Wabash College Athletics

Merlin W. Nice, you arrived from your hometown of Wabash, Indiana during THE Golden Age of Wabash College basketball. Coach Mac Petty recruited you to Wabash as a multi-talented football, basketball, and baseball star from Southwood High School. Once on campus, you showed the nation just how good you were when teamed with fellow Hall of Famers Pete Metzelaars, Kerry Seward, and Mike Holcomb during those magical seasons of the early 1980s. Your accomplishments on the hardwood for Wabash were many: four-year letterman; two-time Most Valuable Player; Co-Captain; and Pete Vaughan Award winner. You led the team in scoring in 1983 and in 1984, averaging 18.4 points and 17.1 points per game in those seasons. You also led the 1984 team in rebounding as well. But with all of those accomplishments, you will most be remembered as an immovable, unstoppable force, sharp-shooting force during the 1982 National Championship season when Wabash went 24-4 and became the darling of the fledgling network, ESPN. So good was the Fifth Wonder Five, that each of the starters earned single name status in the vaunted history of Wabash College athletics: Pete; Merlin; Kerry; Mike; and Teddy. 

Perhaps never again will a better balanced, more complimentary team be assembled; selflessness and teamwork were watchwords during the title run. While Pete got the headlines, you got busy and produced valiantly. You even carved your name in the NCAA basketball record book by hitting all 24 free throws you attempted during the tournament, and earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team. Today you stay close to basketball as a high school and college official, occasionally gracing Chadwick Court dressed in black and white stripes. For your myriad accomplishments as role player and go-to man on the basketball court, the National Association of Wabash Men is proud to induct you, Merlin W. Nice, into the Wabash College Athletic Hall of Fame.