Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1467458
J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 2 6 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M seem to notice his coach trying to get his attention. But then, suddenly, came a flash of recognition. Brown heard his name and turned toward the car. He looked at Pa- terno quizzically, perhaps wondering why his coach was now yelling at him outside of practice. Their eyes locked and Paterno gath- ered his breath, somehow summoning even more volume than before. "HEY, BROWN!" he bellowed. "GET A HAIRCUT!" Then he rolled up the window, and off we drove. A Door Opens Gary Brown had some great moments at Penn State, but that encounter at a busy intersection in front of McElwain Hall was what I flashed back to after learning that he had died in April at age 52 after battling cancer the past few years. He was a guy you couldn't help but notice, regardless of what was going on around him. Brown came along at a strange junc- ture in Penn State's football history. The Nittany Lions had played for the national championship four times in the decade prior to his arrival, employing an offense that had turned tailbacks like Curt War- ner and D.J. Dozier into All-Americans and first-round NFL Draft picks. But Penn State's imperial phase had drawn to a close by the late '80s, and the Big Ten era hadn't yet begun. It was an in-between moment, and it yielded some middling results. From 1987 to '92, only one Penn State running back ever topped 1,000 yards. That player was Blair Thomas, who did it twice, gaining 1,414 yards in '87 and 1,341 yards two years later. Thomas sat out the 1988 season while recovering from an ACL tear, and his in- jury opened the door for Brown. In what would turn out to be his most produc- tive year as a Nittany Lion running back, he led the team in rushing with 689 yards while averaging 5.1 yards per carry and scoring six touchdowns. In a 17-10 victory against Maryland that year, he rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. It was definitely not a memorable year for the Nittany Lions as a team, how- ever. Thomas' absence, coupled with a series of injuries at quarterback, led to a 5-6 finish, the first losing season of Paterno's career. The coach conceded later that he felt he had gone too easy on Brown and Thompson in practice. They were tal- ented runners but indifferent blockers, and Paterno had let it slide, concerned that one or both might transfer if the coaches were too tough on them. It was an approach he later came to regret. "That's what loses football games," Paterno wrote in his autobiography, "Paterno by the Book." The Decisive Touchdown Both Brown and Thompson ended up staying for the duration of their careers, and for Brown, at least, the concerns about his blocking prowess later became moot. After leading the team in rushing in 1988, he switched to safety the follow- ing season, a move aimed at helping re- lieve the backfield congestion that fol- lowed Thomas' return to action. It was while playing that position that Brown produced his signature moment at Penn State. In the final minute of a back-and- forth matchup against BYU in the 1989 Holiday Bowl, Brown came blitzing off the edge and swooped in on Cougars quarterback Ty Detmer. He crashed into Detmer just as the future Heisman Trophy winner was bringing his arm forward and somehow emerged from the collision with the ball in his hands. With no one standing between him and the opposite end zone, Brown raced 53 yards for the clinching score in a 50-39 victory. BYU coach LaVell Edwards called it "the screwiest game I've ever been in- volved in, and I've been in my share of them over the years." It was Brown's last game on defense. He returned to the backfield the follow- ing season but carried only 82 times for 359 yards. He finished his career with 1,321 yards, a total that ranks 34th in school history. Those modest numbers might have seemed to foretell the end of Brown's career in organized football. But he went on to enjoy a lengthy stay in the NFL. He rushed for 4,300 yards in eight seasons, mostly with the Houston Oilers, where he backed up Lorenzo White. Brown had a couple of 1,000-yard seasons as a pro, something he'd never done at PSU. In 1993, he totaled 1,002 yards even though he didn't play in the Oilers' first six games and didn't start until Week 9. In 1998, he gained 1,063 yards for the New York Giants. Brown later turned to coaching, working his way up from Lycoming College to Susquehanna to Rutgers and from there back to the NFL, where he served as running backs coach with Cleveland and Dallas. After sitting out the 2020 season following his cancer diagnosis, he returned to the college game last year as an assistant coach at Wisconsin. After his passing, Badgers head coach Paul Chryst said that he, his staff and players "are all better people for hav- ing known Gary. He was a tremendous person, a terrific coach and a joy to be around." A Starring Role There are different types of college stardom. Some players are remembered for their body of work, others go down in history for a single incandescent mo- ment. And then there are those who split the difference. Brown fell into that latter category. He may not have had an All- America career on either offense or de- fense, but he put together a solid statis- tical portfolio and made the biggest play in one of the more entertaining nights in Penn State's long postseason history. BYU's backfield was a chaotic scene in the climactic moment of the Holiday Bowl, with the Cougars' offensive line trying desperately to hold off a fierce Nittany Lion pass rush. Detmer and company seemed poised to emerge from the mayhem with a comeback victory. But as they were soon to find out, Gary Brown was much more than just a face in the crowd. ■