William Tennant Brown (August 3, 1918 – December 29, 2002) was an American

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

er,

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

er and sprinter. Between 1936 and 1943 he won six national outdoor championship titles in the triple jump and three in the long jump. He was the long jump world leader in 1941 and held the American record in the triple jump from 1941 to 1956. He competed in the triple jump at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

, placing 17th.

Early life

Brown was born in

Baker, Louisiana Baker is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, in East Baton Rouge Parish. It is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area, and had a population of 12,455 at the 2020 census, down from 13,895 at the 2010 U.S. census. History Baker ...

on August 3, 1918. He studied at Baker High School and led the school's track and field team; additionally, he was a good scholastic

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He set long-standing Louisiana state high school records in both the long jump (then known as the ''broad jump'') and the triple jump (then ''hop, step and jump''); his triple jump mark was a national high school record. Brown won his first national ( AAU) senior championship title in the triple jump as a high school junior in 1936; he jumped 49 ft 2 in (14.98 m), defeating both defending champion Rolland Romero and 1934 champion Dudley Wilkins. He also won the AAU junior championship that year. At the 1936 United States Olympic Trials, held separately a week after the AAU meet, Brown placed third behind Romero and Wilkins with a jump of 49 ft 1 in (14.96 m); the top three qualified for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. The 17-year-old Brown was the youngest athlete on the men's Olympic track squad. In Berlin he was not at his best and placed 17th, reaching 14.36 m (47 ft in) on his best attempt.

Collegiate career

Brown repeated as AAU triple jump champion in 1937, jumping 49 ft in (15.11 m). After graduating from high school he went to

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

(LSU), where he was coached by

Bernie Moore Bernie Hawthorne Moore (April 30, 1895 – November 6, 1967) was an American college football, basketball, track and field coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Mercer University (1926–1928) and Louisi ...

; Moore's coaching emphasized the sprints and the long jump rather than the triple jump, which before 1959 was not contested at the NCAA championship meet in non-Olympic years. Brown lost the AAU triple jump title in 1938, when he placed third. During his collegiate career Brown set LSU school records in the long jump, the triple jump, the

100-yard dash 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

and the 220-yard dash. In April 1939 Brown set his personal long jump best (25 ft in / 7.74 m) in a triangular meet against

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, but was then sidelined by injuries. He recovered to place second with 24 ft in (7.53 m) at the 1939 NCAA championships. At the 1940 NCAA meet Brown was again second in the long jump (behind

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

), also second in the 220 yards, and third in the 100 yards; he was the top scorer of the meet. Brown regained the AAU triple jump title in 1940, jumping 50 ft in (15.30 m) for a then personal best; he also won his first AAU long jump title that year. Brown won his only NCAA title in 1941, winning the long jump with a jump of 24 ft in (7.50 m); in addition, he was second in the 100 yards and third in the 220 yards, and was the leading scorer of the meet for the second consecutive year. At the 1941 AAU championships he repeated as triple jump champion with 50 ft in (15.53 m); the jump was his lifetime best, and broke

Dan Ahearn Dan Ahearn (né ''Daniel William Ahearne;'' April 12, 1888 – December 20, 1942) was an Irish and later American track and field athlete and a member of the Irish American Athletic Club. He competed for the U.S. Olympic team in the 1920 Su ...

's old American record from 1911 by half an inch. He also repeated as AAU long jump champion, just missing his personal best with a leap of 25 ft in (7.73 m). Brown finished 1941 as world leader in the long jump (with his AAU jump) and joint world leader in the 100-yard dash at 9.5; his triple jump mark ranked him third in the world.

Later life

Brown graduated from LSU in 1941 and joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, but continued his track career. He won his last national titles as a Navy athlete; he successfully defended both the long jump and triple jump AAU titles in 1942, and won his final national title in the triple jump in 1943. After receiving his discharge from the Navy Brown had a long business career with Kaiser Aluminum, eventually becoming the company's

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

; he retired in 1983. He died in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

on December 29, 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Billy 1918 births 2002 deaths Baker High School (Louisiana) alumni LSU Tigers track and field athletes American male long jumpers American male triple jumpers American male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Track and field athletes from Louisiana People from Baker, Louisiana Kaiser Aluminum United States Navy personnel of World War II Sportspeople from East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana