Neal Brendel

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Neal R. Brendel (September 12, 1954 – August 25, 2021) was an American rugby player and lawyer. He played prop for the Pittsburgh Rugby Club from 1980 to 1990 and earned six caps for the United States between 1983 and 1987, including the 1987 Rugby World Cup. His first test was against Australia in Sydney in 1983, and his last came against England at the 1987 World Cup in Sydney. Brendel later served on the USA Rugby Board and was chairman from 2002 to 2005, the first former national team player to lead the federation. He received the Craig Sweeney Award in 2017 for his service to rugby. He was an early inductee of the Virginia Rugby Hall of Fame and served as its Honorary Chairman, and he was a Governor of the US Rugby Foundation. A Yale athlete, Brendel was an All American wrestler and won Yale’s Mallory Award in 1976 for sportsmanship. In 2009 he helped open his law firm’s Dubai office, splitting his time between Dubai and Pittsburgh. He died in 2021 in Pittsburgh at age 66 from mesothelioma.