Sam Nichols is currently Chief Meteorologist at KTAB-TV, the CBS affiliate in Abilene, Texas where he has been a weathercaster for twenty years. He has been voted “Favorite TV Weather Person” in the Abilene Reporter News Reader’s Choice Awards multiple times and has also been awarded the “Bell” Award for outstanding media coverage of issues in education by the Texas Retired Teachers’ Association.
In 2007, Sam retired from 33 years coaching Women’s Basketball. The last 12 years was spent as Head Women’s Basketball Coach at McMurry University. He retired as the all-time winningest Women’s Basketball Coach in McMurry University history. In 2017 he was inducted into the prestigious McMurry University Athletic Hall of Honor.
He is the Founder and President of Basketball Smiles, a program of free basketball camps in the inner city neighborhoods of the Bahamas, now in its 20th year.
In 2013 Sam was named a Paul Harris Fellow “in appreciation of the tangible and significant assistance given to the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world.”
Sam competed in Dancing With the Abilene Stars in 2018, and voted winner of the Best Costume Award. He also performed with the Abilene Opera Association in their 2019 production of West Side Story.
In August, 2019, the Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene presented Sam the Kiwanis Community Caring Award for his Basketball Smiles work.
in October, 2019, The Abilene Opera Association selected Sam as the Volunteer Honoree of The Year for 2019 for the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council Hearts for the Arts.
Sam and his wife Sandy are involved in several local charitable causes and are both members of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Committe
