Indiana University Athletics
Family Resemblance Drives Brown in 2006
8/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 10, 2006
Greg Brown has a hero.
Like most kids, he grew up idolizing a professional athlete, in his case an African-American who broke through the barriers of a sport that to that point only had Caucasians lifting its trophies. A man of great courage and a strong will.
But Brown didn't see his hero in sports highlights. He didn't go out in search of his hero's sports cards. When he wanted to see his hero, he went down the hall.
"With him telling me all the things that he went through," Brown said, "with the segregation and the civil rights movement, being in the heart of where things were in Mississippi, where all of the main things went down, just how he conducted himself and how he is as a person, how he carries himself. I try to model everything after my grandpa because he's everything to me. I do everything he does. He always tells me to stay humble, to be polite and to help everybody."
When his grandfather, Pete Brown, won the Waco Turner Open in 1964, he became the first African-American to win an event on the PGA Tour. Pete Brown went on to play 17 years on the Tour, and in his time he encountered a tremendous amount of racism throughout the heart of Jim Crow country, dealing with bigotry left and right.
The strength that Pete Brown showed in his career as a professional athlete lives on in his grandson, as Greg starts his second year starting on the Indiana defensive line.
As a freshman last season, Brown made four starts and played all 11 games for the Hoosiers as a defensive tackle, making 17 tackles, four for loss, and recording two sacks on the season. After three days of practice, everything is status quo for the sophomore so far.
"Everything's going well right now," Brown said. "We're in pads trying to get acclimated to football. It's more assignment stuff right now, just working on where we need to be because we can't do full contact yet.
"The first two days without the pads are to get used to being out here and flying around," he continued. "Once you get into the pads, it only takes one or two plays for me personally to get used to the actual contact. When you've played the game for a long time, you get adapted to it pretty quick once you get that first start with pads."
The play of the defensive line will be crucial to the Hoosiers' growth this season, and Brown is a key piece of that. Despite being just a sophomore, the 6-2, 303-pounder is taking on a leadership role in helping his corps improve in 2006.
"I think it's a growing thing," he said. "I'm gradually becoming that guy that everyone wants me to be. A lot of my teammates have faith in me now, so I consider myself a leader on the defensive line because I feel like I have to be the one to help this defense. It's a team effort, but at the same time I feel like if I can do my part the best I can, that's all I can do."
Brown spent his summer in the weight room and working with the training staff to improve his game. Most of that time was spent working on Brown's legs, improving his speed and his agility from last year.
"Mark Wateska and the training staff have got me faster than I've ever been," Brown said. "The staff has really pushed me so hard this summer, and I thank them so much for that. I'm a whole different player than I've ever been. They emphasized that if I worked hard every day at it I'll get where I need to be, and right now it's paying off."
But it isn't just extrinsic motivation that drove Brown to improve his quickness from 2005.
"I've always wanted to be the guy that was big but could move pretty fast," Brown said. "I always had friends smaller than me, so I always wanted to be able to keep up with them. I think that's what's made me faster than your average big guy, because I always wanted to be faster than the little guy."
The Centerville, Ohio, native did not limit his offseason work ethic to the field of play. Over the summer, Brown worked for a landscaping company during the week and for a moving company on the weekend.
"It was pretty tough," Brown said. "I had to go to workouts, then go to work, and then we had to work out later on that day. I had to be right back here at 4:00 to run. It was mentally tough, but it helps me through these times - when I'm tired, I think, `If I can do two jobs, go to school and make all the practices, I know I can get through this one play.' It makes it so much easier. It helps my time management too."
So while he goes through the rigors of preseason practices, Brown has plenty to motivate himself to keep working every minute. When he feels like he's wearing down in the second hour of a practice in 90-degree heat, he knows he can make it through the tough times.
After all, it's what his grandfather taught him.
"That's my guy," Brown said. "Most people have guys like Michael Jordan as a role model, everybody looks up to those guys. But to have a guy that I could look up to that sleeps 20 feet away from me, that's a blessing."
