Saturday, July 27th, 2024

Bobby Brown | 1947-1950 | Lubbock High School | Football, Baseball

In the storied athletic history of Lubbock High School, there have been many outstanding and successful athletes. Many of those same athletes were good enough to letter in more than one sport, but it is unique when an athlete comes along who possesses the athletic ability to truly excel in more than one sport. One such athlete for Lubbock High is Bobby Brown, who was an outstanding football and baseball player for the Westerners from 1947 to 1950. Bobby played football for the legendary coach, Pat Pattison, who himself was inducted into the Lubbock ISD Hall of Honor in 2011. During the 1948 season, Bobby’s prowess on the field earned him both All-District and All-State honors as a running back. During the 1949 season he was instrumental in helping to lead the Westerners to a #1 ranking. Lubbock High eventually finished the ’49 fall campaign as both District and Bi-District Champions. For his efforts, Bobby was again named to both the All-District and All-State teams. In addition, he was named to the National High School All-American Team and received an invitation to play in the Texas High School Coaches Association All-Star game played in the summer following his high school graduation in the spring of 1950. In addition to his athletic skills displayed on the football field, Bobby was a truly gifted baseball player. He was a part of the Westerner Baseball team during the spring of his sophomore year, but his skills really blossomed during the summer of 1948 when he played American Legion Baseball. In the summer of 1948, the Lubbock High baseball players played together as a team for the Allen Brothers Post. They advanced to the state title game and defeated Dallas Adamson High School. Bobby was named All-State as well as Co-Outstanding Player of the tournament, sharing the honor with Adamson star, Kal Segrist, who later would become the head baseball coach at Texas Tech. As one of the top high school infielders in the country, Bobby led Lubbock High to District and Bi-District titles during the 1949 season. The Westerners eventually finished third in the state with a 19-3 won-loss record. After completing the 1950 season with a .588 batting average, former major league scout, Jack Knott, called Bobby Brown “The greatest infielder he had ever seen.” After finishing his athletic career at LHS, Bobby had options for both football and baseball on the collegiate level at Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor, Tulsa, and Houston. After committing to Oklahoma, his stepfather insisted he attend TCU, where Bobby enrolled in the fall of 1950. He transferred to Texas Tech in the spring of 1951 to play football, but a leg injury forced him to concentrate on playing professional baseball. In 1951 Bobby attended spring training with the Detroit Tigers organization before eventually playing the season in semipro ball at Grand Junction, Colorado, and hitting .268. He played for Cleveland’s AA ball club in Oklahoma City in the Texas League in 1952, with later stops in the West Texas New Mexico league for the Pampa Oilers and Plainview Ponies. His baseball playing career came to an end in 1954 due to a broken arm. Bobby Brown was a truly gifted two sport athlete for Lubbock High School.
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