[1] He interrupted his college studies to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II as a pilot, reaching the rank of Lieutenant.

The school did not have a wrestling program yet so he served as an assistant in football and basketball and the head coach in track & field as well as swimming.

[4] When Hugo Otopalik unexpectedly died in 1953, Harold Nichols was the only person Iowa State interviewed to replace him.

[5][6] He was considered to be "ahead of his time concerning race relations," and was a pioneer in bringing minorities into college wrestling, including African Americans, Hispanics and Cubans.

In 1983, he appeared on Late Night with David Letterman with a seven-foot-tall vase from his collection, considered one of the world's largest.