BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin coach Greg Gard was out of town with his wife and kids when he got the news Thursday morning that a member of the Badgers family, Ab Nicholas, had passed away at 85.
"We lost a great, great friend," he said softy. "He was a big piece of our history."
To make sure that his players heard it from him first, Gard immediately texted them.
In so many words, he informed and reminded them, "The program has lost one of its icons."
Nicholas was a two-time, first team All-Big Ten basketball player; a successful businessman (the Milwaukee-based Nicholas Company); a generous philanthropist and an enthusiastic booster.
And the unconditional support and commitment went beyond athletics at his alma mater.
Not only did Ab and Nancy Johnson Nicholas donate $10 million toward construction of the Kohl Center but they gave $8 million to the UW School of Human Ecology from which Nancy graduated.
That was just two examples of their largesse.
A little over a year ago, their $50 million donation to UW, a one-to-one matching fund, was the second-largest household gift in school history.
Ab and Nancy Nicholas' financial resources and backing were obviously significant. But Gard kept coming back to his friendship with Nicholas, a second-team "Look" magazine All-American in 1952.
"I'm going to miss Ab as a person more than anything else," Gard said. "He was an unbelievable guy who was terrific to talk with. He always looked at the glass being half-full.
"You would never know what he had accomplished with his business by just talking to him or being around him. He was very much a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy."
Nicholas' positive approach was particularly appreciated this past season after the Badgers got off to a rocky start, Bo Ryan retired in mid-December and Gard took over the program.
"He always had great words of encouragement over the six or seven months of my transition," Gard said, "as the team was going through a growth spurt.
"He had a very keen eye. He had seen a lot of basketball and he knew what he was looking at. He knew what he was talking about. And those conversations that I had with him were always very enlightening and inspiring and motivating in terms of how he looked at things."
When Nicholas wasn't in attendance at a Wisconsin game, Gard could always count on getting an upbeat phone call from him afterwards, win or lose.
"He was always there if you ever needed anything," he said. "He was there for moral support, and positive verbal affirmation."
While he was never one to flaunt his business success, Nicholas never shied from trumpeting the accomplishments of his alma mater.
"I don't know if I've ever come across anyone who had more pride in the University of Wisconsin than Ab Nicholas," Gard said. "He was so proud of his degree and so proud of the university.
"He marveled at how the program had grown over the last quarter century and he took great pride in wearing that 'W.' Representing the school was a very special thing to him."
Ryan, who spoke with Nicholas a few days ago, got emotional talking about his legacy.
"First of all, there has never been a better gentleman that I have met in my life than Ab Nicholas," Ryan said. "And when I say gentleman that encompasses a lot of things.
"He took me under his wing and he was like a dad to me. He did so many things to point me in the right direction — his mentoring, wisdom, financial planning — it's hard to put into words."
Nicholas never gave the impression that he knew it all. That was not his style, not the way he did things. Inquisitive and intuitive, he was more of a listener, a sounding board, a shoulder to lean on.
"He would talk basketball with me always with the idea that he wanted to learn more … about the game, about motivation, about 'What do you do here? How do you handle this?'" Ryan said.
"He never, ever meddled with the idea that he knew more than anyone. But when you were around him, you knew that he was a wealth of knowledge."
Over the years, Ryan saw how much respect the players had for Nicholas, a former UW Regent.
"I had him come in and speak to the team a few times," he said. "And every time he walked away, the players were like, 'Wow, Mr. Nicholas is really sharp.'"
Nicholas' poised demeanor and soft-spoken nature belied his inner fire and competitiveness; traits that he developed while growing up in Rockford, Illinois.
"He was one of the toughest competitors that I've ever been around." Ryan said. "Golf is a great game to learn about people and I golfed with Ab over a hundred times.
"He always stayed to the task. He never got too high, he never got too low. He was steady."
Not unlike the way that Ryan and Gard manage their emotions and coached the game.
"You could tell with whatever he was doing," Ryan said, "that it was always with dedication, focus and the idea that, 'We can do this right.' Usually everything that he did was right."
Former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett first came into contact with Nicholas at UW-Green Bay.
"He supported our program there," Bennett pointed out. "And I know he was active in Wisconsin choosing me. Once I came to Madison, he was totally supportive in every way.
"He was the most supportive person without ever interfering that I perhaps have ever been around. His support was enormous both emotionally and in terms of making his resources available.
"You just don't find people who aren't looking for some kind of payback; a person of that stature who doesn't call on you for favors and doesn't share opinions that might affect what you do.
"It's so rare. My hunch is that he was that way in many different areas. From what I understand, he built his fortune literally from the ground up. He was just so very humble."
Nicholas' passion resonated with Bennett, who guided the Badgers to the 2000 Final Four.
"He just truly loved the game. I remember when I first met him in Green Bay, he made it clear that he felt Wisconsin could be a successful basketball program," Bennett said. "Everyone has an idea that they can foster and make others believe that it's possible, and he was influential in my thinking, 'Yes, Wisconsin could become a successful basketball program.'"
Otto Puls could vouch for Nicholas' savvy and tenacity on the court. Puls was a Wisconsin freshman when Nicholas was a senior on Bud Foster's 1952 team.
"I remember him as such a tough inside player," said the 83-year-old Puls, who played baseball for the Badgers and later officiated football in the Big Ten. "He was very good around the hoop."
Puls also remembered the friendship and bond that he struck up with Nicholas. At the time, Puls was working as a pharmacist at Malatt's on Monroe Street and Nicholas was in graduate school.
"He and his wife rented an apartment about a block away from Malatt's," recalled Puls, who to this day still serves the basketball program as a scorekeeper and assistant equipment manager. "Ab would come into Malatt's almost every morning and we would have a cup of coffee and we would shoot the breeze about different things."
Puls was also friends with Happ Johnson, a former Nicholas teammate and the brother of Nancy Johnson, whose maiden name adorns the practice pavilion along with that of her husband's.
"The last few years when I'd see Ab at an event, a steak fry or whatever," Puls said, "he would always come up to me and say, 'OK, Otto, you're there every day (at practice), tell me what's going on.'
"He always wanted to know more about this player or that player."
Nicholas always wanted to stay in touch when he couldn't be around. Beyond that, he just cared about people, in this case, he cared about the players and the coaches and what made them tick.
It's what made him so genuine, and maybe so unique.
"It's amazing that a guy with that kind of wealth never flaunted it," Puls said. "He never, ever changed — not one single bit from the time I met him in the '50s. He was always the same guy."
There was always the same expectation with Ab Nicholas.
"If ever there was a need," Ryan said, "he always stepped up."
That, too, never changed.
