Iowa State President Martin Jischke had kind words for the late ISU wrestling coach Harold Nichols on his monthly radio address Wednesday.

“The most impressive thing I witnessed at his funeral service I attended was the testimony of three wrestlers of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s who knew Harold Nichols and had wrestled for him and came to see him not only as a great teacher of wrestling and coach, but a great human being who taught larger lessons in life,” Jischke said on WOI-AM Radio’s “Talk of Iowa” program.

Nichols coached ISU wrestling from 1954-1985.He won six national titles.

His funeral was last Thursday.

Jischke talked sports throughout much of the show. He had said he has high hopes for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams in the Big 12 tournaments in Kansas City, Mo.

“We have this wonderful reputation of bringing the largest contingent [of fans] to the former Big Eight [Tournament]. They export the Hilton Magic to Kansas City,” Jischke said.

Jischke also summed up the Iowa State women’s basketball team’s win over Texas A&M Tuesday night for its first game of the Big 12 tournament. It was “a tough game, not a game that will go down in the history books as a work of art, but a victory nonetheless,” Jischke said.

Though Jischke wasn’t offering any odds on ISU’s chances in the men’s tournament, he did say “it will be a great basketball tournament.”

Jischke also spoke about the recent state Board of Regent’s decision to rename Cyclone Stadium in honor of Jack Trice.

Many felt this was the right time to rename the stadium and the right thing to do, Jischke said. “It was not unanimously approved, as there are those who thought it was not the right thing to do. We respect those differences, but overwhelmingly the people I visited with congratulated the university,” Jischke said.

Jischke also touched on the topic of ISU correspondence courses offered via the Internet, the Iowa Communication Network and the mail.

“We are expanding the use of this new technology in delivering courses to include younger people,” Jischke said. “We have quite a number of offerings by correspondence and through distance-learning technologies.”

“We cooperate with other universities in offering, for example, graduate-level engineering courses and graduate-level family and consumer sciences courses,” Jischke said.