Boulder – Sometimes it’s what one doesn’t do that makes the biggest impression.
That’s what happened in 1995 when new Colorado football coach Dan Hawkins met Greg Brown. Hawkins was a third-year coach at Willamette, a small private college in Oregon. Hawkins and an assistant visited the San Diego Chargers’ training camp to pick up some pointers, as did coaches from Southern Cal and other big-time programs.
Brown coached the Chargers’ secondary. He treated the guys from Willamette the same as the other coaches. He didn’t play favorites.
“At some places, if you walk in with a USC shirt on, you get a little more attention than somebody wearing a Willamette shirt, if you know what I mean,” Hawkins said. “But Coach Brown was flat-out awesome with us. That impressed me.”
Then Hawkins watched Brown at work.
“He did a great job of really teaching and coaching guys,” Hawkins said. “He wasn’t somebody that just stood back there and made plays. There was a good karma going on, a good synergistic level there. I thought he had a great rapport with his players.”
Hawkins hired Brown, 48, in January to coach the Buffaloes’ secondary. It’s a homecoming for Brown, who coached at CU for three years (1991-93) under Bill McCartney. A former Arvada High School and Texas-El Paso defensive back, Brown spent 15 years as an NFL assistant. It should come as no surprise that Brown developed into a savvy communicator. The son of KKFN radio personality Irv Brown, Greg no doubt had to learn to speak up at the dinner table or be left out of the conversation. Greg also gained an appreciation for coaching while growing up. His father served as a CU assistant football coach in 1972 and later as the Buffs’ baseball coach.
“I didn’t have to look outside the house for a hero,” Greg said.
Then he was a basketball referee. That lasted one year.
“I was terrible,” Greg said with a chuckle. “I’m sure there are some high school coaches out there that would still like to throw a chair at me.”
Greg found his niche in coaching after beginning as a graduate assistant at his alma mater under UTEP coach Bill Michael in 1981. He coached defensive backs at Green Mountain High School in 1982, then was hired the following year by the Denver Gold of the USFL.
His other NFL stops included Tampa Bay, Tennessee, San Francisco, Atlanta and most recently New Orleans, which had its franchise upended last fall after Hurricane Katrina. Everything in the bottom floor of the Brown home in Metairie, La., was destroyed by the hurricane.
The family was uprooted. Brown relocated to San Antonio with the team, and his wife, Stacie, took their two children to live with her family in Tennessee.
When Saints coach Jim Haslett was fired after the season, Brown contacted Hawkins.
“This was the right place at the right time,” Brown said after a recent CU spring practice. “I knew Coach Hawk a little bit, and he’s got ‘winner’ written all over him. I would be coming back to CU, where I had so many memories. Having the chance for us to be back around my parents, and have our kids to be around their grandparents, it made sense. At age 5 (Hannah) and 3 (Gracie), they’re the right age.
“It seemed like everything was lined up to just do it.”
Hawkins was stunned when Brown called.
“I told Greg it would be unbelievable if we could get a guy like him,” Hawkins said. “I tell people I feel like I got a first-round draft choice for free-agent money.”
Said sophomore cornerback Gardner McKay: “Coming from the NFL, he’s teaching you things for the next level.”
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-820-5456 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
