Brown to join the ranks of WCC elite

Contrary to popular belief, Gonzaga University had a basketball program prior to the 1999 Elite-8 run, and center Jeff Brown, who played three years for the Zags, graduating in 1994, was recently named to the WCC Hall of Honor.

Brown, who ranks seventh on the Gonzaga all-time scoring list, was on the All-WCC first team three times, and he was the WCC Player of the Year in 1994. During his senior year he averaged 21 points per game, and was a part of the Bulldogs' first 20-win season.

"He was an incredibly efficient offensive player," Spokesman-Review sports columnist John Blanchette said. "He wasn't a high flying guy by any means. He was an old-fashioned post guy. Not real swift, didn't have a lot of vertical, but always found a way to get the ball in the basket."

Brown grew up in Spokane and played for Mead High School, where he graduated as the Greater Spokane League's career scoring leader and as the second best rebounder.

Brown played one season for the University of Washington before transferring to Gonzaga for what he called a "strictly basketball decision." But once he arrived here Brown knew he was in the right place.

"I met my wife at Gonzaga, my best friends at GU," Brown said. "I feel very fortunate and privileged to have gone there. I wouldn't point to one specific game or class, but in general, we all make a few major decisions in my life, and from my perspective, I see how better things are from the decision to end up [at Gonzaga.]"

Blanchette thinks that it was the right move for basketball as well.

"It speaks a lot of him that after he went to UW for the first year that there was no embarrassment or coming back to Spokane with his tail between legs about him. He knew he was meant to play D-1 basketball," Blanchette said. "By the time he was gone, Gonzaga basketball was much better than what was being played over at UW."

While at Gonzaga, Brown and then head coach Dan Fitzgerald had a special relationship because of their similar personalities, according to Blanchette and Brown.

"[Brown] had a lot of smartass in him," Blanchette said. "Fitz would dish it out, Brown would take it, and give it back, and Fitz loved that. It wasn't insubordination; Fitz just saw it as this guy is like me. That's why that team was such a pleasure for him to coach."

That connection that Fitzgerald and Brown shared made it even harder for Brown and his teammates when Fitzgerald passed away in January.

"That was a long, long day," Brown said. "He meant a great deal to me, and I had the opportunity to speak on behalf of the players, which was really meaningful to me."

The team responded to the coach's attitude Brown's senior year, when it won its first WCC regular season championship and received an invitation to the National Invitational Tournament.  The team shocked Stanford University in the opening round of the tournament, winning 80-76, with Brown scoring 27 points.

"What the Brown-era team did was build that bridge from what Gonzaga did in the '80s, which was be a hard-nosed team that fought for .500, struggling to play at the D-1 level because they were so under-resourced to what it is today," Blanchette said. "When Fitz put those teams together in the '90s and started winning 20 games, that's important, you couldn't get to the 1999 team without those teams. [Brown's] group of teammates legitimized Gonzaga basketball."

After graduation Brown went on to play ball overseas – making stops in Spain, Argentina, Belgium, and Australia – which he admits wasn't easy because the "world was a lot bigger back then and it was harder to communicate with your friends and family back home." Brown said there was more than one time that he questioned why he was continuing his playing career.

"We had to take 15-hour one-way bus rides when I was playing in Argentina," he said. "It wasn't exactly a chartered bus either, it was hot."

After retiring from playing abroad, Brown returned to the U.S. and after a short stay in San Diego he took a job with a Spokane software company working in marketing. The same company employs former Zags David Pendergraft and Andrew Sorenson. Unfortunately, Brown says that he was not invited to be on the company's club basketball team.