skip navigation

RUTH CANNON NICHOLS - INDUCTEE #81

hall of fame fast fact:

Ruby Campbell recalls that "our senior year at nationals, we both qualified for the free throw award. I think I made 48 out of 50 and she said if she beat me, she'd give me the trophy. She beat me by one but I never saw that trophy." During high school, Ruth Cannon was named Most Outstanding Player her junior and senior years and was named to the all-tournament team of every tournament that Cotton Center competed in.

Ruth Cannon Nichols

One of the first great stars of the Flying Queens, the former three-time all-stater at Cotton Center went on to score more than 2,100 points and still ranks No. 4 on the all-time Wayland list. The 1952-53 records were lost, so her total of 2,159 points is estimated.

Nichols played at Wayland, where the Queens compiled a record of 122-15. She scored 29 points as the Queens edged the Kansas City Dons, 39-38, to cap the 1953-54 season at 32-1 for the first of Wayland’s 10 national championships. The Queens achieved a 131-game winning streak that still stands as an all-time collegiate record.

In May 1955, Nichols, a three-time All-American, two-time national free throw champion, and Wayland’s all-time leading scorer at the time, was named Woman Athlete of the Year during Wayland Recognition.

Nichols started playing basketball in the front yard when she was 8 years old and remained devoted until she played on the 1955 U.S. Pan American team in Mexico City.

Ruth Cannon Nichols died on May 6, 2005