Here’s a fun tale of a college athlete — Aaron Nichols of the Wisconsin men’s soccer team — that involves sports being on the right side of the law. Yay, sports! From the UW web site:

Nichols, a sophomore defender on the University of Wisconsin men’s soccer team, was walking home from the University Bookstore last Wednesday (Jan. 28) when he noticed a suspicious man frantically running down Gilman Street in downtown Madison.

“I was on the phone with my girlfriend, actually, when I noticed a guy sprinting towards me,” Nichols said. “He kept running and he wasn’t stopping. A girl was chasing him and all she had on was a t-shirt and pants but no jacket. I immediately thought the worst, like maybe he had stolen something or harmed her.”

Nichols asked the woman if the running man had stolen something and she said yes. He reacted quickly, hanging up his cell phone to begin chasing the man. As the man turned on the corner of State and Gilman streets and headed toward the state capitol, it was not long before Nichols used his athleticism to bring the suspicious man down to the pavement.

“I threw my bag and phone as I tackled him to the ground in front of Hawks and Coldstone (Creamery),” Nichols said. “The guy was so startled, I don’t think he realized that I was chasing him from behind.

“Once I got him to the ground he was looking up at me really scared and then, within about 10 seconds, a bunch of police officers showed up.”

The woman, who had been chasing the suspicious man for a few minutes, was a Sports World employee. It turns out that Nichols’ instincts regarding the man’s frenzied behavior were correct.

As the police took over, the woman (still only in her t-shirt) explained to Nichols that she was working when the middle-aged man attempted to walk out of the Sports World on State Street with a jacket valued at $350.

It is not known at this time whether the jacket was so valuable because it had been touched by Brett Favre or because it was made entirely of cheese.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.