Congratulations to the Roy Gardner Award Winner: Rex Nichols
Rex Nichols of Mooresville is the winner of the 2015 Roy Gardner Award.
Nichols began his basketball and football officiating career in the 1977-78 school year and his first sectional assignment came in 1970. Over the years, Nichols has been assigned to work 30 sectionals, 24 regionals, nine semistates and five State Finals during his time between the lines. He also has taught officiating classes over the years, working with a number of younger officials who have gone on to have successful careers. Nichols also has worked the football Stat Finals on four occasions.
“The times I officiated were some of the best years of my life, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything,” Nichols says.
Nichols is a former winner of the Outstanding Basketball Official Award, presented by the IHSAA and National Federation of Officials Association. He also was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 2009.
Outside of athletics, Nichols is president of Nichols Insurance Agency, which was established in 1985. With good fortune and hard work, the agency has grown and prospered over the past 30 years.
Nichols is a 1966 graduate of Granville Wells High School, Jamestown, Ind., now a part of Western Boone. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana State in 1971 and a master’s degree from DePauw University in 1975.
Nichols and his wife, Pam, have six children (Kami, Michael, David, Lori, Lisa and Lindsey) and 10 grandchildren.
