SUNY Cortland Athletics

In 30 years of coaching scholastic sports, George A. Brown had a .657 winning percentage. His greatest success was in football where his teams won 121 and lost 32 for a .791 percentage. He has coached 32 championship teams. But his professional career and personal interests go far beyond his love for coaching.

Brown was district principal at Lyme Central School in Chaumont, N.Y., for eight years before retiring in 1972. From 1947 until 1964 he was director of physical education at Alexandria Central School where he coached football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey. After his retirement, Brown spent three years at State University College at Cortland supervising the opening of the College’s new ice arena and organizing the College’s first men’s ice hockey team. Club hockey was started in 1974-75 (the year’s won-lost record was 22-2) and Cortland, by the next season, had improved “to a point where club teams would not schedule us…we were forced to go to varsity,” Brown recalls.

As a Cortland undergraduate, Brown “played a pretty good third base” as a 120 pound infielder who also played football, basketball and soccer. “Because of my experience at Cortland,” Brown says, “ I realized that desire, drive and love of the game are more potent qualities than pure size. Every little fellow on campus got a chance to prove himself and it paid off.”

In addition to his teaching and coaching responsibilities and his participation in numerous professional organizations, Brown has been deeply involved in community organizations. His activities have ranged from serving as chairman of the Alexandria Bay Hospital Fund Drive in 1952 to serving eight years as director of Alexandria Bay’s Youth Program. He has commanded the Alexandria Bay and Jefferson County American Legion organizations and since 1953 has served either as chairman or as co-chairman of the Legion’s International Good Will Day.

UPDATE: Brown received a SUNY Cortland Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1980. He passed away in 1990.