Grambling Honors Collie J.
Collie J. Nicholson has been given perhaps his most important honor: Recognition at the school that he forever transformed.
The press box at Grambling State's Robinson Stadium will be renamed for Nicholson, after the board that oversees GSU approved the measure on Friday in Baton Rouge.
GSU's sports information director for 30 years beginning in 1948, Nicholson was a Gramblinite of the first order, and a shoe-leather genius - the guy who worked until the school was finally recognized nationally as a football powerhouse.
And in the most primitive of conditions.
Nicholson's grass-roots efforts began with a network of 400 black newspapers nationwide. He would drive the 75 miles to Shreveport's Western Union station after every game to wire stories across the nation.
Later, his flair for event organizing and selling Grambling led to a sold-out contest in Yankee Stadium, the founding of the Bayou Classic - GSU's signature rivalry game against Southern - and a first-of-its-kind trip overseas to play in Japan. So complete was his dedication that Nicholson learned Japanese so he could conduct negotiations.
He's been widely recognized, including the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association in 1990 and the College Sports Information Directors of America Trailblazer Award in 2002.
As prestigious as they are, I don't think any is as important, overdue - and appropriate - as this one.
Grambling wouldn't be "Grambling" without Collie J.