oversight by head coach Ray Meyer. Even though he had a B- average during his first quarter at DePaul, when another Chicago area school reported that he should have been ineligible, the National Collegiate Athletic Association investigated and ruled him ineligible. As of January 5, 1974, Hicks was still a highly regarded performer for the DePaul team and had just made an early season All-Tournament team. However, he was sidelined pending a meeting to consider his eligibility before DePaul's January 6 game against . Northern Illinois On January 16, 1974, Hicks enrolled at Northern Illinois. In his January 14, 1975 debut for Northern Illinois, he contributed 13 points off the bench including 2 overtime baskets in the 87–86 victory over Weber State. At Northern Illinois, he was a two-time All-Mid-American Conference first-team selection as a junior and as a senior in 1976 and 1977 earning Mid-American Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year honors in 1977. He led the conference in scoring (25.0 and 25.3) and rebounding (12.8 and 13.0) as both a junior and a senior. He was an honorable mention All-American by Associated Press (1976, 1977), Sporting News (1976, 1977), and Converse (1977). After his 2.5 season career at NIU, Hicks left the school as its all-time leader in career points (1,513) scored, single-season points scored (682), single-MAC conference game points (42, March 7, 1977), single-MAC conference game rebounds (23, March 3, 1976) and career double-doubles (50). The single-MAC conference game rebounds record was still listed as the current record in the 2019–20 school record book. Paul Dawkins eclipsed some of Hicks' records including career points in 1979. He was named MAC player of the week twice as a junior (Jan. 28 and Mar. 2, 1976) and three times as a senior (Jan. 2, Feb. 1 and Feb. 8, 1977). Hicks was not listed on the 1977 Pizza Hut All-American game ballot, but an organized write-in campaign in which his 950 dormitory mates cast 65,000 write in ballots got him selected. The Northern Illinois sports information director Bud Nangle and Rochelle, Illinois Pizza Hut owner organized the effort to get him voted into the top 8 positions in the voting. The ballot box stuffing also pushed Chicago ballers Green and Bo Kimble into 2nd and 3rd place in the ballot. Hicks finished 7th. He lost the halftime slam dunk contest to Marques Johnson. Personal life Hicks' younger siblings