Hall of Fame
LES NICHOLS '42 was a cross country and track star who helped lead Rhode Island State College to the school's only NCAA Championship, when the Rams won the cross-country national title in 1941. The Cranston, R.I. native joins his brother Bob as the fourth member of the '41 national championship team in the University of Rhode Island Athletic Hall of Fame. The 1941 Rams are still the only team in URI history to post an undefeated season, and they capped that season by winning titles at the New England Championship, the IC4As and the NCAAs in three consecutive weeks. A three-year letterwinner in both track and cross-country, he was a member of two NEICAA and two IC4A (the school's first ever) championships in 1940 and '41 in cross-country. Nichols finished fifth at the 1940 NEICAA and 18th in the 1940 IC4A meet. He helped the Rams to a third-place finish in the 1940 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Following service in World War II, Nichols worked as a professor of plan pathology at Penn State from 1950-82. Nichols did his sabbatical work at URI and the Lester P. Nichols Memorial Plantation at East Farm is named in his honor. After his retirement he returned to Kingston. He passed away in 1986.
