View source for Earlene Brown

{{Short description|American athlete (1935–1983)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| image=Earlene Brown 1960c.jpg
| caption=Earlene Brown at the 1960 Olympics
| birth_date=July 11, 1935
| birth_place=[[Latexo, Texas]], U.S.
| death_date= {{death date and age|1983|5|21|1935|7|11}}
| death_place=[[Compton, California]], U.S.
| height = {{convert|1.75|m|ftin|abbr=on|order=flip}}
| weight = {{convert|114|kg|lb|abbr=on|order=flip}}
| sport=Athletics
| event=Shot put, discus throw
| pb=SP – 16.69 m (1960)<br> DT – 53.91 m (1960)<ref name=sr/>
| club=Spartan Women's Athletic Club<br>Compton Track Club 
| show-medals    = yes
| medaltemplates = 
{{Medal|Country | the {{USA}} }}
{{Medal|Competition|[[Athletics at the Summer Olympics|Olympic Games]]}}
{{Medal|Bronze| [[1960 Summer Olympics|1960 Rome]] | [[Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics|Shot put]]}}
{{Medal|Competition|[[Pan American Games]]}}
{{Medal|Gold| [[1959 Pan American Games|1959 Chicago]] | [[Athletics at the 1959 Pan American Games|Shot put]]}}
{{Medal|Gold| [[1959 Pan American Games|1959 Chicago]] | [[Athletics at the 1959 Pan American Games|Discus throw]]}}
}}

'''Earlene Brown''' (née ''Dennis;'' June 11, 1935 – May 1, 1983) was an American athlete notable for her careers in [[track and field]] and [[roller games]]. She competed at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics in the shot put and discus throw and won a bronze medal in the shot put in 1960; she finished fourth in the discus in 1956.<ref name=sr>{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/br/earlene-brown-1.html |title=Earlene Brown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417174127/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/br/earlene-brown-1.html |archive-date=2020-04-17}}</ref>

==Life==
Brown was born on July 11, 1935, in [[Latexo]], in [[Houston County, Texas]], a town that, according to Isobel Silden, Earlene could "no longer find on the map" by 1973.<ref name="Silden, Isobel 1973 p. 142">Silden, Isobel (1973). Sportswoman (Vol. 1–2), p. 142</ref> Earlene's father was "a 6-footer" and a semipro baseball player in the [[Negro league baseball|Negro leagues]] in Texas.<ref name="ReferenceA">Track and Field News, July 12, 1956</ref><ref name="Commire 1999 p.100">Commire, Anne and Klezmer, Deborah (1999). Women in World History: a biographical encyclopedia, p.100</ref><ref>Ward-Plowden, Martha(1996). Olympic Black Women, p.35</ref> She was an only child. Her parents separated in 1938 and she followed her mother who joined the second [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] of Southern African-Americans to California and moved to Los Angeles.<ref>See: Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California (2001), edited by Lawrence B. de Graaf, Mulroy and Taylor</ref>

Brown began her participation in track and field activities as a member of [[LAPD]] Deputy Auxiliary Police after it was introduced on September 9, 1943, by Mayor [[Fletcher Bowron]]. She competed and excelled in the basketball throw, which led up to the shot put.<ref>Jet, 10 April 1958, p.&nbsp;54</ref> While attending [[Jordan High School (Los Angeles)|Jordan High School]], she was discovered by Adeline Valdez, Josephine Spearman and Clarence Mackey, who tried to get her to turn out for the [[Helsinki Olympics]], but she was then "too busy going to dances".<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Brown joined the [[Amateur Athletic Union]] (AAU) at 21 in 1956, by which time she was already married to Henry Brown, a bricklayer, and had a baby boy, Reginald, born November 14, 1955.<ref name="Commire 1999 p.100"/><ref name="Silden, Isobel 1973 p. 142"/> There, she started weight lifting under the tutelage of Des Koch, while America's original javelin technician [[Steve Seymour]] coached her in shot and discus.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Seeing Brown throw, Seymour was convinced she had potential as a gold medalist and decided to send her to the [[1956 Summer Olympics]] in Melbourne. Since the Browns could not afford to pay for Earlene's training and traveling expenses, [[Brad Pye Jr.]], am influential sports editor of the [[Los Angeles Sentinel|''Los Angeles Sentinel'']] and African-American community activist, led a campaign that raised funds to support her. Shortly thereafter, though, Brown and her husband separated and Reggie was left in the care of his grandmother. To support herself, Brown began attending Henrietta's Beauty College to become a hairdresser.<ref name=":0">Davis, Michael (1992). Black American women in Olympic track and field, p.23-24, 31</ref>

From 1959 on, Brown was associated with the [[Tennessee State University]] "Tigerbelles", whose coach [[Ed Temple]] was also the head coach of the U.S. Olympic Women's Track and Field Team. Temple spent time "getting Earlene in shape" for the 1960 Games<ref>Mead-Tricard, Louise (1996) American Women's Track and Field: A History, 1895 Through 1980 (Vol. 1), p. 423</ref> and Earlene then became one of [[Wilma Rudolph]]'s closest friends.<ref>Smith, Maureen (2006). Wilma Rudolph: A Biography, p. 15</ref> At the [[1960 Summer Olympics|1960 Olympic Games in Rome]], Brown won the bronze medal in the women's shot put. In the [[1964 Summer Olympics|1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo]], Brown – who was short-sighted and wore heavy glasses as a consequence, except when throwing – was "beset by both wind and rain and lost her footing and a chance to get a toehold on the crown".<ref>Barbee, Bobby. "How Negroes helped U.S. in Tokyo Olympics" In ''Jet'' – 5 November 1964, p. 54</ref>{{Quote box
| quote = "Sports is the greatest thing for any individual to have. Without sports I would have been nothing. I don't see where live would have had any meaning. I must be on this earth for a reason because God has blessed me. He's given me the opportunity to see the world, something even most rich folks are not going to see."
| source = - Earlene Brown<ref name=":0" />
| align = left
| width = 300px
| salign = right
}}

In July 1964, Brown hosted her Soviet shot-put counterparts, [[Galina Zybina]], [[Tamara Press]], and [[Yevgeniya Kuznetsova (athlete)|Yevgenia Kuznetsova]], for an unsanctioned tour of Los Angeles, although she could not speak Russian. One stop they made was Sportsman's Bowlorama, a bowling alley where Brown was known to bet in winner-take-all bowling matches called "pot bowling", where she introduced the Soviet athletes to the American sport.<ref name=":0" />

In 1965, she retired from shot put competition. The same year she became a skater. As a blocker for the New York Bombers [[roller derby]] team,<ref>Jet, 7 December 1967, p. 52</ref> she was dubbed the "Brown Bomber". In 1975, after retiring from all athletic endeavors, she returned to her practice as beautician. She died aged 47, on May 1, 1983, in [[Compton, California]].

==Track and field career==
Brown was the first American woman to medal in the shot put, one of the only two United States women to place at Rome and the only shot-putter to compete in three consecutive Olympics. She was the only American woman to win a medal in the shot put until Michelle Carter won gold at the [[2016 Summer Olympics]] in Rio. She has been described by Nathan Aaseng as "the most unheralded U.S. athlete of all time".<ref>Aaseng (2003). African-American Athletes, p. 33</ref> Her events of choice were the [[shot put]] and [[discus]] throwing. Brown finished in the top ten in the shot put and discus in the [[1956 Summer Olympics]] in [[Melbourne, Australia]], setting American records in both events.

Brown was an eight-time (1956–1962 and 1964) and three-time (1958, 1959 and 1961) national champion in the shot put and discus, respectively.  In 1958 she received the #1 world ranking and became the first American to break the 50-foot barrier in the shot put. In 1959 she won gold medals in both the shot put and discus events at the [[1959 Pan American Games|Pan American Games]]. On December 1, 2005, Brown was posthumously inducted in the [[National Track and Field Hall of Fame]] by the [[USA Track and Field]] (USATF) during the [[Jesse Owens Award]]s and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony held in [[Jacksonville, Florida]].<ref>[http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?DUID=USATF_2005_11_03_10_16_51 Kingdom, Powell, McDonnell lead 2005 inductees to National Track & Field Hall of Fame]. [[USATF]] (2005-11-03). Retrieved on 2009-11-21.</ref>

==Roller games career==
After her career in the international track and field community, Brown made her debut in the banked track sport of [[roller games]] in 1965. She began her skating career with Roller Games' Texas Outlaws and New York Bombers. At almost 6 feet tall (on skates) and over 250 pounds, Brown quickly became one of the sport's most feared defensive skaters – her signature move being "the bear hug."  After a brief retirement, Brown returned to roller games, skating with the World Famous, World Champion [[Los Angeles Thunderbirds]]. It was at this juncture that she became known in the sport as "[[Boeing 747|747]]" because of her size and weight. After the 1975 season, Brown permanently retired from roller games.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{USATF Hall of Fame|id=209}}

{{Footer Pan American Champions Shot Put Women}}
{{Footer Pan American Champions Discus Women}}
{{USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners in women's shot put}}
{{USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners in women's basketball throw}}
{{Footer US NC shot put Women}}
{{Footer US NC Discus Throw Women}}
{{Footer US NC baseball throw Women}}
{{Footer USA Track & Field 1956 Summer Olympics}}
{{Footer USA Track & Field 1960 Summer Olympics}}
{{Footer USA Track & Field 1964 Summer Olympics}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Earlene}}
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Houston County, Texas]]
[[Category:Track and field athletes from California]]
[[Category:American female shot putters]]
[[Category:American female discus throwers]]
[[Category:African-American track and field athletes]]
[[Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field)]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1959 Pan American Games]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportswomen]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American sportswomen]]
[[Category:Roller derby skaters]]
[[Category:American roller skaters]]