The North Carolina High School Athletic Association, along with Time Warner Cable News, is mourning the loss of Raleigh sports director Jim Connors.

     According to the Time Warner Cable News web site, Connors passed away Saturday after a short and sudden illness at the age of 51.

     Connors was the co-host of Sports Night on Time Warner Cable News and served on the television crew for a number of NCHSAA state championship events, including as a sideline reporter for both football and basketball finals. He was among those honored by the NCHSAA with the state Media Representative of the Year award when News 14 Carolina Sports was recognized in 2008.

     Time Warner reports the following biography:

    “As a seasoned sportscaster, he has anchored sportscasts in Winston-Salem and New Bern as well as Bluefield, West Virginia, and Billings, Montana, before joining Time Warner Cable News in 2002.  He was part of the team who helped us launch News 14 Carolina.

    “His accomplishments range from anchoring our coverage of Final Fours and U.S. Opens to reporting from the sidelines of the state high school football and basketball championships.

    “Accomplishments and accolades aside, Jim had a great sense of humor and was known as a bit of a prankster around the newsroom. A couple of his coworkers were on the receiving end of one particular prank after Jim's Philadelphia Eagles played the Dallas Cowboys. Jim decorated Senior Media Editor Eric Jackson and News Anchor Anthony Austin’s desks accordingly (see: photo gallery). 

     "We remember Jim Connors as a skilled and talented Sports Director, but also as a friend.”  

      Funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time.  Jim leaves behind his wife and two teenage daughters.