Brown, Roosevelt H., Jr. (“Rosey”)

(b. 20 October 1932 in Charlottesville, Virginia; d. 9 June 2004 in Columbus, New Jersey), professional football player, coach, scout, and Hall of Fame inductee, viewed as the first and one of the greatest “sleeper picks” in the National Football League draft.

Brown was the son of Roosevelt Brown, Sr., a Southern Railroad employee, and Catherine (Tyler) Brown. One of the first players from a historically black college to star in the National Football League (NFL) and the first to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Brown grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, with four siblings. At six years old Brown was promoted from kindergarten to third grade. By the time he was thirteen years old, he weighed 180 pounds and played trombone in the school band. He was noticed by the Jefferson High School football coach and made a part of the gridiron team. Brown’s father was not in favor of his son’s football involvement. His brother had died in a football game, and his father preferred his son to focus on music. As his railroad job kept him out of Charlottesville for long periods, unbeknownst to the elder Brown, his son, with his mother’s approval, played the sport for an entire season without incident. A tremendous interscholastic athletic career led to a football scholarship at Morgan State College in Baltimore.

During his college tenure with the Morgan State Bears, Brown captained the wrestling squad, becoming the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association heavyweight champion. In addition he lettered in baseball, co-captained the football team, and earned his degree. In 1951 and 1952 as a tackle he was named to the Negro All-American Eleven. In the 1951 Negro Grid Classic he played in the Polo Grounds in New York City against Wilberforce University.

In 1953 the NFL Player Selection Draft had thirty rounds, unlike the modern seven-round event. In 1975 Dave Anderson of the New York Times wrote, “At the time, scouting was not even organized, let alone computerized.... Someone in the Giants’ delegation noticed the black All-America selected by the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper.” The football historian Don Smith notes, “So it was that someone—no one today remembers who—in the Giants’ front office... noticed there was a six-foot, three-inch, 255-pound tackle from obscure Morgan State.” Wellington Mara, Giants executive and later owner, said, “We had nothing to lose.” Indeed in the twenty-seventh round, 318th overall pick, Brown became a member of the New York franchise. He signed a contract for $2,700 with no bonus provisions. The Giants sent him a train ticket.

In the summer of 1953 Brown reported to the Giants training camp at Gustavus-Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota. The twenty-year-old entered camp wearing a dark suit, a white shirt-winged collar, a dark fedora, and horn-rimmed glasses. He lugged a suitcase in one hand and in the other a rolled umbrella. As the Hall of Fame Giants player Em Tunnell recalled, “He carried that rolled-up umbrella around with him all weekend. I didn’t know whether he was a football player or not.”

Head Coach Steve Owen may have wondered too and placed the rookie lineman in a drill against the legendary All-Pro defensive tackle Arnie Weinmeister, who himself ended up in the Hall of Fame. Although Weinmeister battered the young man, Brown made it through the drill and the day. Unlike the others, Brown was not afraid of being left off the squad. “I wasn’t scared of being cut simply because I didn’t know I could get cut,” Brown remarked. “I thought once they had signed me that meant I had made the team. I had never seen a pro game, and the 1951 NFL championship game that I heard on radio marked the extent of my pro football knowledge.” The late-round draft selection won the starting offensive right tackle slot and went on to a thirteen-year career with the Giants.

From 1953 to 1965 Brown was renowned as a big, classic blocker who protected the quarterbacks Y. A. Tittle, Charlie Conerly, and Fran Tarkenton, and could open gaping holes for the running backs Frank Gifford and Alex Webster. In addition, with speed and mobility he could make the block downfield. He was also called into the defensive line on goal-line stands. The Hall of Fame player Jim Parker said of Brown, “Rosey never did the same things twice. He was incredible. He was my favorite, my idol. Everything I learned, I picked up from him. I wanted to be just like him.”

In the 1956 NFL Championship against the Chicago Bears, the key to a Giants victory was containment of the Bears defensive left end, Ed Meadows. Brown drew the task and ably protected the New York quarterbacks Don Heinrich and Conerly. The Giants routed Chicago 47–7. Brown earned Lineman of the Game kudos and was named Lineman of the Year by the Associated Press. His play for the 1956 season led to the first of eight straight years of All-NFL honors, and he was voted to play in the first of nine Pro Bowls.

In 1958 Brown again aided New York to the NFL title contest, known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” with the Giants losing to the Baltimore Colts, 23–17 in overtime. During his playing career Brown participated in three more NFL Championship contests in 1961, 1962, and 1963, and the Giants amassed a winning record of 86–35–5. The Sporting News named Brown All-Eastern Conference from 1956 through 1961 and again in 1965.

Brown’s last game was the 1966 Pro Bowl. In blocking Doug Atkins, another Hall of Fame player, Brown hurt his leg; the injury resulted in a case of phlebitis. In August 1966 Brown reluctantly quit the sport as a player but was immediately hired by the Giants as an assistant line coach. In summing up a lineman’s role, Brown said, “When the newspapers say somebody ran fifty yards for a touchdown and they don’t tell who made the blocks, it hurts.... We know we sprung him and everyone on the team knows we made it possible.”

On 11 January 1975 the professional football establishment recognized Brown with election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was only the second offensive lineman to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. On 2 August 1975 at Canton, Ohio, he was inducted along with George Connor, Dante Lavelli, and Lenny Moore.

Brown continued coaching and even did some scouting for the New York Giants until his death from a heart attack in 2004. He is buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Charlottesville.

For information on Brown’s life and career, see Jim Terzian, New York Giants (1973); Edna Rust and Art Rust, Jr., Art Rust’s Illustrated History of the Black Athlete (1985); and David L. Porter, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Sports (1987). See also Don Smith, “Roosevelt Brown,” Coffin Corner 6 (1984). An obituary is in the New York Times (11 June 2004).

John Vorperian