CHUCK CARROLL – Football
An All-American running back at the University of Washington in 1928, Chuck Carroll twice was named to the All-Pacific Coast squad and was elevated to the National Collegiate Hall of Fame after graduation. He was one of the state’s top attorneys.
AL HOSTAK – Boxing
Nicknamed “the Savage Slav”, Hostak grew up among the Slovak immigrants in Seattle’s Georgetown District. He began boxing at age 16 in 1932, going unbeaten in his first 27 local bouts. After going east with prominent Tacoma boxer Freddie Steele in 1937, Hostak emerged as a national contender. He won 11 straight fights and Ring magazine named him the No. 3 middleweight in the world. On July 26, 1938, Hostak fought Steele in from of a record crowd of 35,000 at Seattle’s Civic Stadium. Steele held the NBA World Middleweight belt at the time but Hostak knocked him out in the first round.
Hostak lost the belt to Solly Krieger then earned it back in a rematch. He held the title for a year and fought many more times thereafter but not at the championship level. He finished with 64 wins, 41 by knockout, 9 losses and 11 draws. He was inducted in the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2003, he was named to Ring magazine’s top 100 punchers of all time. Hostak died in Kirkland at age 90 in 2006.
JACK NICHOLS – Basketball
Jack Nichols was a 6-foot-7 force, one of the earliest University of Washington players to move on to the NBA. The Everett High grad had a split UW career in 1944 and then 1947-48, having spend 1945-46 playing for USC while training with the Marine Corps near Los Angeles. Nichols was named all-conference all five seasons. As a senior, the Huskies were Pacific Coast Conference co-champions as Nichols averaged 14.9 points. In 1948, Nichols set single-season scoring records for UW and the Pacific Coast Conference with 1,070 points, and a single-game scoring record of 39 points vs. Idaho. After that season, he was named to the Helms Athletic Foundation college All-American team.
He played nine NBA seasons, averaging double figures in points four times and rebounds twice. He won a championship with the Boston Celtics in 1957.
During his final three seasons in Boston, he attended Tufts Dental School. Upon the end of his NBA career, Nichols served as the team dentist for the University of Washington and for the Seattle SuperSonics.
