K-State President Ernest Nichols

Ernest Nichols1899-1909

Ernest Nichols was highly successful in obtaining appropriations for new campus buildings, among them Calvin Hall, Dickens Hall and Denison Hall.

He hired KSAC greenhouse foreman M.F. (Mike) Ahearn as one of the first athletic coaches, established the Student Council and also added curricula in electrical engineering, architecture, veterinary medicine and civil engineering.

Nichols is memorialized on campus in the building originally known as Nichols Gymnasium, which burned in 1968 and was rededicated as Nichols Hall after it was rebuilt in 1985.