Nicholls dedicates Rec Center gym

Tracking Glory with Hal Martin
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Tracking Glory with Hal Martin
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A large portion of the Harold J. Callais Memorial Recreation Center will now bear the name of the person who was instrumental in the project’s initial approval.

Nicholls State University announced this week that it dedicated the newly built recreation center’s gymnasium to the late Michael Childs.


Childs was a NSU Student Government Senator in 2002 and was “instrumental in rallying students in support” when students were given the option to vote for the facility’s creation – a vote that came with an agreement to increase tuition to cover the costs.


“Every day when I walk in this building, I thank Mike,” said Michael Matherne, Nicholls’ director of campus recreation. “If not for him, I’d still be operating campus recreation out of the pool office.”

The decision to vote for the recreation facility failed by fewer than 20 votes the first time it was placed on a Nicholls’ ballot.


Not wanting the project to be scrapped, Childs collected 1,000 signatures on a petition to have the vote be placed back on the student’s ballot in the fall of 2001.


That time, Nicholls students voted in favor of the state of the art facility, which opened at the start of this past school year.

Childs died in July 2006, while trying to rescue someone from drowning.

The late student’s family and his former Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity brothers were among many in attendance at a ceremony held on March 9 to name the gymnasium on his behalf.

According to a news release issued by Nicholls State, Childs was a “driven, charismatic young man who left a long-lasting campus legacy.”

Matherne agreed and said naming the gym after the late student is a perfect fit.

“We’re changing lives here,” Matherne said.

Nicholls State University named a gymnasium in its recreation center after Michael Childs – the late student who was instrumental in the project being completed. 

NSU PHOTO