4 Generations of Gridiron Excellence: The Monnett-Nicholls Legacy (Part 2: The Nicholls)

By MERL KLEINKNECHT
Inquirer Cor­re­spon­dent
The grid­iron legacy begun by Robert C. Mon­nett in the open­ing install­ment of this series now cov­ers the sons and grand­sons of his daugh­ter Mary Mon­nett Nicholls and for­mer Galion High quar­ter­back Ger­ald “Jerry” Nicholls.
Arthur Michael Nicholls, their old­est son, was a tal­ented three– sports star for the GHS Tigers. He claimed three var­sity let­ters each in foot­ball, bas­ket­ball and base­ball.
His sopho­more year, Mike was among the lead­ing pass receivers in the 1974 NOL (North­ern Ohio League) foot­ball sea­son. As a senior, the 5’9”, 144-pound split end was the league’s lead­ing receiver in all depart­ments with 32 catches for 605 yards and 6 touch­downs. He was also a Tiger co-captain and earned the team’s Out­stand­ing Offen­sive Back Award. Other hon­ors included 1st Team All-League and hon­or­able men­tion All-Ohio.
Wear­ing num­ber 22, Mike grad­u­ated as the school’s single-season and career (40 catches for 747 yards) pass receiv­ing leader. In 1995 he was named wide receiver on the 100th Anniver­sary All-Time GHS Foot­ball Team selected by Galion Inquirer sports edi­tor Jon Wei­th­man.
Also as a sopho­more, Mike was the start­ing point guard for the win­ningest Tiger bas­ket­ball squad to ever take the court. Coach Jim Kirk’s 1974–75 GHS (18–4) round­ballers claimed the NOL Cham­pi­onship and advanced to the dis­trict finals with young Nicholls direct­ing the attack.
As a junior he led the cir­cuit in assists. His senior year Galion (12–6) fin­ished as NOL runners-up. Mike threw 381 points through the hoop for 21.2 per game. As a three-year starter he tal­lied 704 career mark­ers.
Mike was named the 1977 Dis­trict 6 Co-Player of the Year. He was also first team All-NOL and All-Northwest Dis­trict and named hon­or­able men­tion All-Ohio.
Inter­est­ingly enough, his grand­fa­ther — Robert Mon­nett I — had helped lead the 1929 Bucyrus Red­men (4–1) to the North Cen­tral Ohio League (NCOL) crown as the team’s and league’s sec­ond lead­ing scorer. No All-NCOL team was selected that year or he surely would have been on the first unit.
Mike Nicholls closed out his high school hoops career by becom­ing the first Galion Tiger to play in the Ohio High School North-South All-Star Bas­ket­ball Game. He was the vic­to­ri­ous North’s lead­ing scorer (along with two other team­mates) hit­ting 6-of-10 shots. He also had 4 assists and 2 steals.
In 2000, he was one of five GHS bas­ket­ball play­ers on the Mans­field News Jouurnal’s bal­lot to select an All-Area Team. The other four Tigers listed were Ray Seif, Tom Quay, Jerry Tis­cher and Nate Reink­ing. A total of 37 high schools were rep­re­sented on this bal­lot.
Mike was also a three-year starter in base­ball and twice named All-NOL. He was an excel­lent defen­sive short­stop and base run­ner. He led the team in runs scored all three sea­sons and crossed the plate 74 times in his var­sity career in just 71 games. He could also swing the bat, hit­ting .422 as a junior and .323 along with five home­runs over­all.
His senior year, coach Dave Spraw’s Tigers (16–6) claimed the 1977 NOL dia­mond crown. Mike went on to earn two var­sity bas­ket­ball let­ters at Ash­land Uni­ver­sity.
Robert Christo­pher Nicholls, Mike’s brother, was also a three– sports star. He excelled as a wide receiver, defen­sive back and place kicker for coach Harry Beers’ 1980 and ‘81 Galion High grid­ders.
Reach­ing 5’10” and 150 pounds, he nabbed 30 passes for 580 career yards and 3 scores.
On defense he was a first team All-NOL cor­ner­back inter­cept­ing 5 passes, recov­er­ing a fum­ble and reg­is­ter­ing 28 solo tack­les in 1981. That effort also earned Chris the Tigers’ Top Defen­sive Back award.
As a place kicker, Chris set school records with three field goals in 1981, 5 career 3-pointers, and a 41– yard scor­ing boot at Shelby on Sep­tem­ber 25, 1981. He scored 57 career points — 39 kick­ing — while wear­ing num­ber 11.
In bas­ket­ball, Chris topped the 1982 NOL in assists and was sec­ond team All-League. He earned three round­ball “Gs” and scored 464 career points.
Chris was an out­stand­ing short­stop while lead­ing Galion High bat­ters with a .352 aver­age as a junior. He was pre­sented with the Tigers’ Top Hit­ter Award and named hon­or­able men­tion All-NOL. He earned two var­sity dia­mond mono­grams.
Robert Charles Nicholls, son of Chris and the for­mer Cindy Ket­ter­man, was a three-year foot­ball starter in his father’s num­ber 11. A 6’2” and 160-pound split end, he was the Tigers’ lead­ing pass receiver his last two years and a stand­out defen­sive back. Always a deep threat, his career totals show 31 pass recep­tions for 366 yards and 2 touch­downs.
Defen­sively, he recorded 69 tack­les and 3 pass inter­cep­tions. His senior year, Bobby had 19 points includ­ing 5 extra point con­ver­sions. How­ever, he had the mis­for­tune to play from 2002 through 2004, the worst three-year stretch in GHS pigskin his­tory. Dur­ing this period Galion won just once while run­ning up a 28-game los­ing streak.
Bobby also claimed var­sity let­ters in bas­ket­ball and base­ball. His senior hoops sea­son resulted in 118 points and an out­stand­ing 88.2% suc­cess rate from the free throw line.
Bobby did get the oppor­tu­nity to play for two out­stand­ing Tiger base­ball teams. He was with coach Dan Gorbett’s 2004 NOL and sec­tional cham­pi­ons (19–5) and posted a (6–1) record as a left-handed pitcher for the 2005 Galion (21–5) league runners-up. This included 2 shutouts and a third com­plete game where he yielded a sin­gle run.
For the sea­son, he struck out 29 bat­ters in 36 innings. Both of those clubs fea­tured J.B. Shuck who has since become Galion’s first and only Major League Base­ball player.
Bobby’s mound accom­plish­ments resulted in a team’s Most Improved Player award, 2nd Team All-District and hon­or­able men­tion All-NOL and All North Cen­tral Ohio (NCO) his senior year. The All-NCO team is selected for the Mans­field News Jour­nal (MNJ).
Alex Michael Nicholls, son of Mike Nicholls and the for­mer Melinda Jones, was the start­ing quar­ter­back for the 2006 through 2008 Tigers. He com­pleted 194-of-337 career passes for 2,558 yards — fourth best in GHS his­tory — and 9 touch­downs. Among his tar­gets were wide receivers Jack, his brother; and cousin Andrew. In his final var­sity foot­ball game, Alex engi­neered a stun­ning 24–20 upset of Shelby. That began a run that has seen Galion win 33 of 43 games while claim­ing NOL and North Cen­tral Con­fer­ence (NCC) cham­pi­onships under coach Chris Hawkins.
Alex, a tal­ented defen­sive back, had 97 career tack­les and 6 inter­cep­tions as a Tiger cor­ner­back and free safety. That earned 1st Team All-NOL and All-NCO Foot­ball Coaches Asso­ci­a­tion (FCA) and 2nd Team All-Northwest Dis­trict defen­sive back hon­ors his senior year. He also claimed the GHS 2008 Mr. Foot­ball Award, Offen­sive Player of the Year and Zachary Pred­more tro­phies. The lat­ter is given annu­ally in mem­ory of coach Richard Predmore’s late son. Alex was a Tiger co-captain reach­ing 6’2” and 190 pounds as a senior. He wore num­ber 7 and scored 66 points, includ­ing 10 touch­downs, as a three-year starter.
Alex also gar­nered two var­sity let­ters in bas­ket­ball and was a starter for coach Tim Birie’s 2009 dis­trict cham­pi­ons. That was only Galion’s sec­ond dis­trict hoops title. The first came in 1931 under coach Fred McClin­tock. Brother Jack and cousin Andrew were also team mem­bers. Alex scored 254 career points and was a tena­cious defender exhibit­ing skill as a shot blocker, rebounder and ball thief.
Alex added two more var­sity “Gs” in base­ball as a mid­dle infielder. He was the GHS short­stop as a senior, bat­ting .337 after post­ing a .316 mark as a junior. He was 2nd Team All-NOL and hon­or­able men­tion All– Dis­trict and All-NCO (MNJ) in 2009.
John Arthur Nicholls — bet­ter known as Jack — inher­ited the Tiger quar­ter­back post from brother Alex in 2009 and pro­pelled coach Hawkins’ resur­gent GHS foot­ball pro­gram to a per­fect (10–0) reg­u­lar sea­son. That included the NOL cham­pi­onship and a play­off berth. A team co-captain and a three-year let­ter­man, he earned the Tiger Coaches Award, 2nd Team All-NOL and hon­or­able men­tion All-Northwest Dis-trict recog­ni­tion as a senior.
Jack was hon­or­able men­tion All –NCO(FCA) his junior year. He was a three-year reg­u­lar in Galion’s defen­sive back­field and had 4 career pass inter­cep­tions. His junior sea­son he started at wide receiver and caught 13 throws for 144 yards. He was also back-up quar­ter­back his first two sea­sons. Jack threw for 1,094 career yards and 10 touch­downs. Jack scored 4 TDs and had 30 career points. He stood 5’10” and played at 165 pounds his final two sea­sons. He wore num­ber 2.
Jack played in every var­sity bas­ket­ball game as a junior and senior. That included Birie’s 2009 dis­trict cham­pi­ons.
In 2010 he was third in the NOL with 78 assists and sec­ond with 41 steals. He scored 212 career tal­lies.
Andrew Cur­tis Nicholls, Bobby’s brother, joined cousins Alex and Jack on the Tigers’ 2009 Dis­trict bas­ket­ball win­ners. He earned three varisty mono­grams, was the GHS scor­ing leader his last two sea­sons and pumped in 564 career points. Andrew was the Tigers’ Most Valu­able Player as a senior.
In foot­ball, Andrew accom­plished the rare feat of earn­ing four-varsity let­ters. That led to 59 career pass recep­tions as a wide receiver for 888 yards — fourth best all-time for GHS — and 7 touch­downs. He added 38 extra point boots for 80 career mark­ers. Andrew was also a highly effec­tive punter aver­ag­ing over 36 yards a kick with excel­lent hang time and direc­tional kick­ing. As a senior he returned 16 of the oppo­si­tions punts at a stel­lar clip of 20.3 yards per attempt.
Andrew also played in the defen­sive sec­ondary and topped NOL defen­sive backs with 88 tack­les as a free safety his senior year.
Andrew was a 2nd Team All-NOL wide receiver for the 2009 NOL cham­pi­ons.
In 2010 he was a co-captain, GHS Spe­cial Teams Player of the Year, 1st Team All-NOL and All NCO (FCA) punter and hon­or­able men­tion All-Northwest Dis­trict. He stood 6’3” and played at 170 pounds his final sea­son. Like his father Chris and brother Bobby before him, he wore jer­sey num­ber 11.
Alex, Jack and Andrew Nicholls are all cur­rently attend­ing col­lege. Alex and Jack both played foot­ball for coach Larry Kehres’ 2012 NCAA Divi­sion III National Cham­pion Mount Union Pur­ple Raiders.
Alex, a senior, started in the Raiders defen­sive back­field the past two sea­sons. This year he was All-Ohio Ath­letic Con­fer­ence (OAC) 1st Team as a free safety. He has picked up 3 var­sity let­ters as Mount Union (43–2) has claimed 3 OAC crowns and been in the National Finals all three years.
Jack, a junior, played wide receiver for the cham­pion Pur­ple Raiders caught 23 passes for 313 yards and 3 scores. With another year to play for Mount Union, he has a good chance to add another national title to the fam­ily legacy as Kehres has won 11 NCAA crowns as the school’s coach. The Pur­ple Raiders have also taken 18 con­sec­u­tive OAC cham­pi­onships.
Andrew is a sopho­more at Ash­land Uni­ver­sity and was a wide receiver for last year’s Great Lakes Inter­col­le­giate Ath­letic Con­fer­ence cham­pion Eagles (11–1). AU, coached by Lee Owens of Galion’s 1985 Divi­sion II State High School Cham­pi­ons, also qual­i­fied for the NCAA Divi­sion II play­offs. With two years of eli­gi­bil­ity remain­ing more real cham­pi­onship pos­si­bil­i­ties exist for Andrew as well.
And there is more…
Robert Arthur McDavid, son of Julie Nicholls McDavid and Galion Tiger bas­ket­ball great Scott McDavid, was a defen­sive back for Kehres’ 2001, 2002 and 2005 NCAA Divi­sion III national cham­pion Mount Union grid­ders.
He played his high school foot­ball in Pick­er­ing­ton, Ohio. Robert is the grand­son of Mary Mon­nett and Jerry Nicholls. This, of course, makes him a great grand­son of Robert C. Mon­nett I.
NOTE: In Wednesday’s first-part edi­tion of this series, it was inad­ver­tently omit­ted that in 1985 Rob Mon­nett was a cap­tain of the foot­ball team, was 1st Team All-North Cen­tral Ohio (MNJ) and the North Cen­tral Ohio Offen­sive Back of the Year.

Posted by Jon Kleinknecht on Jan 26 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.