Ohio's Golf Magazine May 2009 : Page 7

OSU Coach Brown Retiring after Hall of Fame Career For the past 36 years, Jim Brown has been more than just the Ohio State head men’s golf coach. He has been the head of a family – a very large and successful family. Think the Kennedys of golf. “I don’t think in any way that I would have been able to do what I’ve done without Ohio State or Coach Brown,” says former Ohio State All-American Chris Smith. “Not only did he teach us a lot about golf, but about life and how to treat people.” Brown, who is retiring at the end of this season, has coached an NCAA individual champion (Clark Burroughs in 1985), 18 Big Ten medalists, 92 All-Big Ten selections, 11 first team All-Americans and 40 other All-America honorees since taking the head job at Ohio State in 1973. At least 13 of Brown’s former players have played on the PGA Tour, earning more than $46 million, with many others playing professionally in junior circuits across the globe. Brown’s teams have won Ten a league-record 17 Big Championships, including 12 in a 14-year stretch from 1976-1990, a feat that he thinks will never be duplicated. The 1979 team that featured future PGA Tour players John Cook, Joey Sindelar, Rick Borg and Mark Balen captured Ohio State’s second NCAA championship – the other was in 1945 – and the first for a northern school in two decades. His teams have appeared in 18 NCAA tournaments, with fourth-place NCAA finishes in 1980, 1983, 1987 and 1997. Brown added to the foundation that Coach Robert Kepler and Jack Nicklaus built at Ohio State and made the Ohio State golf program one of the most respected in the nation. He did it by nurturing a family atmosphere, figuratively and literally, both Photo courtesy of OSU continued on page 8 WWW.OHIOSGOLF.COM • MAY 2009 7

OSU Coach Brown Retiring After Hall Of Fame Career

For the past 36 years, Jim Brown has been more than just the Ohio State head men’s golf coach. He has been the head of a family – a very large and successful family. Think the Kennedys of golf. “I don’t think in any way that I would have been able to do what I’ve done without Ohio State or Coach Brown,” says former Ohio State All-American Chris Smith. “Not only did he teach us a lot about golf, but about life and how to treat people.” Brown, who is retiring at the end of this season, has coached an NCAA individual champion (Clark Burroughs in 1985), 18 Big Ten medalists, 92 All-Big Ten selections, 11 first team All-Americans and 40 other All-America honorees since taking the head job at Ohio State in 1973. At least 13 of Brown’s former players have played on the PGA Tour, earning more than $46 million, with many others playing professionally in junior circuits across the globe. Brown’s teams have won a league-record 17 Big Ten Championships, including 12 in a 14-year stretch from 1976-1990, a feat that he thinks will never be duplicated. The 1979 team that featured future PGA Tour players John Cook, Joey Sindelar, Rick Borg and Mark Balen captured Ohio State’s second NCAA championship – the other was in 1945 – and the first for a northern school in two decades. His teams have appeared in 18 NCAA tournaments, with fourth-place NCAA finishes in 1980, 1983, 1987 and 1997. Brown added to the foundation that Coach Robert Kepler and Jack Nicklaus built at Ohio State and made the Ohio State golf program one of the most respected in the nation. He did it by nurturing a family atmosphere, figuratively and literally, both Perry, a three-time All-American at Ohio State, told Ohio’s Golf. “For a number of years, I would go out and play with the new guys to help them out and show them the love for the tradition. He encouraged that. I think a lot of the guys really appreciated that. It meant a lot that my opinion kind of matters.” Brown used his Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf connections to recruit a blonde phenom from California named John Cook, who Brown calls the best player he has coached. Cook, who was born in Toledo but grew up on the West Coast, won the U.S. Amateur after his sophomore season in 1978 and led the Buckeyes to the national championship. Several second-generation buckeyes, most notably Nicklaus’ son Gary (1988-1991), have played for Brown over the years. Sophomore Brad Smith, nephew of Chris Smith, and freshman Jamie Sindelar, son of all-American Joey Sindelar, are on the current Ohio State roster. “I had a really good relationship with Coach Brown growing up,” Jamie Sindelar said. “Dad always talked about how great a coach he is. He really does bring a sense of family to the team. It is not a coincidence that there is a family connection. But guys like Brad (Smith) and I wouldn’t want to come here if there was not a good experience previously.” Brad Smith said that Brown recruited his father, who ended up going to Auburn, before landing his uncle. “Chris always spoke very highly of Coach Brown and his time here,” Brad Smith said. “Coach Brown is extremely knowledgeable about the game. It is more than just the mechanics of the swing. He helps us with getting the ball around the course and scoring as low as possible. Working with Coach Brown, everything is coming together with my game.” As a student at OSU, Brown lettered for three years in golf and basketball and served as captain of the golf team his senior year. He roomed with future British Open Champion Weiskopf, and as a freshman he got to practice against perhaps the best basketball team Ohio State has ever fielded, a squad that featured Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Gary Bradds and Bob Knight and lost to Oscar Robertson’s Cincinnati team in the 1962 NCAA championship game. “We always told people that it was because we scrimmaged against them that we made them that good,” Brown said. “It was a lot of fun being around those guys. They are friends for life.” Brown started his college coaching career in 1967 at Rollins College, and in 1969 he moved to Kent State, where he served as the head golf coach and assistant basketball coach. In 1973 he became the ninth golf coach in Ohio State history. Brown is the winningest active coach in the NCAA, with 159 tournament victories. He earned National Coach of the Year in 1979 and 1986, Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1995, 1996 and 2004, and has been elected to the Ohio State University Athletics and Golf Coaches of America halls of fame. With all of the individual and team accomplishments that Brown and his players have earned over the years, perhaps his most impressive accomplishment is that only four athletes who have exhausted their eligibility at Ohio State have not received their degrees during his tenure. The Buckeyes have received 11 All- America Scholar awards, and 55 Academic All-Big Ten honors and 84 Ohio State Scholar-Athlete nods since the inception of both awards in 1987. “Well, I stay on them,” Brown said. “I worked as hard on that as I did working on their golf game. That is the promise I Made their parents when they came here, that they would work hard and get their degree and get a good education.” Brown and his wife, Tina, have been married for 13 years and have five children and 13 grandchildren between them. Tina has three children, and Brown has two, Julie, an OSU graduate, and Jeff, a former member of the Ohio State golf team and an OSU graduate. Brown’s first wife, Judy, passed away in 1991 after a battle with Leukemia. Brown plans to spend time with his grandchildren and golfing with Tina, and avid player. He also hopes to serve as a volunteer assistant coach at least until his recruits graduate. That decision will be up to the new coach, who will be named after the search to find his successor begins in June. Before he starts making tee times, Brown and his Buckeyes have some business to attend to. They received a bid to play in the NCAA regionals May 14-16 at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky. A strong finish in the regionals would bring Brown back to Ohio one final time, for the NCAA National Championship May 26-30 at the Inverness Club in Toledo. Brown thinks coaching for the last time in Toledo would be an excellent way to end a career that has been spent mostly in Ohio. “Oh yeah, it would be great to make it to Toledo,” Brown said. “Just like Michigan State in Detroit (for the NCAA basketball finals). It would be good for the team, good for the state and a good way to go out.”

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