If you're looking for a name to use in a protest vote Nile would make a great write-in. Many who knew him expected him to become president. He was an active Republican, having campaigned for Wilkie. I have three patients who knew him. The first, unaware of my long interest, volunteered "Nike Kinnick was the finest person I'd ever met." My patient, who'd lied about his age to enter the Navy as an enlisted man after Pearl, met Kinnick in basic training. During his alleged spare time from flight training Kinnick went to the enlisted men's mess and played the piano for them, quite well I'm told.
As an aside, in an un-, or at least, under-reported scandal, the inaugural Big 10 Championship game did NOT use a Nile Kinnick headed coin for the toss, unlike every other Big 10 game for decades. Instead it had the Big10 logo on one side and both participating schools' logos on the other.
I just finished re-reading the Sports Illustrated article linked in post #2, and noticed that Loren Hickerson is cited in it, the same Loren Hickerson from the original link of this thread.
It dawned on me that this Sports Illustrated article from 24+ years ago is almost as old as the total number years Nile Kinnick was granted on earth.
I haven't been on eBay for a few years now, but back in the day I found a bunch of Nile Kinnick items there.
The Pat Tillman story offers a number of parallels to Nile Kinnick.
As an aside, in an un-, or at least, under-reported scandal, the inaugural Big 10 Championship game did NOT use a Nile Kinnick headed coin for the toss, unlike every other Big 10 game for decades. Instead it had the Big10 logo on one side and both participating schools’ logos on the other.
It is to weep at such a loss of understanding. Thank you FRiend.