Brian Drebber (July 27, 1950 – August 23, 2018) was an American

sports commentator In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

who was employed by the television network Speed before his death in August 2018.

Career

Drebber was born in Guam,

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

. Since 1978, he was a play-by-play, analyst, reporter, writer, and producer, covering eight

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

, Pan American and

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

as well as world championships in 25 different sports including, aerobics,

drag boat racing Drag boat racing is a form of drag racing which takes place on water rather than land. As with land-based drag racing, competitors race their vehicles for the lowest elapsed time (low ET) over a straight race course of a defined length. There are ...

, curling, cycling, and Nordic events, for TNT, ESPN,

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, CBS, and PBS. He last broadcast AMA Superbike Championship, ARCA RE/MAX Series Racing, USAR Hooters Pro Cup, and Bike Week for Speed. Drebber got his start as a broadcaster and sports reporter by providing commentary over the public address system at the Trexlertown Velodrome in the mid-1970s. As a rider there, his nickname was "Dribbles". It was soon discovered that he was a far better announcer than rider and his announcing style quickly became very popular at Trexlertown, because he knew the sport and the riders very well and had a keen sense of humor.

Death

Drebber died on August 23, 2018, in Canton, Georgia, en route to the airport, when his motorcycle struck a deer. He was 68. He was engaged to fiancée Mara Yetter and had a daughter Robin Drebber and Granddaughter Kylie von Drebber as well as sister Donna.

References

1950 births 2018 deaths American reporters and correspondents American sports announcers Curling broadcasters Guamanian journalists Motorsport announcers Olympic Games broadcasters Motorcycle road incident deaths Road incident deaths in Georgia (U.S. state) {{US-tv-bio-stub