Chadwick Curtis "Chad" Brown Jr. (September 9, 1947 – September 9, 2016) was a
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL)
official
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...
who officiated from
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...
through
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...
. Brown served as an umpire and officiated in two
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the gam ...
s (
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...
and
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...
) and served as an alternate (standby) official for
Super Bowl XXXIII
Super Bowl XXXIII was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos (who were also defending their Super Bowl XXXII championship) and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Atlan ...
in 1999. He wore uniform number 31.
Career
Prior to his career as an NFL game official, Brown officiated football in the Big West Athletic Conference. He played college football at East Texas State, now Texas A&M University–Commerce. As a sophomore offensive and defensive tackle in 1966, A&M Commerce won its very first Lone Star Conference football championship. Brown was a NAIA All-American, an All-Lone Star Conference offensive lineman in 1967 and '68 and a Kodak All-American in 1968, becoming the first African-American to reach All-American status for the college. His athletic accomplishments earned him a 1993 induction into the East Texas State (ETSU) Athletic Hall of Fame. Brown then was on the preseason rosters in the NFL for the
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
, the
Houston Oilers
The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...
, and the
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...
.
Outside of the NFL, Brown was employed at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus since 1988, and celebrated his retirement in 2011. At UCLA, he served in several sports management capacities in the Department of Cultural and Recreational Affairs and as an executive officer to the vice chancellor of student affairs.
In December 2012, Brown was inducted into the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame, joining other NFL inductees,
Tim Brown,
Charles Haley
Charles Lewis Haley (born January 6, 1964) is a former American football outside linebacker and defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers (1986–1991, 1999) and the Dallas Cowboys (1992–1996). ...
and
Gene Upshaw
Eugene Thurman Upshaw Jr. (August 15, 1945 – August 20, 2008), also known as "Uptown Gene" and "Highway 63", was an American professional football player for the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League (AFL) and later the National Foot ...
(posthumous). Brown, along with eleven other inductees in various sports, was recognized for exemplary performance in sportmanship, citizenship, and contributions to the history of sports as a Texas-born, African-American athlete.
Retirement and death
He retired midway through the
2014 season, after being absent with an undisclosed illness.
Chad Brown died after a lengthy illness on September 9, 2016, his 69th birthday.
Umpire Barry Anderson switched his uniform number to 31 after Brown's death. Officials wore a memorial patch with the number 31 on their caps.
Books
*''Inside the Meat Grinder: An NFL Official's Life in the Trenches''
References
External links
Chad Brown Biography - Excel Sports Officiating
1947 births
2016 deaths
National Football League officials
Texas A&M–Commerce Lions football players
People from Carson, California
African-American sports officials
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American people
{{amfootbio-stub