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Here\u2019s an excerpt of his last jump, as reported by The Toronto Star\u2019s war correspondent Frederick Griffin:<\/p>\nJeff Nicklin had survived Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, but on the day he took his last breath during World War II, the former Winnipeg Blue Bomber \u2018never had a chance\u2019.<\/p>\n
Nicklin was born in Fort William, Ontario, raised Winnipeg and cracked the Winnipegs lineup in 1934 and was part of the squad that captured the 1935 Grey Cup \u2013 the first team from Western Canada to do so.<\/p>\n
He was raw at first, but by 1937 he was a West All-Star as an end \u2013 an honour he captured again in 1938 \u2013 and then again as a flying wing in 1939. That year the Blue Bombers captured a second Grey Cup with a win over the Ottawa Rough Riders on December 9th.<\/p>\n
Nicklin then immediately hung up his cleats, it turns out, for last time as a member of the Blue Bombers. World War II was in its early days late in \u201839 and Nicklin, after working his way up from private, was deployed to Europe in 1942 as part of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.<\/p>\n
He had taken parachute training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and later he returned to Canada \u2013 to Camp Shilo, here in Manitoba \u2013 to establish the country\u2019s first parachute unit after being named the Commanding Officer of the 1st\u00a0Canadian Parachute Battalion.<\/p>\n
Nicklin was one of the first Canadians to jump on D-Day in 1944, and he did so with a broken shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cA week before D-Day, Jeff realized the troops had not been in battle before and they were all uptight and worried about what was going to happen to them next week,\u201d recalled Bill Jenkins, who served under Nicklin from Shilo to Germany, in an interview with Carol Sanders of the Winnipeg Free Press in 2007.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called the non-commissioned officers mess and said, \u2018How would you NCOs like a game of football this afternoon?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the first play of the game, Jeff took the ball and was making an end run. One of the sergeants, Ernie Appleton, who weighed about 140 pounds, had Jeff \u2013 a 220-pounder \u2013 coming at him. What was Ernie to do but drop down in front of Jeff? Jeff went flying through the air and landed on his shoulder and broke it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That didn\u2019t stop Nicklin from leading his battalion in Normandy five days later as part of the 3rd\u00a0Parachute Brigade of the British 6th\u00a0Airborne Division.<\/p>\n
His landing was anything but simple, as he dropped down in the midst of a German position at Varaville with his parachute tangled on a rooftop. While receiving fire from enemy soldiers, Nicklin cut himself free and took cover.<\/p>\n
\u201cJeff jumped into France \u2013 cast and all \u2013 and commanded the battalion throughout the French campaign.\u00a0That gives you an idea of what kind of guy he was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Jenkins<\/p>\n
Nicklin\u2019s last game of football came as a member of a Canadian Army team that played the Americans at White City Stadium in London on February 13, 1944 \u2013 a contest dubbed the \u2018Tea Bowl.\u2019 Nicklin would help the Canadians to a 16-6 victory and scored the game\u2019s final touchdown.<\/p>\n
Nicklin would later lead his division in the infamous Battle of the Bulge \u2013 the last German offensive of the war \u2013 and was one of the first to jump into Germany as part of Operation Varsity, just months before the war ended in March of 1945.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an excerpt of his last jump, as reported by The Toronto Star\u2019s war correspondent Frederick Griffin:<\/p>\n
\u2018Jeff, in the lead plane of the flotilla carrying the 1st\u00a0Canadian Parachute Battalion, was one of the first to jump and one of the first Canadians to die on D-day beyond the Rhine. This was his second operational jump in enemy territory. His first was into Normandy that June night before our invasion landings.<\/p>\n
\u2018When he floated to land this time he caught on a tall tree and the Germans shot him hanging as he tried to get out of his chute.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey let him have it,\u201d said Pte. Walton Pickard of London, Ont., \u201cand he did not have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Jenkins, recalling Nicklin\u2019s death with The Free Press:<\/p>\n
\u201cI almost got sick on the spot. It was horrid. Even now, 60 years later, the 24th\u00a0of March, 1945 sticks out like it was yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were getting ready to cross the Rhine\u2026 most of us landed in a field. Jeff\u2019s chute was caught in the wind. It blew him into the trees bordering the dropping zone. I could see some enemy shooting at us and I ran into the woods. Jeff was hanging in a tree riddled with bullets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the worst day of my military career to see this terrific guy hanging in a tree riddled with bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicklin left behind a widow and 15-month old son. In July of 1945, four months after his death, Nicklin was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire \u2018in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in North-West Europe.\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"Nicklin](\"http:\/\/www.bluebombers.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2016\/11\/10\/Nicklin-side-x-side-219x300.jpg\")
The recommendation for the honour described how he was able to help the smooth transition of the Canadian battalion into the British bridge and led it to \u2018unparalleled success\u2019 and concluded with \u2018throughout the present campaign his example of courageous leadership has been an example to all who have come into contact with him.\u2019<\/p>\n
As a tribute to the man and their commander, the 1st\u00a0Canadian Parachute Battalion donated the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy to the Western Interprovincial Football Union in 1946.<\/p>\n
It was first awarded annually to the player in the West Division considered most valuable to his team and since 1973, it has been awarded to the Most Outstanding Player in the West Division.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember one time when I first met him,\u201d recalled Jenkins in 2007. \u201cI happened to be an orderly office at Camp Shilo. We could only take 35 recruits at a time. One day, there were 65 recruits wanting to get in. He said, \u2018Take them on a run across the Prairies. When 30 drop out, call back and we\u2019ll sent a truck out to get them and we\u2019ll keep the rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou needed to be determined and you needed to be tough. He would not ask anybody to do anything he would not do himself. He always walked the talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lest we forget: Jevon Albert \u2018Jeff\u2019 Nicklin, Dec. 10, 1914-March 24, 1945.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Nicklin had survived Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, but on the day he took his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-361148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}