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The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) inducted 11 members into its Hall of Fame at Palace Station Hotel and Casino Thursday night. Inductees received a commemorative plaque and a lifetime pass to any NIAA activity in the state.
The 2025 NIAA Hall of Fame class included Nevada’s lone “double-triple” team state champion from Moapa Valley High School, Gary Hickman. Hickman is the only Nevada high school athlete to win team state championships in three different sports in back-to-back academic years.
Hickman and the Pirates won back-to-back football, basketball and track and field championships in 1967 and 1968, and Hickman was a high jump state champion and state record holder for 25 years.
PHOTO BY ANTHONY VARRIANO / The Progress
“I’m just proud to be a part of the school that I participated at. It pretty much forms the character of who you became and what you become.”
Hickman overcame polio at age four and rheumatic fever after that to become one of the best athletes in Nevada high school history. He joined his classmates in school at the end of his second-grade year, and it took a few more years for him to recover physically, which he did by playing sports with his friends. That’s what he attributes to his teams’ successes.
“Whether it was football on the church lawn or if it was basketball on a makeshift court with only a six-foot basket…By the time we were in high school, we already played well together,” he said.
Hickman said beating archrival Virgin Valley in the 1967 boys basketball state championship his junior year was one of the highlights of his time in high school. It was the team’s first state championship in over a decade. He also cited his tip-in, championship-winning basket the following season as a favorite moment.
Hickman fought through tears, thanking his wife, Carla, at the end of his ceremony interview. “At this part of my life, the polio has come back. There’s also leukemia and heart disease, but I’m still vertical and working in my garden every day, and it’s because of my wife that I can do that.”
Gary and Carla reside in Paragonah, Utah, and share six children: Derek, Britney, Byron, Shane, Jared and Kara.
I remember watching the tip-in at that ballgame and screaming to the top of my lungs afterwards. How thrilled the whole town was. There were a lot of very talented young men who played with you. It takes a whole talented team and some standouts to win state championships back to back. I don’t remember the whole lot but I do remember Nick Bowler, Dennis Humes, Elwin Whipple, Jesus Telles and several others who made those championship teams. Congratulations on a well deserved award.