Dedication to recreation Eric Nickel wins Dolley Madison Award

By JASMINE MOORE contributing writer

Eric Nickel, the director of university recreation, won the Dolley Madison Award, which recognizes a member of the Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management for their time, talent and treasure.

“I don’t put too much value on the award itself,” Nickel said. “It’s a recognition of the past, and it encourages you to do more of that. In this case, it’s helping students in the Hart School.”

Nickel has been at JMU for 28 years since April 1995, where he began teaching in sport and recreation management. After a few years at JMU, the hotel and restaurant management program merged with the sport and recreation management program to form the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management in 2010. In March 2015, alumnus G.J. Hart (’84) and his wife Heather donated $3 million to JMU and the school was renamed in their honor, according to JMU’s website.

In 1998, Nickel became the university recreation director, where he’s served ever since. In this role, part of his job entails going to other universities to evaluate their recreation centers to help them improve, just as he has done for the University Recreation Center (UREC) at JMU.

“I think I just finished my 37th consulting job at another university,” Nickel said, “where I go in and conduct a bunch of interviews and spend around three days on the campus, and then write a report on the findings and recommendations to help them improve their college recreation center.”

Nickel said he’s been at JMU since UREC was “born,” when it was just a small fitness center with a capacity of 60 people. Nickel said he helped turn UREC into what it is today — he hired all the staff, bought all the equipment, and set a new vision of what UREC would be on the college campus.

“The reason I’m still here after 28 years is the presence of leadership and value the rec center could have on a college campus,” Nickel said.

Nickel also currently serves on the advisory board of the Hart School, where he brings the perspective of students that want to go into collegiate recreation, he said. Additionally, Nickel said he speaks at the Hart School at least twice a semester and has taught graduate facilities and leadership classes and undergraduate facilities classes.

“When you've worked with folks that had a good relationship, you know, you like to feel like you've made a difference,” Nickel said. “And I think awards are kind of a recognition of that … I don't have a big trophy case or anything that's important to me, but it's just a kind of recognition by your peers.”

Stephanie West, director of the Hart School, said to receive the Dolley Madison Award, a faculty member has to be nominated, and those nominations go through an advisory board. The board then chooses who’s done the most to qualify for the award, including exceptional professional achievements, contributions or service. The board then compares this to the listed award criteria, West said.

Nickel said he found out he won the award after he was invited to attend Gourmet in November 2022 — an annual fundraising event in Northern Virginia for the Hart School with silent auctions that help raise money for scholarships for students or other school needs — to receive the award in-person at the event.

West first met Nickel in 1995 when they were both working at the campus recreation school and have since been close colleagues. West said Nickel was instrumental in getting the campus recreation concentration in the sport and recreation leadership program — the only one in the country that focuses on campus recreation, she said.

“The Dolley Madison Award recognizes Eric Nickel’s continuous support and dedication to JMU and Hart School,” West said.

Nickel said he’s proud of his career at JMU, and he plans on staying to teach at the Hart School to help students learn and succeed.

CONTACT Jasmine Moore at moore5ja@dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.