarship to
Villanova University
Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinians in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Sa ...
, where he played catcher. He also started on the freshman basketball team.
After graduation, Nichols spent two years in the Marine Corps, followed by three years playing minor league baseball in the
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...
organization.
In his last season (at age 27), he hit .330 as a player-manager in the
Western Carolina League The original Western Carolina League was a Class-D circuit in Minor League Baseball which was ideated and created by John Henry Moss.
The league ran from 1948 to 1952, then combined with the North Carolina State League to form the Tar Heel Leag ...
.
Officiating career
In the fall of 1969, while at
Duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
, Nichols started his officiating career with six freshman
Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
(ACC) basketball games. In 1970, Nichols became assistant professor in the Department of Education and Human Services at Villanova, where he would remain for the next 33 years. He also began officiating varsity games in the
ECAC and the ACC.
In 1974, Nichols worked his first NCAA tournament, the first of 13 in a row.
That season, Nichols was one of the officials for the 1974
North Carolina State
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...
-
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
ACC championship game. Nichols said that game was the best he ever worked, and NC State's
David Thompson as the greatest player he officiated.
NC State won the game in overtime, and went on to win the national championship. At the time only one team from each conference made the NCAA Tournament.
"I just remember getting out of everybody's way," Nichols said. "Those players were so good. We just kind of watched them. It was a magnificent game."
In 1975, Nichols worked the first of 10 Final Fours, and the first of six national championships.
The championship game was
John Wooden
John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the Wizard of Westwood, he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as head ...
's final game as the head coach at UCLA.
In 1976, he officiated at the Olympic Games in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, the first of two Olympic assignments. His second would come in 1984 in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
NCAA National Coordinator of Officials
In 1987, Nichols became the first NCAA coordinator of officials.
He spent 22 years in that position. Nichols said, "the goal was to try to get guys across the country to officiate the same way, not have the ACC be different from the
Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
and the Big Ten different from the
Pac-10
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
. We wanted to teach guys to ref better, to try to get them to be more consistent. We didn't want them to be another factor when teams played on the road. We wanted them to stand tall and figure out tough situations. I think a lot of that has been accomplished."
While in this position, Nichols also was the secretary/editor of the Basketball Rules Committee from 1991 to 1997.
Nichols retired after the 2007–2008 season. He was replaced by John Adams.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, Hank
1936 births
Living people
Baseball catchers
Baseball players from New York (state)
College men's basketball referees in the United States
Duke University alumni
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Niagara Falls, New York
United States Marines
Villanova Wildcats baseball players
Villanova University faculty