Benny Brown (''Benjamin Gene Brown;'' born September 27, 1953

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

– February 1, 1996

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, ...

) was an

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

gold-medal winner in the 1976 4x400 Men's Relay running the second leg. He teamed with

Herman Frazier Herman Ronald "Herm" Frazier (born October 29, 1954) is a retired American sprinter. He won gold medals in the relay at the 1976 Olympics and 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games. Individually he earned a bronze medal in the 400 m event at the 1976 ...

, Fred Newhouse and

Maxie Parks Maxwell Lander ("Maxie") Parks (born July 9, 1951) is an American former Athletics (sport), athlete from Fresno, California. Winner of the United States Olympic Trials (track and field), USA Olympic Trials in 1976, he did not gain a medal i ...

. Previously he had finished in 6th place at 440 yards in a very tight finish at the 1971

CIF California State Meet The CIF California State Meet is the annual championship track and field meet for the California Interscholastic Federation. The meet was started in 1915 for boys and 1974 for girls. Every athlete in every high school in California has a direc ...

while running for the now closed

Sunnyvale High School (California) Sunnyvale High School was the second public high school in the city of Sunnyvale, California. Opened in January 1956 as part of the Fremont Union High School District, it was closed in 1981. In a nod to the nearby NAS Moffett Field, SHS adopted t ...

. Next he attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, winning the 1975

NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship The NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship refers to one of three annual collegiate outdoor track and field competitions for men organised by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for athletes from institutions that make up ...

at 440 yards, before finishing fourth in the United States Olympic Trials (track and field) which qualified him to run on the relay team. In 1979 Brown competed for the Athletes In Action under coach

winning the Meet of Champions. June 1992 Benny Brown at age 38, competed in the

Masters So Cal Track and Field Championship The first Masters Southern California Track and Field Championships was held on June 1, 1974, at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton. Masters class Track and Field had officially started in 1968 in nearby San Diego. Since its first annual mee ...

winning the M35 100 & 200 meter dash. He died in an automobile accident at the age of 42. He had continued to be an active participant in the U. S. Corporate Games while working for

Hughes Aircraft Company The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other produ ...

. He was a part-time coach for

Cal State Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

's track team.

References

External links

Ben Brown Invitational 1990s to Present

Ben Brown Invitational Meet Records as of end of 2015

Daily Bruin, Community mourns loss of former UCLA track star

1953 births 1996 deaths American male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field UCLA Bruins men's track and field athletes Sportspeople from Sunnyvale, California American masters athletes Track and field athletes from San Francisco Road incident deaths in California Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics {{US-athletics-Olympic-medalist-stub