University of British Columbia Athletics

The sparkplug guard of UBC's early 1990s basketball team, Lisa led the team to the 1994 Canada West Championship, the first such title for the UBC women in 19 years. Twice an Academic All-Canadian, she led the UBC team in scoring four of her five years and holds both UBC and CIS scoring records. Her "dynamo" style helped bring UBC women's basketball back into prominence.

Lisa Nickle, UBC women’s premiere basketball player during her 1989/90 – 93/94 career, for many years held the distinction of holding more UBC records than any other female basketball player in UBC history. A team leader and offensive threat, she held for 22 years  the record for most points in one game. The hard-working guard who led the UBC team in scoring four of her five years and in assists in 1993 also set four CIS records involving three-point attempts, successes and percentage.

Prior to her UBC career, the Abbotsford, BC, native played on the Provincial under 16 and under 17 teams and later led the Provincial under 19 team to the national title.

Nickle is one of the very few UBC women to be twice selected as Canada West First-team All-Stars, Nickle making the team in 1991/92 and 92/93. Those same two years she was selected to the academic All-Canadian team, achieving the rare student-athlete double, twice!

In 1993 she was awarded the Human Kinetics scholarship, achieving an 85% average as a physical education major. Her goal – to teach P.E. to special education youngsters.

In 1992/93 the “chief kick-starter.” All-Star and Academic All-Canadian led UBC with an 18.5 point scoring average which included her record-setting game in which she broke Carol Turney’s points in one game mark. The Vancouver Sun newspaper described her this year as the leader of the “Run and Shoot Dash Gang” and “the 5 ft. 7 in. dynamo” who guaranteed excitement in each of her games at UBC. Lisa felt that “... at UBC I got the opportunity to play – at another school I wouldn’t have had that. Misty (Thomas) believes in me and she always has. She’s tough on me, but then she’s tough on everyone.” In the words of Coach Thomas: “She’s our best shooter... she’s also got a lot of responsibility as point guard.” UBC’s assistant coach at the time, Deb Huband, remembers... ”Lisa was a feisty dynamo who led by example and got the most out of her potential.”

In 1993/94 Nickle’s graduating year, she, as the Sun put it, “ran a reclamation program on the Pt. Grey campus, “ which culminated in her being a large part of Misty Thomas’s Thunderbirds winning its first Canada West championship in 19 years. In the championship final 80–65 victory over the University of Victoria, UBC was led by Nickle’s 21 points and five for seven from three-point range, successfully taking the wind out of the hometown Vickettes.

“I came to UBC on my own because I wanted to study here... I didn’t really think I’d be starting point guard for five years. It was hard at first because we lost a lot of games, but we’ve come leaps and bounds since I arrived.”

Since graduation, Lisa has coached and taught at all levels of the school system at Kelowna, BC. “The game has given me such great gifts in life. I’ll never be able to give back as much as I’ve received, but I’d like to do as much as I can.”

Researched and written by Fred Hume, UBC Athletics Historian