Middletown native, TV producer, 56, died ‘at the top of her game’

“She was hooked,” said her sister Julie Nickell. “She always said, ‘I want to be involved in racing.’”

Jenny Nickell, a 1978 Middletown High School graduate, died last month in Toronto producing an IndyCar race as part of the NBCSN-TV broadcast team, cutting short a career that earned her four Emmys. Nickell, 56, was scheduled to produce weightlifting at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“She was at the top of her game,” said Julie Nickell, 69.

On Monday, her family, friends and broadcasting colleagues held a celebration of life at First Presbyterian Church in Middletown, then gathered at Wildwood Golf Club for a reception. The beverages and stories flowed freely as mourners remembered Nickell’s quick rise in the broadcasting business that included stops at ESPN, NBC, ABC, FOX, and multiple cable networks and included three Olympics.

Julie Nickell said her sister was “a trailblazer” for women interested in producing TV sports. She took great pride in mentoring women, her sister said.

“She always kept an eye open for females,” her sister said. “That was something she was very, very proud of. She opened a lot of doors.”

Bob Jenkins, retired Indianapolis 500 announcer, said he was introduced to Nickell in the early 1980s when she started “at the bottom” in the industry, pointing a dish toward the pit area.

She didn’t have that job long. She was too talented, Jenkins said.

Nickell was more than a co-worker. She was a friend who people worked with, he said.

“Every person who met her remembered her,” Jenkins said. “I don’t know what she had, but she had something that made all of us love her.”

Jenkins said Nickell was like the sister he never had. They talked at least once a month, even after he retired in 2013.

“I will miss her like you wouldn’t believe,” he said. “She was a hard worker, but on other hand, she had a magnetic personality that people were drawn to her.”

For much of her career, she worked for and with her longtime mentor and friend, Terry Lingner, of Lingner Group Productions in Indianapolis. She was pit producer for NBCSN the past 10 years in a television career that spanned four decades.

He said Nickell had a “complete passion” for every project.

“She was a great thinker,” he said.

Lingner said he wasn’t surprised Nickell left her hometown to begin her broadcasting career.

“She was ready for the adventure,” said Lingner, who worked with her for 33 years. “She never had any small goals.”