Brian Brown (born January 9, 1967) is an American male former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who competed in the high jump. His career best was , set in 1990. He was the national champion at the

USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Oly ...

in 1989 and won the NCAA Indoor Division I title in 1990. He competed for the United States three times at world level, at the 1989 IAAF World Cup,

1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 6th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France from March 7 to March 9, 1997. It was the first athletic championships to introduce women's pole vault. There were a total numb ...

and

1999 World Championships in Athletics The 7th World Championships in Athletics, a World Athletic Championships event held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Estadio Olímpico, Seville, Spain, between the August 20 and Augu ...

. Brown was a bronze medalist at the

1998 Goodwill Games The 1998 Goodwill Games was the fourth edition of the international sports competition the Goodwill Games, which were created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. The competition was held i ...

. After his retirement from the sport he turned to coaching and organization, working at

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. His ...

and the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

, alongside his wife Natasha Kaiser-Brown.

Career

Born in

New Iberia, Louisiana New Iberia (french: La Nouvelle-Ibérie; es, Nueva Iberia) is the largest city in and parish seat of Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, and forms part of the La ...

, Brown attended

New Iberia Senior High School New Iberia Senior High School is a senior high school in New Iberia, Louisiana, United States. It is in the Iberia Parish School System. It is located at 1301 E. Admiral Doyle Dr. New Iberia, LA 70560 It serves New Iberia and Avery Island.Louis, ...

and won the high school state championship in the high jump in 1982 and 1983. He went on to study at

Northwestern State University Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSU) is a public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the Univer ...

in his home state and, with a frame standing he was part of the

Northwestern State Demons The Northwestern State University athletic teams go by the Demons, with women's athletic teams generally called the Lady Demons, and its mascot is Vic the Demon. Once a member of the SIAA conference, the school now competes in the Southland Conf ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and track teams. He competed in the high jump at

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

level from 1987 to 1990. He was fifth outdoors in 1987 before taking third at the 1988 NCAA Indoors. He was fifth at the 1989 NCAA Indoors before winning the 1990 NCAA Men's Division I Championship with a career best jump of . He made his international debut in 1989, but failed to record a valid jump at the

Universiade The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and " Olympiad". The Universiade is referred ...

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

.Brian Brown

USA Track and Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...

. Retrieved 2018-02-10. The 1989 season proved to be the peak of Brown's career. He cleared an outdoor personal record of at the 1989 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, beating out

Hollis Conway Hollis Conway (born January 8, 1967) is a track and field high jumper and a two-time Summer Olympics, Olympic medalist. He is currently employed by Lafayette Consolidated Government as the PARC Director in Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory' ...

. He was also chosen to represent his country at the 1989 IAAF World Cup, where he placed sixth. His performances declined after 1990. He managed fifth at the 1992 United States Olympic Trials, but otherwise failed to make the final at the outdoor national championships. A severe injury to the

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and th ...

in his jumping leg in 1993 paused his career, through he underwent surgery which allowed him to compete again. After a two-year break from competition he returned to better form in 1996, ranking as the sixth best jumper in the nation and placing seventh at the 1996 United States Olympic Trials. Brown made two world teams for the United States in 1997. He passed in Notre Dame, Indiana in February and third place at the

USA Indoor Track and Field Championships The USA Indoor Track and Field Championships is an annual indoor track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. In years which feature a World Indoor Championships in ...

earned him selection for the

(he was eliminated in the

qualifying round Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

there). He cleared 2.31 m again outdoors, this time in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

, and was again third place nationally, behind Charles Austin and Randy Jenkins at the 1997 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. His was selected for the

1997 World Championships in Athletics The 6th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, were held at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece between August 1 and August 10, 1997. In this event participated 1882 athletes from 19 ...

as a result, though again he would not progress to the World Championships high jump final. He ranked eleventh in the world on height that year.Brian Brown
Track and Field Statistics. Retrieved 2018-02-10. One more successful year followed. In 1998 he was runner-up at the USA Indoors, then third at the

1998 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The 1998 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships took place between June 17–21 at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. Results Men track events Men field events Women track events Women field events See also *United State ...

, tying with Hollis Conway. He represented the United States at the

and took the sole international medal of his career – a bronze – behind world record holder

Javier Sotomayor Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (; born October 13, 1967) is a Cuban retired track and field athlete, who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder. The 1992 Olympic champion, he was the dominant high jumper of the 1990s; hi ...

and teammate Charles Austin. His best mark of the year was , which he achieved at the

Weltklasse Zürich Weltklasse Zürich ( en, World Class Zurich) is an annual, invitation-only, world-class track and field meeting at the Letzigrund in Zürich, Switzerland, generally held at the end of August or beginning of September. Previously one of the IAAF ...

meet, placed him in the top 25 globally. He tried to continue competing, but after best jumps of the in the 1999 and 2000 seasons, he retired from the sport. He married fellow American track athlete Natasha Kaiser-Brown and the pair worked together as college athletic coach staff at

. Brown was the organiser of the

Drake Relays The Drake Relays (officially the Drake Relays presented by Xtream powered by Mediacom) is an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa, in Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University. Billed as ''America's Athletic Classic'', i ...

meet for eleven years before leaving in 2016 to be assistant athletic director at the

. During his tenure as Drake Relays organiser, he attracted world class level track athletes to compete at the nominally college meet and raised funds through corporate sponsorship with

Hy-Vee Hy-Vee, Inc. () is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States, with more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and soon Indiana, Kentucky, ...

. Brown earned his masters and doctorate at Missouri, and his daughter Elle Brown attends the college and is a member of the basketball team. Drake's Brian, Natasha Brown leave for Missouri
''Des Moines Register'' (2016-08-04). Retrieved 2018-02-10.

International competitions

National titles

**High jump: 1989

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Brian Living people 1967 births People from New Iberia, Louisiana Track and field athletes from Louisiana American male high jumpers World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Northwestern State Demons track and field athletes African-American male track and field athletes American track and field coaches Drake Bulldogs track and field coaches Missouri Tigers athletic directors Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Competitors at the 1998 Goodwill Games 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople