Saul Nechtem came out of Chelsea High School, where he was a four-sport star competing in football, baseball, basketball and track. Nechtem and Mickey Cochrane are the only athletes in BU history to win 12 varsity letters. When Mickey was playing for BU, freshmen could compete on the varsity level. When Nechtem entered BU, he had to play on a freshman team and earned four freshman numerals. He had to wait until his sophomore year to win a varsity berth and a varsity letter.
He was quarterback on the football team, made All-New England three years in a row, All-Eastern once, was given honorable mention for All-America and was selected as the quarterback of the Jewish All-American Football team in 1938.
He made Second Team All-America in basketball as a forward and was considering a career as a professional, but World War II intervened and Nechtem became a Lieutenant (Sr. grade) in the Navy, seeing plenty of action as an air combat intelligence officer. His Chelsea High team won 24 out of 25 games. The team won the Massachusetts title, but lost its 25th game in the finals of the New England tournament.
Nechtem played shortstop and was one of the pitchers on the baseball team. Last but not least, he competed in four events on the track team, winning the 100m dash and the 220m dash plus the high jump and the broad jump. He held the BU high jump mark until John Thomas shattered it by going over the bar almost a foot higher than Nechtem's record.
