Chuck Stickels

Hastings High Hall of Fame

Inducted 2015

Chuck Stickels, Class of 1949, was selected for the HHS Athletic Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 2015.

A two-time all-state basketball player for the Tigers, Stickels was the leading scorer on the 1949 state runner-up team. In 1948 Stickels hit the winning basket to claim the district championship and snap rival Grand Island's 41-game win streak. His Tiger teams were 41-8 in his final two years. [Link to Suiting Up Varsity podcast episode about the upset of GI]

Need to add more high school info.

The 6'3" Stickels, often called the "Thin Man", was a prolific scorer in high school and at Hastings College. He scored over 1700 points in college, including ten thirty-plus point games. Legendary Bronco coach (and fellow HHS Hall of Famer) Thurlo McCrady called Stickels, "one of the greatest basketball players I have ever seen play. He was an outstanding individual player with incredible balance and poise; but of even greater importance, he was an exceptional team man both on offense and defense. Few players were his equal regardless of physical stature." He was named a basketball and football All-American.

As a quarterback he keyed the Broncos win in the 1954 Mineral Bowl. it completed the first undefeated HC grid season in three decades.

Also a baseball player in the Hastings American Legion program and at Hastings College, he signed a pro baseball contract with the Chicago Cubs and played minor league baseball. In later years he was consistently one of the best amatuer golfers in the Hastings area.

Stickels was named Nebraska college athlete of the year in 1954 by the Omaha World Herald. He is a member of the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame, the National Association Intercollegiate Athletics National Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.

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