V 12 N. 78 Pete Brown, University of New Mexico R.I.P.

 

                                                 Pete Brown in Action

We lost a good friend this week, Pete Brown.  When I say we, I speak for a lot of people, though only a few of those have I ever met.  Pete was another of those ultimate track fans.  He began going to meets at the L.A. Coliseum with his father in the early 1950's.  One of his heroes back then was Jim Fuchs the Yale shot putter who preceded Parry O'Brien on American podiums.  Pete was hooked from the get go.

He became an 880 runner at his high school in California and received a scholarship to the University of New Mexico where he clocked a 1:52  880.  While at New Mexico he became friends with Adolph Plummer, Tony Sandoval, Wayne Vandenberg, and Dick Howard, all teammates with the Lobos.  He married young and his senior year delivered newspapers every morning to help make ends meet for his new family.  

After graduation he stayed near the university for awhile and helped coach the cross country team that won the WAC conference championship that year.  There he became friends with Tony Sandoval who would become the Director of Track and Field at Cal Berkeley.  

He would move on to Chicago and manage properties with his second wife Julia, but he eventually found another passion in historical tourism.  Pete organized tours to all the European and American battlefields that the US ever had troops fighting on.  I'm not sure about Asia and South America.   Not only did he do that but on those tours the historians who wrote the books about those places accompanied him.  Many of those tours were also combined with the Smithsonian Institution and their tour business.  Pete and Julia eventually sold the business and retired in Plano, Texas.  

I first met Pete through this blog.  Someone introduced us via email and we corresponded regularly.  He was a great source of information and had a wonderful library that served as a reference tool for many of our postings.  I stopped by Plano twice to see Pete and both times we talked track late into the night, but we also squeezed in some history and military stories.  He was a Marine Corps veteran.  

I am putting links to several stories I've posted in this blog which relate to Pete, his life and his work.  You are more than welcome to read and I hope to enjoy them, and perhaps you will feel the joy in knowing Pete as I have.   There are also a number of comments about Pete that have been forwarded from his friends.

George Brose,

Courtenay, British Columbia

https://onceuponatimeinthevest.blogspot.com/2021/06/v-11-n-35-conversation-with-old-friend.html

https://onceuponatimeinthevest.blogspot.com/2012/04/brief-conversation-about-attitude-and.html

https://onceuponatimeinthevest.blogspot.com/2015/12/v-5-n-118-more-on-adolph-plummerseldom.html

https://onceuponatimeinthevest.blogspot.com/2015/11/v-5-n-117-adolph-plummer-rip-440-world.html

George:

Yes, very sad about Pete. He and I got to know each other very well when I came to UNM. He loved the newsletters that I wrote each week and he especially enjoyed the newsletters about the alums. When I decided to write a book about Lobo cc/track history he was very helpful in informing me about the 1959-1969 time period. I flew over to Dallas where he lived and spent the day with him just recording his thoughts. I would speak with him about every month and spoke with him just three weeks ago about the book. I sent him the chapter on his career and asked him to give me feedback. I always laughed when I spoke to Pete as he just loved to talk about track & field. A really good guy.  Rich

Dr. Richard J. Ceronie

Track & Field Office

Department of Athletics

MSC04 2680 1 University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, NM 87131

All:

Pete Brown was my shadow coach during my running career at Albuquerque high school. He introduced me to track & field news and all its publications. He guided me to a NM state cross country  championship and 880 championship in the spring 1963. Pete was my hero to say the least.                                 My freshmen year he was a grad assistant to coach Hackett when UNM won its first WAC team championship. I was # 5 on that team with Ed Coleman (WAC champion) , John Baker, Lloyd Goff, Ron Singleton. 

RIP Pete! 

Tony Sandoval

 

George -

 

.  I lost a dear friend and colleague of 62 years.  We met in September of 1960 when we were both student athletes at the University of New Mexico and have remained family-like brothers ever since; I attended and participated in his first formal wedding in the early 60’s and after I left the coaching field, Pete worked for our real estate investment and management company in the construction management division in the late 80’s until the early 90’s; he lived in Chicago and became a ardent fan of the Chicago Cubs, and when I moved to Frisco (north Dallas suburb adjacent to Plano where Pete had lived until his passing for probably 30 plus years), we would meet semi-regularly at Starbucks to talk about politics, world events and mostly track & field plus college and professional sports until the last year and a half when he was unable to be in contact with the outside world because of his immune system.  An extremely interesting man with great passion for history and track & field and other events in which he could weave fascinating stories about his life and experiences.  We attended many NCAA T&F Championships together as well as the Texas Relays, Drake Relays and the USA vs Russia Meet in Los Angeles in the early to mid 60’s.  His passion for visiting Major League Baseball parks (every one of them as of approximately 2005), every gravesite of US Vice Presidents, all the historic US battlefields from the Civil and Revolutionay War, Lewis & Clark’s Trail, the history and trade evolution of the great Mississippi River, and the great battlefields where the US fought during WWII in Europe and the resulting US cemeteries across Europe via the history-themed tours he conducted around the world via the company that he and Julia founded, HistoryAmerica. 

He is and will be missed by me and many others who crossed paths with Pete.

Wayne Vandenburg