Robert J. Brown (August 23, 1904 – April 29, 1985) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

and university regent. Brown was born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, in 1904. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1923 to 1925. As a senior, he was the captain of the

1925 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1925 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1925 Big Ten Conference football season. The 1925 season was Fielding H. Yost's 24th as the head football coach. Michigan compiled a 7–1 record and ...

that head coach

Fielding H. Yost Fielding Harris Yost (; April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American football player, coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at: Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska, the University ...

called the greatest team he ever coached. The 1925 Wolverines team outscored opponents by a total of 227 to 3. Yost called Brown, "One of the greatest inspirational leaders I have seen." At the end of the 1925 season, he was selected as a first-team All-American by multiple selectors, including

International News Service The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.

, the

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news ...

, ''Liberty'' magazine, ''Athlete & Sportman'' magazine,

Billy Evans William George Evans (February 10, 1884 – January 23, 1956), nicknamed "The Boy Umpire", was an American umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the American League from 1906 to 1927. He became, at age 22, the youngest umpire in majo ...

, Norman E. Brown, and

Sam Willaman Samuel Stienneck Willaman (April 4, 1890 – August 18, 1935) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Iowa State University (1922–1925), Ohio State University (1929–1933), and Western Reserve University (1934 ...

. He was named to the second team by the

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and ''Collier's'' magazine. From 1930, Brown lived in

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

. He was associated with Hapman-Dutton Mfg. Co. of Kalamazoo and U.S. Pressed Steel Products in Ypsilanti and Kalamazoo. He was also chairman of the Kalamazoo County Board of Supervisors. In 1966, he ran as a Republican for the University of Michigan Board of Regents as a Republican and served as a Regent from 1967 to 1974. His son, Robert M. Brown was captain of the

1962 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1962 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1962 Big Ten Conference football season. In its fourth year under head coach Bump Elliott, Michigan compiled a 2–7 re ...

, giving them the distinction of being the only father and son football players for the University of Michigan who both served as team captains. Brown died in 1985 in

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Robert J. 1904 births 1985 deaths American football centers Michigan Wolverines football players Michigan Wolverines football coaches Regents of the University of Michigan Players of American football from Toledo, Ohio 20th-century American academics