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Rose-Hulman Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2012

Zack Johnson (mechanical engineering, 1998) — Johnson earned two first-team all-Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference selections in men’s basketball in 1995 and 1996. He helped lead the 1995-96 team to its first NCAA Division III tournament appearance in nine years and finished with 1,003 career points. He currently ranks sixth in school history with 129 3-point field goals and averaged more than 16 points a game as a junior and senior. Since graduation, the entrepreneur has owned several business, including the video-game lounge eBash in Terre Haute.

Jennifer (Krause) Lawrence (civil engineering, 2002) — The former Jennifer Krause became the first four-time all-conference selection in a women’s sport at Rose-Hulman and set 17 school records that still stand today. She smashed 1,766 kills for the volleyball team and also holds career school records for solo blocks (255), block assists (262) and total blocks (517). She also played one season of basketball at Rose. Today, she serves as executive director of the Boone County Solid Waste Management District.

James McTaggart (chemical engineering, 1895) — McTaggart earned three state championships in the 440-yard dash and three in the 220-yard dash at the Indiana Intercollegiate track and field championships. His efforts helped Rose Polytechnic achieve two team state championships against modern-day NCAA Division I, II and III competition, including Notre Dame, Purdue and Indiana. After graduation, he enjoyed several chemical engineering-related positions in Pittsburgh and Southern Indiana prior to his passing in 1929.

Rob Nichols (mechanical engineering, 1999) — Nichols earned first-team all-region and all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference honors during the 1999 season to cap one of the top baseball slugging careers in school history. He batted .440 with 66 hits, 22 doubles and eight home runs for the first 30-win team in program history in 1999. The breakthrough season lifted his career totals to a .378 batting average with 116 RBIs, 108 runs scored, 38 doubles and 18 home runs. Today, he serves as an engineering supervisor at General Motors Powertrain in Michigan.

David Yeager (mechanical engineering, 1968) — Yeager graduated as the second-leading scorer in Rose Polytechnic basketball history with 1,047 career points. His efforts helped the Engineers earn the Prairie Conference title in 1968 and helped the team achieve a 51-35 record during his playing career. Today, he works as a full-time consultant to the automotive supplier Metaldyne after a distinguished 35-year career, including 21 patents at Ford Motor Co.

Related Photos

  • Members of the Rose Athletic Hall of Fame for 2012 include Zach Johnson, Rob Nichols, Jennifer (Krause) Lawrence and David Yeager.

    RHIT Hall of Fame 2012.jpg

  • Rob Nichols during his playing days at Rose-Hulman. Nichols was a member of the recently inducted Rose Athletic Hall of Fame class of 2012.

    Nichols-color.jpg

  • Zach Johnson scored 1,003 points during his basketball career at Rose-Hulman.

    Johnson-bw.jpg

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October 9, 2012

West Vigo grads engineer way into Rose Hall of Fame

David Hughes The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Back in the early 1990s, Zack Johnson started at guard for West Vigo High School’s boys basketball team, so he was well-known in the West Terre Haute community after his name appeared in the Tribune-Star sports section several times.

As Johnson recalls, there was an occasion when he and some West Vigo buddies decided to play a fun game of wiffleball in a friend’s yard. Some younger neighborhood kids whom he didn’t know very well supposedly came over and asked to join in, so they were allowed to participate.

After a while, something happened that one of the youngsters didn’t like and the scrawny middle-school boy — as Johnson described him — left in tears.

That boy was Rob Nichols, Johnson said.

When told that story last week, Nichols — no longer scrawny and living in Farmington Hills, Mich. — laughed and said it was probably true.

A few years after that alleged incident, Johnson ended up being a standout basketball player at Rose-Hulman. Several years later, a beefed-up Nichols became a standout baseball player at the same eastside engineering institute.

Ironically, both were inducted into the Rose Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday at the institute’s Sports and Recreation Center. Later that day, Johnson, Nichols and the other 2012 inductees — Jennifer (Krause) Lawrence, David Yeager and the late James McTaggart — were introduced during halftime of the Bluffton vs. Rose-Hulman football game at Cook Stadium.

Johnson, now 39, played for the Engineers from 1992 through 1996 before graduating in 1998 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He admits that he was shocked when Rose associate athletic director Jon Prevo, his former assistant coach in basketball, called him over the summer to inform him of his induction.

“We had some great players over the years when I was there,” he told the Tribune-Star. “So I never thought it would happen.”

Johnson, who lives in Terre Haute and owns the modern-day arcade eBash on South Third Street, and his wife Janean have two children and another on the way next year. Although nothing could top his happy family life, Johnson still carries fond memories of his time at Rose-Hulman.

“The extended road trips [to states such as Florida and Colorado] were probably the most fun,” he recalled. “But the thing that sticks out the most was going into the ICAC [Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference] tournament as the No. 4 seed [at Hanover] and winning the tournament to get into the NCAA [Division III] tournament in 1996.”

Johnson’s last year at Rose was the first year for Nichols, now 35, single and also possessing a degree in mechanical engineering (which he received in 2000). Unlike Johnson, Nichols acknowledged that the idea of going into the school’s Hall of Fame did pass through his mind a few times since his final season in the spring of 1999.

Then Nichols received his own call from Prevo this summer and his dream finally came true.

“I was ecstatic,” he said. “It was kind of in the back of my mind. I had hoped to be up there [for induction] someday.”

Nichols attributes much of his baseball success to his dedication to weight training, which he started when he entered Rose-Hulman in the late summer of 1995. He had graduated from West Vigo — where he was coached by Steve DeGroote, whom he credits for helping him develop as a player and person — weighing 170 pounds and eventually built himself up to 230 pounds.

“[Weight training] made a world of difference in hitting,” insisted Nichols, who overcame a torn ACL and LCL as well as a broken thumb during his Rose career to post several school records.

Nichols remembers Rose-Hulman knocking off a previously undefeated, nationally ranked Division II team — the University of Missouri-St. Louis — during the Engineers’ annual Florida trip in the late ’90s. His contribution to that victory was three two-out RBI singles.

But Nichols appreciates Rose for more than baseball wins and records.

“Rose was a great school to go to,” he emphasized. “Getting a good job afterward [currently at General Motors] was the most important part.”

On a similar note, Johnson mentioned “the teamwork and relying on other people to do their jobs” from basketball as helping him so often in his adult life.

“That’s probably one of the biggest things that helps me today as a small-business owner,” he added.

Johnson and Nichols joined another 1990s West Vigo graduate, former basketball/baseball standout Bryan Egli, as members of the Rose-Hulman Athletic Hall of Fame. Egli was inducted in 2010.

“We like our sports over there,” Nichols said with a chuckle.

Even wiffleball.

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Sports
SPT0512113WVSB mcclain.jpg

Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Small ball: Ciara McClain bunts to advance a teammate early in the Viking�s sectional matchup with Brown County.

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Local Interest
SPT 051913 TIM TERRY.jpg

Coach: Tim Terry is the South Vermillion baseball coach and plays in the senior league on Sunday afternoons.

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  • softballsecs.jpg Softball sectionals up for grabs

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High School
College
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Terre Haute Rex
SPT 071512 DORSETT FILE.jpg

Consultation: Rex manager Brian Dorsett talks with his pitcher and players during a time-out Sunday, July 15, at Sycamore Field. (Tribune-Star file/Bob Poynter)

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