| Wins against Kentucky - 0 | Losses against Kentucky - 3 |
Alma Mater: Missouri [1912]
Date Born: July 30, 1889
Date Died: April 2, 1940
Overall Record: 3-18 [2 Seasons]
| Date | Matchup | UK Result | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2/21/1924 | Centre College at Kentucky | W | 38 - 24 | State Championship Game |
| 2/9/1924 | Kentucky at Centre College | W | 27 - 18 | - |
| 2/23/1923 | Sewanee at Kentucky | W | 30 - 14 | - |
Obituary - Lafayette (IN) Journal and Courier (April 3, 1940)
John P. Nicholson, Veteran Coach at Notre Dame, Dies
SOUTH BEND, Ind., April 3 (AP) - Track Coach John P. Nicholson of the University of Notre Dame, who lived to see one of his pupils called the greatest distance runner of all time, is dead at 50.
The veteran coach, at Notre Dame 12 years, died of a heart attack last night while engaged in a favorite project - organization of athletic clubs among young Hoosier workingmen.
He had just finished speaking to the South Bend Amateur Athletic Association at the Young Men's Christian association when he became ill. Taken to a friend's room, he died before a doctor came.
Only two nights before, in New York's Madison Square Garden, Nicholson had heard Paavo Nurmi of Finland, noted former distance star, term Gregory Rice, whom Nicholson trained, "the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen."
Nurmi spoke just after Rice had set a new world's indoor of 13 minutes, 52.3 seconds for three miles in beating Don Lash and Taisto Maki on a Finnish relief program. Rice hung up a new two-minute mark of 8:56.2 earlier in the year.
COACHED NOTED STARS
Nicholson also had coached Alex Wilson, 400- and 800-meter star in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, and, among other nationally known trackmen, Don Elser in weight lifting, Bill Faymonville in discus throw and Dan Gibbs in the pole vault.
His teams took central intercollegiate conference indoor championships six times and outdoor championships four times and Indiana college titles four times.
He came to Notre Dame in 1928, when the late Knute Rockne gave up the coaching of track to give more time to football.
Nicholson was born in Greenville, PA. He won a national high jumping championship while attending a St. Louis high school.
He was graduated from the University of Missouri in 1912. He ran in the hurdles in the Olympics at Stockholm, Sweden, that year. In 1911 and 1912, he was high scorer in the western conference open meet.
Nicholson had coached basketball and football as well as track. Before he came here, he coached at Depauw University, Centre College, the University of the South and Rice Institute.
He leaves the widow; a son, William, a Notre Dame freshman, and a daughter, Martha.
