Warren Brown
Warren William Brown, born on January 3, 1894, in Somersville, California, was a prominent American sportswriter known for his influential career spanning several decades. After relocating to San Francisco due to economic challenges, he excelled in academics and athletics, even playing semiprofessional baseball. Following his service in World War I, he transitioned into journalism, eventually becoming the sports editor for the San Francisco Call-Post. Brown's career took a significant turn when he moved to New York City and then to Chicago, where he established himself as a leading sports columnist with his popular column "So They Tell Me."
His writing style was characterized by clarity and humor, earning him a reputation for incisive commentary on collegiate football and professional sports. Notably, he coined the nickname "The Galloping Ghost" for football star Red Grange. Brown's contributions to sports journalism were recognized with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the prestigious J. G. Taylor Spink Award in 1974. He passed away on November 19, 1978, leaving behind a legacy marked by sharp wit and a passion for sports. Brown's work resonated with both sports enthusiasts and the general public, reflecting the vibrant culture of American sports throughout his lifetime.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Warren Brown
Writer
- Born: January 3, 1894
- Birthplace: Somersville, California
- Died: November 19, 1978
- Place of death: Forest Park, Illinois
Biography
Warren William Brown was born on January 3, 1894, in the remote coal mining town of Somersville, California, where his family struggled to maintain a general store. After deadly spring floods all but closed the mining operations at the end of the nineteenth century, the Browns relocated to San Francisco. Brown excelled at both school and athletics, although his education was briefly interrupted by the devastating 1906 earthquake. A gifted hitter, Brown played semiprofessional baseball in the Pacific Coast League from 1913 to 1915, completing his education in Latin at St. Ignatius College (now the University of San Francisco) in the off-season.
After a stint in the Coast Artillery Corps during World War I, Brown accepted a position at the San Francisco Call-Post, where his background in sports quickly made him the sports editor. For the next several years, Brown covered not only San Francisco Bay area sports but also politics, theater, and crime, honing a signature writing style that valued clarity and accessibility rather than the often purple prose that had characterized his earliest sportswriting.
Restless in what he perceived as small-market obscurity, Brown moved to New York City in 1922 to become sports editor for the New York Evening Mail, although his tenure there was tumultuous and brief. In 1923, he took a job at the Chicago Herald and Examiner and began what would become a fifty-year association with the Windy City. In November, 1923, his sports column, “So They Tell Me,” debuted; staggeringly successful, written in a breezy, often anecdotal style that delivered pithy, often brutal one-liners with devastating wit, the column in its heyday ran six days a week and became a staple of Chicago journalism for half a century.
Brown became most closely associated with collegiate football; he particularly loved the games at Notre Dame University, with its legendary coach Knute Rockne. Brown is widely credited with dubbing Red Grange, a star football player at the University of Illinois who later played for the Chicago Bears, “The Galloping Ghost.” His writing gained him wide fame; his knowledge of sports was encyclopedic, his writing unadorned, and his assessments of athletes and their coaches always provocative. Brown’s rapier wit, deadpan delivery, and gift for impeccable timing made him a sought-after banquet speaker and eventually a radio personality. He covered the wide range of Chicago sports, including the often abysmal Cubs baseball team, and the national sports scene with vigor and enthusiasm.
In August, 1974, at the age eighty, Brown was inducted into the sportswriters’ wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. That same year he received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award, the lifetime achievement award presented annually by the Baseball Writers’ Association. When he died in his sleep on November 19, 1978, in Forest Park, Illinois, Brown was remembered for his cutting wit, career longevity, prodigious output, and well-crafted prose that captured the energy and spirit of the competitions he loved.