Hall of Fame
William J. "Billy" Nicks was born Aug 2, 1905 in
Griffin Georgia. He attended Morris Brown High
School and Morris Brown College in Atlanta.
In college he played end and halfback and was the
team punter. He also was on the basketball,
baseball and track teams.
In 1929 he taught at Washington High School in
Atlanta. He moved to Morris Brown College and
was head football coach 1930-35, 1937-39 and 1941-42.
In 1936 and 1940 he is listed in NCAA records as
"on leave." He was principal at Morris Brown High
School. He also spent some time at Columbia
University getting a master's degree in education.
His record at Morris Brown was 66-22-13 for
11 years. His 1941 team was named black college
national champion by the Pittsburgh Courier.
In 1943-44 he was USO director at Fort Stewart (Ga.)
and then at Tuskegee Army Air Force Base.
He went to Prairie View A&M and was head coach
1945-47, assistant coach 1948-51, head coach again
1952-65. His record for 17 years was 127-39-8.
He won 8 Southwestern Athletic Conference
championships and 5 black college national
championships. The national titles were in
1953, 1954, 1958, 1963, and 1964.
His career record for 28 years was 193-61-21, a
winning percentage of .763. He served
Prairie View as director of athletics and in some
years coached basketball and baseball and won
conference titles. In 1966-73 he was special
assistant to the university president. In 1975-84
Nicks was director of parks and recreation for
the city of Houston, Texas.
Morris Brown College honored him with: Billy
Nicks Day in 1964. Atlanta did the same in 1982.
Prairie View named its athletic complex for him in
1988. He was named Coach of the Year by many groups,
notably the NAIA in 1958, the Pittsburgh
Courier in 1963.
He died Nov. 2, 1999, in Houston,TX at age 94.
