A familiar voice passed from the Cleveland County sports scene on Saturday. Longtime local broadcaster Dan Greer, 62, died at his home in Shelby.
Greer was known for his 40-plus years of covering local high school games on the radio, as well as Shelby Post 82 American Legion baseball action.
“He was proud of all the local sports teams here,” said Shelby Post 82 coach Mike Grayson. “He was always good to me. Dan would come by about once a week and we’d talk baseball.
“I hated to hear it. His dad was my little league coach way back with the Kiwanis (team) and so I’ve known Dan my whole life.”
Greer, who attended Shelby High and Gardner-Webb, served as a member of the Gardner-Webb radio crew for basketball and football in the late 1970s and early ‘80s with Glenn Wall. Most recently he was on the internet broadcast team for Burns High football.
Greer and longtime radio announcing partner Andy Foster received the 2000 Paris Yelton Award for contributions to local sports at the FCA Hall of Fame banquet.
“You don’t find people who stick with it like that, over 40 years,” Foster said. “He was one of a kind. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner. It’s devastating.”
That radio tag-team act actually met at a game.
“It was one of those games at Lexington that Shelby had in the old Western Association football days,” Foster said. “I was doing the game and Dan was there watching. He asked me if he could ride back to Shelby with me and he did, and we got to know one another.
“The last game we did together was the Crest-Shelby baseball game. I didn’t talk to him last week but he texted me congratulations after Duke won the (basketball) championship and that was my last contact with him.”
Others shared similar feelings about Greer’s broadcasting efforts.
“I really have known Dan a long time and really thought a lot of him,” said Gerald Weathers of Shelby. “He was really concerned making sure he did it the right way and did a good job.”
Grayson added that Greer “was in it for the right reasons. He was in it (sports) for the kids.”
Jeff Champion served as a broadcast partner and traveled to many games with Greer.
“Anybody that interacted with him liked him,” Champion said, “and all the coaches he did those interviews with for years. He was just dedicated to it … he would’ve done the games for nothing. He had such a passion for local sports.
“He was fair … he was not a homer. He honestly tried to be balanced in his coverage. And he was a good stats guy, he was very thorough with those. He took it seriously and took pride in it.”
Credit to the Shelby Star who originally published this story
