Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 4, 1993 TAG: 9311040023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
A retired Sgt. 1st Class and veteran of six months in Vietnam who now teaches ROTC at John Marshall High School in Richmond, Brown has seen futures made and futures lost. He wanted his son, Ken, in the former category, and went about it gruffly. "I felt I had to be," he said.
"Dominating," Ken called it. "He always told me I'd understand later."
"Later" is now. Ken, a 22-year-old Virginia Tech linebacker, and his Dad grow closer as the days pass.
"Before, it was basically a parent's love and a son's love," Joseph Brown said. "It's developed into a case where we can talk about anything, more like friends. I'm not just his father. I'm his friend. I didn't see it [coming], but that's what I always wanted. He's a grown man now. He still listens to me. It makes me feel good."
Ken has a whole list of feel-good stuff. Virginia Tech is winning and nationally ranked. Brown, having switched from outside to inside linebacker, leads the team in tackles (83) and has 10 or more total tackles in five of Tech's past six games. He has a chance for postseason All-Big East Conference honors.
Nice, all of it, but it's only the cover story. The pages inside are thick with the respect between a man whose body once stopped North Vietnamese bullets and his son, whose body stops opposing ballcarriers and whose mind still is amazed that his father was "living every day with somebody out there trying to kill you."
Ken still thinks of his Dad every time he sees a war movie, and said his father "extrapolated points of life from the war and tried to apply it to me." He was fascinated by his father's past - Joseph served in the U.S. Army Airborne and Special Forces unit - but said his Dad wouldn't talk much about his experiences until Ken got older.
The elder Brown suffered nerve damage to an arm during a clash with North Vietnamese soldiers in December 1967. He returned to the U.S. the following month but spent the next 11 months stuck in a hospital, rehabilitating.
"At the time, he didn't need to know it," Joseph Brown said of Ken's curiosity about his war stories. "[And] he was basically at an age where he wouldn't have understood it. Later on I could use my experience . . . to help guide him."
Joseph's tough lessons included warnings about peer pressure, drugs and the like. He remembered when chewing gum in class was offensive; now, some schools have to frisk their students for weapons.
The examples set by both of the Browns - Ken's mother, Joy, is principal at Swift Creek Middle School in Midlothian - influenced Ken and his 31-year-old brother, Kevin. Ken, for instance, has one of the best vocabularies among Tech players, routinely tossing out words like "plethora" and "vernacular" to interviewers.
That, he said, comes from his Mom who sometimes "overwhelms me with words." To this day, Brown said, whenever someone in class uses a word he doesn't know, he writes it down and looks it up later.
No wonder his folks can't complain.
"He never really rebelled against it," Joseph said of his stern upbringing. "We kept him on the right path, and he's basically done the right thing. We've never had a bit of trouble out of either one of them."
The reward is in the relationship.
"I think he sees me maturing as a man," Ken said. "Maybe it's the way he's just coming across now. Maybe he sees I'm growing into a man. He expresses his points in a more subtle way. He always respected me."
Joseph Brown's military background and disciplinary teachings impressed his son, but that didn't mean it was natural for Ken to spend a postgraduate year at Fork Union Military Academy.
Brown said he did it for one reason: To get a Division I football scholarship. Although he had passed NCAA requirements for standardized test scores, his grade-point average fell short of NCAA minimums.
So he went to Fork Union, and the experience left him split down the middle: Sometimes it was good, sometimes undergraduates who were higher ranked bossed you around, and never were there ladies to be courted.
"I went there and gained a little more discipline, academics, it prepared me for college football," he said. "You only say it after you leave. If I had to do it again - and this may be a terrible thing for me to say - I don't know if I could do it again. It's like a year of my life missing. It was like a prison for me."
He was released with an invitation from Tech to pillage opponents' offenses but couldn't hack it right away; he left Tech before his freshman season began and went home. Joseph said he thinks Ken had Fork Union burnout.
But Brown returned the next spring, and had 54 tackles and three sacks as a freshman outside linebacker, making the Football News' freshman All-America second team. Then he had 82 tackles and five sacks and was a Football News second-team sophomore All-America.
When Tech switched to the 4-3 defense he moved inside. Tech receivers coach Terry Strock, who coached on defense last year, said that's a natural position for the 6-foot-2, 232-pounder. Linebackers coach Bud Foster said Brown's knowledge of defensive schemes helped the transition.
Brown said he's not playing as well as he did last year because his "big plays" are down; outside linebacker, he said, was the "glory position" on the wide-tackle six. Foster amends Brown's analysis.
"He's a disruptor," Foster said.
Not necessarily to Tech's lineup when the Hokies defend passing situations. Often, Brown gets coverage on a tight end in what amounts to Tech's "nickel" package.
"His abilities as an athlete allow us to be able to do that without having to substitute," Foster said.
That means Brown is on the field almost every play. For a reason that might have his roots in his father's life and lessons, he seems to have the discipline not only to endure it, but to perform.
"It feels good finally to go through spring ball, spring weightlifting, running, summer and fall camp and work hard [and be winning]," Brown said. "My body's about to fall apart right now. So be it."
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB