Rhonda Glenn (May 6, 1946 – February 12, 2015) was an American sportscaster, author and a manager of communications for the USGA beginning in 1996 until her retirement in May 2013. The next year, she won the Golf Writers Association of America's William D. Richardson Award.

Early years

Glenn began playing golf at age six, and won the Florida High School Athletic Association golf title twice. As an amateur golfer, she played in five U.S. Women's Amateur Championships and two U.S. Women's Open. Glenn won the Florida East Coast Golf Tournament in 1965.

Career

Early in her broadcast career, Glenn was a talk show host and presented the weather and news at

WAVY-TV WAVY-TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Virginia Beach–licensed Fox affiliate WVBT (chann ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

/Norfolk/Newport News in the 1970s. She was so popular at WAVY that the city of Portsmouth renamed the street where the station was located in her honor. She was the first full-time national TV network female sportscaster when she began broadcasting at

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

on February 6, 1981. Glenn was a golf commentator for

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

from 1978 to 1994. She was also a correspondent for '' Golf World'' Magazine and a regular contributor to ''

Golf Journal Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

''. She is the author or co-author of several books on golf, including ''The Illustrated History of Women's Golf'' (1992 winner of the USGA International Book Award), ''Golf for Women'', ''The Beginner's Guide to Great Golf for Women'', ''The Rules of Golf Simplified'', ''The Junior Golf Book'' and ''Breaking the Mold: The Journey of the Only Woman President of the United States Golf Association''.

Death

Glenn lived in Roanoke, Texas. She died of cancer on February 12, 2015, in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

, aged 68.

References

External links

Amazon.com: Books by Rhonda Glenn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glenn, Rhonda 1946 births 2015 deaths American sports announcers Golf writers and broadcasters People from Palm Beach, Florida Deaths from cancer in Florida Women sports announcers People from Roanoke, Texas Golfers from Florida Sportspeople from Palm Beach, Florida