The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Middies honor Nardiello for career contributions

Former longtime Middletown Journal sports editor Jerry Nardiello is honored before the Middletown High School boys basketball game with the dedication of the score table in his name, where he covered the Middies for 40 years.

Staff photo by Samantha Grier. Former longtime Middletown Journal sports editor Jerry Nardiello is honored before the Middletown High School boys basketball game with the dedication of the score table in his name, where he covered the Middies for 40 years.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Principal remains under review
New 3 min. ago 5/25/12
Holiday weekend looks like scorcher
New 6 min. ago 5/25/12
Butler County OKs land bank to fight blight
Updated 11 min. ago 5/25/12
Ad calls Brown career politician
5/24/12
State directs $2.1M for scholarships
5/24/12
> More headlines

By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer 9:43 PM Friday, February 3, 2012

MIDDLETOWN — A New York City native who kept Middletown High School fans informed for decades was honored Friday when the scorer’s table in the Wade E. Miller Gym was named for him.

Jerry Nardiello, 89, was sports writer, sports editor and sports editor emeritus at The Middletown Journal for more than 60 years, penning articles about thousands of Middie athletic events. He smiled and saluted the crowd who thanked him for putting the “magic in Middie magic” Friday night.

“Oh yeah, I wish I was working tonight,” Nardiello said looking over at the table where scorekeepers and the media sit. “I never considered it a job. I always thought it was a pleasure to cover the games.”

Nardiello served in the Air Force in World War II and graduated from New York University. He sent letters seeking a position in journalism to several papers around the country and landed a job in Middletown. After meeting his wife, Winnie, at the LeSourdsville Park, he never left. Today the couple has two grown daughters.

Sending letters of tribute were Middie standouts who Nardiello wrote about during their high school careers, including basketball Hall of Famer Jerry Lucus - who led the Middies to back-to back state titles in 1956 and 1957 - and Butch Carter, another Middie basketball great who starred on Bob Knight’s Indiana teams before playing several years in the NBA.

Carter called Nardiello, “an outstanding sports writer and a better human being.”

It was another honor in a long list for Nardiello, who began his career in 1947 at The Journal. He help start the Butler County Hall of Fame, which he was inducted into in 1997. He has also been inducted into the Pigskin-Roundball Spectacular Gold Medal Club, Southwest District Athletic Board Hall of Fame earlier this year and the Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists.

Nardiello held a plaque commemorating his newest honor and said, “this is really great. I didn’t know anything about it until I got here. I thank you so much.”

Share this article