Gene Ray Nichol, Jr. (born May 11, 1951) was the twenty-sixth president of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. He succeeded Timothy J. Sullivan and officially served from July 1, 2005, to February 12, 2008. It was the shortest tenure for a William & Mary president since the Civil War. During each year of his presidency, however, the college continued to break its own application records. Nichol spent his prep years at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, Texas (Class of 1969). He then attended Oklahoma State University (Class of 1973), where he received a philosophy degree and participated on the varsity football team. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas (Class of 1976), graduating Order of the Coif. He then became the dean of the University of Colorado School of Law from 1988 to 1995, as well as dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law from 1999 to 2005. He previously worked at William & Mary as Cutler Professor of Constitutional Law and director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law from 1985 to 1988. His other positions have included teaching law in the undergraduate and law schools of the University of Colorado, the University of Florida, the University of Exeter, the University of Oxford, and West Virginia University. Nichol made a bid for the United States Senate representing the state of Colorado in 1996 with the Democratic Party, but was defeated in the primary. He also made a bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998 and was defeated in a 4-way primary by Mark Udall. Athletic logo and the NCAA As president of The College of William & Mary, Nichol was forced by the NCAA to drop the college's feathers from its logo after a lengthy appeals process. The college was allowed to retain the team name of "Tribe." While several schools, including the University of North Dakota and the University of Illinois have been forced to abandon their mascots, others, such as the University of Utah and Florida State University, who have standing relationships and friendly histories with the tribes represented by their mascots, were allowed to keep their Native American-based logos. The college administration disputed the NCAA decision, but ultimately agreed to the restrictions. Gateway William & Mary program One of the first initiatives Gene Nichol undertook as president