New sports broadcasting scholarship honors longtime ‘voice of the Indianapolis 500’
A new scholarship established in honor of the longtime “voice of the Indianapolis 500” will benefit Media School students pursuing careers in sports journalism.
Dan Harvey, BA’72, and Beth Harvey, BA’73, created the Bob Jenkins Memorial Scholarship in memory of their friend, Bob Jenkins, BS’69.
Jenkins graduated from IU with a degree in radio and television before launching a career in sports broadcasting. He was best known as the voice of the Indianapolis 500, and his career spanned more than five decades on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. He also called IndyCar, NASCAR and Formula One races for various national networks.
Jenkins died in August.
“We’re really going to miss him. He was just a really good guy, and you know, we’re all just passing through,” Dan Harvey said. “Trying to keep his name alive.”
He met Jenkins in 1965 during their freshman year, when the two lived on the same floor in Wright Quad. Harvey, Jenkins and a group of friends from IU have held nearly annual reunions for about 40 years. Their next one is scheduled for the end of October.
“He’s always been a down-to-earth guy,” Harvey said. “He’s actually very, very famous in the racing world, but when we’d have our reunion he was just, you know, one of the guys.”
Yet anywhere the group would go, people would recognize Jenkins, Harvey said.
The scholarship will help form the next generations of sports broadcasters. It will benefit undergraduate students in The Media School with demonstrated interest in a career in sports broadcasting and demonstrated financial need.
Gifts to the Bob Jenkins Memorial Scholarship can be donated online.