Robert "Red" Brown

During an athletic career that spanned nearly 50 years, former athletic director Robert "Red" Brown has just about done it all.

Beginning his career as a three-sport letterman at Elkins High School in 1923, Brown went on to play for Cam Henderson's Davis & Elkins Scarlet Hurricanes from 1926-30. Brown earned all-West Virginia honors as a forward and was also team captain in 1930. Also an excellent tennis player, Brown was selected to the all-time WVIAC tennis team.

For the next 15 years, Brown guided both Tygarts Valley and Elkins High School in football, basketball and track. Winning 73 percent of his games at both schools, Brown won five regional meets in track and had an all-state basketball player every year at Elkins.

Brown next accepted an assistant coaching position in 1945 at WVU under then head coach John Brickels. After spending two seasons as a Mountaineer assistant, Brown went back to Davis & Elkins to become athletic director and head basketball coach. For the next four seasons, Brown's D&E teams went 71-20 including two WVIAC tournament appearances and one NAIB tournament appearance at Kansas City in 1950.

Brown's next stop was one that would last until his retirement in 1972. In 1950, Brown became WVU's 13th head basketball coach and also assumed duties as the tennis coach as well. For the next three seasons, Brown maintained West Virginia's dominance of the Southern Conference winning 72 of 103 games. In 1952 on a team led by Mark Workman, the Mountaineers finished 23-4 and ranked ninth in the final AP poll. For his efforts, Brown was voted the Southern Conference's Coach of the Year.

In 1954 Brown became West Virginia's fourth athletic director. During Brown's tenure as director of athletics, West Virginia enjoyed a great deal of success in athletics. In just his first year as athletic director, Brown hired an up and coming coach in Fred Schaus. For the next six seasons, Schaus guided the Mountaineers to six NCAA tournament berths, a bid for the national championship in 1959 and a 146-37 mark.

Brown, who was a six-year member of the NCAA basketball selection committee, was also an eight-year member of the United States Basketball Committee, including a stint on the committee's board of directors.

His crowning achievement as director of athletics at WVU was his push for a state-of-the-art basketball facility for the Mountaineers to play in. That dream finally came true in 1970 when the beautiful 14,000-seat WVU Coliseum opened its doors. Still marveled at 21 years later, the WVU Coliseum was an architectural wonder of the early 1970s.

Selected to the Helms National Athletic Directors Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Davis & Elkins Hall of Fame in 1974, Brown is a native of Elkins.