Rich Brenner, who was a sports reporter and anchor in the Triangle area for WRAL and WTVD in the late 1970s and 1980s, has died of a heart attack at the age of 65.
After his time in the Triangle, Brenner moved to Greensboro to be sports director for WGHP, a position he held for more than two decades. Brenner died at the American Red Cross “Salute to Heroes” event in Greensboro Monday night.
Brenner was known for his enthusiasm, his use of filmed highlights and his love of NASCAR. We attended several of the same events over the years and I found him to be very similar to the way he was on camera, which was, again, enthusiastic and fun loving. It’s ironic that on Monday I just watched an old video from the late 1980s of him covering the Diet Pepsi Tournament of Champions basketball event in Charlotte for Raycom. I thought how nice it was to be transported back to a time with a young Rich Brenner interviewing sports figures. And I wondered how he was doing.
“Rich stood out because he was always so professional,” said Dane Huffman, who worked in sports at the Raleigh News & Observer and WRAL and now works for NBC17. “When I worked at WRAL, people there still talked about points he had made and what he had taught them, even though it was decades since he had worked there.”
Huffman, who started CapitalSportsNC.com said that Brenner cared about sports but most of all he cared about strong journalism. “He loved seeing young people enter the field and had a real enthusiasm for sharing what he knew,” he said. “He had a gift for making those people around him better, and the viewers benefited in ways that went far beyond what they saw on camera.”
Rich Brenner died at the age of 65 leaving behind a wife, a son, a daughter and two grandchildren. I only learned after his death that he served in the Marines. Thank you for your service to your country, your community and the sports world. You will be missed.