R.E. Nicholson, ’30 • Basketball, Baseball, Football
Raymond “Whitey” Nicholson was a three-sport star at Rochester High School, graduating in 1935. Basketball was his best sport, and he was named to the All-District 1 team in his senior year. Nicholson spent one year at Rochester Junior College before enrolling at Carleton. The Yellowjackets were undefeated in basketball during the regular season that year, losing only in the state junior college championship. In that 1925-26 season, Nicholson set the state junior college conference scoring record of 162 points, and, in the eleven-game season against “major” opponents, he scored 203 of his team’s total 363 points.
At Carleton, Nicholson lettered twice as an end in football and three times in baseball, alternating between pitcher and the outfield. In basketball, the three teams he played on won 39 games and lost six, four of the losses coming to Big Ten teams. Carleton won the Midwest Conference championship in each of those years, losing only a single conference game, and winning every game played in Sayles-Hill. Nicholson captained the 1929-30 squad and was named to the All-Midwest Conference team. Following Carleton’s post-season win over the Minnesota College All Stars, the Minneapolis Journal cited both his game-high scoring and defensive play, and called him “the finest player on the floor.”
Following graduation from Carleton, Nicholson coached football, basketball and baseball at Lanesboro High School from 1930 to 1940. His 1930-31 basketball team brought Lanesboro its first District 1 championship in the school’s history and still stands as its only district basketball crown. His 1937 football team still ranks as one of the state’s few undefeated, untied and unscored-upon high school elevens. During these years, he also played semi-professional basketball (including games against the Harlem Globe Trotters) and baseball for the Rochester Aces and the Minnesota Coaches.
Raymond Asp, ’50 • Football, Basketball, Baseball
A native of Minneapolis, Ray Asp was a football, basketball, and baseball star at Patrick Henry High School, graduating in 1946. Captain of the baseball team, and President of his class, he also played on Henry’s 1945 state championship basketball team.
With the exception of his freshman year, when he turned out for basketball, Asp confined himself to two sports at Carleton. He won four letters in football, playing two years at end, was named second team All-Conference as a sophomore, and he proved his versatility by being named All-Conference as a quarterback in both his junior and senior years. The captain on the 1948 team was one of Carleton’s most durable athletes, starting every game and playing in every quarter of football for four years.
Asp won three letters in baseball as an exceptionally good small-college pitcher. In May of 1949, he pitched eight shutout innings in dealing the University of Minnesota a 10-2 defeat.
Charles Machacek, ’57 • Football, Wrestling
Chuck Machacek grew up in Northfield. A ten-letter winner, he is one of Northfield High School’s all-time athletic greats. He won four letters in track as a hurdler and shot putter, eventually winning the District 4 championship in the shot and high hurdles in the Big Nine meet. He qualified for the state meet twice in the shot and once in the hurdles. He was a three-year starter both ways at tackle, co-captained the football team his senior year, was twice named to the Big Nine All-Conference team and was named to the All-State team in his senior year. In basketball, he was a starter at center for two years, and game-by-game reports show that he was often the team’s high scorer.
Machacek entered Carleton following graduation and, after a year of strictly freshman competition, he became the bulwark of both the offensive and defensive lines on Carleton’s last undefeated football team in 1954. A durable two-way player, he started every game for three years at tackle. He co-captained the 1956 Carls, and was named to the first All-Midwest Conference team that year. He also won three letters in track as a shot putter and discus thrower.
Machacek gave up basketball for wrestling at Carleton and developed quickly as a strong heavyweight grappler under Coach Eiler Henrickson. He won three letters as the number one heavyweight, and capped his senior year with one of the great individual performances in Carleton sports history. He had lost a controversial 4-3 decision in the finals of the Midwest Conference meet in his junior year. The following March the Carls trailed Cornell 81-80 in the Conference meet with only the heavyweight finals remaining. Machacek decisioned his Grinnell opponent, who had beaten him during the regular season, by a 6-0 score, giving Carleton the Conference championship, and snapping Cornell’s consecutive Conference championship string at 15.
E.J. Cassell, ’25 • Football, Baseball
E.E. “Al” Cassell was a four-year starter in both football and baseball at Carleton, leading the baseball team in hitting in his sophomore year, and captaining the Carl gridders as a senior. He was named halfback on the All-State team in both his junior and senior years. As good an athlete as he was, his coaching records in nearly three-and-a-half decades at Jamestown College are nothing short of sensational.
Cassell began at Jamestown in 1930 following four years as Athletic Director and coach at Olivet College in Michigan and a year at Epworth Military Academy in Iowa. For many years he coached all of the Jimmie athletic teams, while also teaching in and administering the physical education and athletic programs. He was known and “Coach” by not only the athletes, but by all the students who attended Jamestown College, and at the time of his death he probably knew more Jamestown alumni than any other person.
Coach Cassell’s teams won a total of 26 championships in the North Dakota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: seven in basketball, five in football, twelve in track and two in baseball. He also coached the Jamestown American Legion baseball team to the North Dakota state championship in 1954, the same incredible year in which his Jimmies won league crowns in track, baseball and football. He spent six years as a scout for the Cincinnati Reds and six more for the Minnesota Twins.
In 1964, Cassell was named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Track and Field Hall of Fame for his contributions to track and field and services to other sports for 38 years. He was the first man named in this category.
In 1964, he was also named Jamestown’s Outstanding Citizen, and in the same year he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Jamestown College.
Ivan Grimm, ’60 • Basketball
Ivan Grimm grew up on a farm near Chaska, Minn., and graduated from Chaska High School in 1956. A three-year letterman in basketball, many of the school and Minnesota Valley Conference scoring records he set have yet to be broken. Twice in his high school career he scored 50 points in a game.
Grimm started every game, including the freshman team schedule, for four years at Carleton. His sophomore year he scored 325 points, but was only the third leading scorer on a well-balanced team of primarily seniors which won the Midwest Conference championship. In his junior year, he set the all-time Carleton single season scoring record of 565 points, and added 550 in his senior year. At the time of his induction, no other Carleton basketball player had come within 100 points of either of those figures. It is no surprise, then, that Grimm has held Carleton records for most career points scored, 1,440 and highest point-per-game career scoring average, 22.5. Other school records include most field goals made in a single season and most free throws made in a single game.
The 6′ 8″ center was names to the All-Midwest Conference team in his sophomore, junior and senior years. He captained the Taubemen in 1958-59 and 1959-60, won the Matteson Award and was featured in “Who’s Who in Basketball.”