Saturday’s Wolfpack home game will be the first one he’s missed in 52 years

As fans file into Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday for the Wolfpack’s regular season finale against UNC-Chapel Hill, many who sit in Section 30 will notice the absence of a man who has always been there over the years to welcome them to the game.

James Allen Brenner, or Jim as most people know him, was a Kentucky Colonel and a member of Mensa, served as a king in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans and had a 25-year career with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that took him around the country.

But thousands of N.C. State fans knew him only as the friendly and dependable usher who helped them find their seats in Section 30 at Carter-Finley, where he never missed a game since the stadium opened 52 years ago. Brenner died peacefully in his sleep last week at age 66.

Brenner began working as an usher when he was 15. He had recently moved to Raleigh from New York state, and a neighbor recruited him to usher at the first game in NCSU’s new football stadium, on Oct. 8, 1966.

Being paid to watch college football appealed to Brenner, even when sparse crowds meant he presided over an empty section in the upper deck, and he kept coming back through his years as a student at Raleigh’s Broughton High School and then at NCSU, where he majored in economics and political science.

But Brenner faced a dilemma when he took his first job in Atlanta. He hadn’t missed a game in six years – six years! – and didn’t want his streak to end. So every Saturday the Wolfpack played at Carter-Finley, Brenner drove home to Raleigh to take up his position in the stands.

Over the years, the drive became a flight home, as his career took him to places such as Chicago and Dallas. But he always managed to make it back in time to help people to their seats.

Jim and his wife, Nancy, whom he met while they both worked at the FDIC, retired in 2000 and moved back to Raleigh to be close to his family. That also put an end to his long-distance commutes to Wolfpack games.

Still, it wasn’t always easy to keep the streak alive. He missed a few weddings and other events, he told the Wolfpack athletics department in 2015. But people understood.

“As long as my health holds up and insofar as that there isn’t a catastrophic event, I plan to continue,” he said then. “Sometimes there are 50 to 100 people each game that remember me and come to talk to me. It is the only place I see them. Win, lose or draw, it’s always a pleasant experience.”

Brenner is survived by his wife and their daughter, Rebecca. His funeral service will take place at Hudson Memorial Presbyterian Church, 4921 Six Forks Road, on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at 2 p.m. Brenner will be buried at a later date next to parents in Waterbury, Conn.

This story was originally published November 24, 2017 at 10:56 AM with the headline "Saturday’s Wolfpack home game will be the first one he’s missed in 52 years."