Larry Brown

The defending Big XII Champions
Rusty7777
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Larry Brown

Post by Rusty7777 » January 29th, 2019, 8:26 pm

Random question about former K-State running back Larry Brown. Is he in the KSU Ring of Honor? If not, perhaps it's because he's known more for his NFL career with the Redskins? Just curious, because he was the NFL Most Valuable Player in 1972. Seems that, alone, would qualify him.

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Post by WIldWIllieCat » January 29th, 2019, 10:40 pm

Was he an All American award winner? I believe that's one of the requirements?

I'll confess that I'm not a 100% certain though.

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Post by AJcat7755 » January 30th, 2019, 12:16 pm

From K-State's website:

"The Ring of Honor is designed to recognize those in the football program who have distinguished themselves on and off the field. Among the criteria considered is quality of character, whether the person is an excellent representative of K-State, whether a person has achieved performance that warrants consensus All-America level status at K-State or performed at a program-transformational level that warrants consideration, and the student-athlete has to be at least five years out of school."

Larry Brown was not an All-American and he was not program-transformational. NFL production, while helpful, isn't a guiding criteria.

Larry Brown played at Dodge City for 2 years and 2 years at K-State. His stats aren't in the top for K-State with only 684 rushing yards and 2 TDs.

There are many former K-State players that didn't do a lot at K-State as far as ROH criteria, but had good NFL careers.

Henry Childs - New Orleans Saints HOF
Paul Coffman - 3x Pro Bowl. Packers HOF
Nick Leckey - 2x 1st Team Big 12, All-American , Super-Bowl champion

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Post by kinsleycat » January 30th, 2019, 3:07 pm

Larry Brown was part of a backfield that all made it to the NFL, Mack Herron, Mike Montgomery, and Lynn Dickey also made it. If I recall correctly, Larry had vision problems while at KSU which the Redskins figured out and fixed.

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Post by ToledoCat#2 » January 30th, 2019, 3:10 pm

I think Larry Brown's physical problem was hearing, not sight. The Redskins realized his problem and put him in hearing aids and his NFL career took off. Before that, he would never know what the snap count was. At least that's how I recall his story.

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Post by kinsleycat » January 30th, 2019, 3:24 pm

I think you"re right TC, i believe it was a hearing problem. Seems silly that K-State couldn't figure that out but Larry ended up having a nice NFL career anyway.

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Post by katlander » January 31st, 2019, 2:32 am

Larry Brown was a Washington Redskin in 1969. His hearing problem was discovered by Vince Lombardi who was the new Redskin coach. Larry proceeded to rush for 888 yards as a rookie which was 4th in the NFL. Gayle Sayers was the leading rusher that year with 1,032 yards. Vince Lombardi died of cancer on September 3rd, 1970. That year Larry Brown led the NFL with 1125 yards and 4.7 per carry. In 1971 Floyd Little led with 1133 yards and LB was 6th with 948. In 72 O.J. led with 1251 yards in 14 games and 89 YPG. LB was 2nd with 1216 yards in 12 games and 101 YPG. OJ set records in 1973 with 2003 yards. LB dropped to 15th with 860 yards. In 74 OJ led with 1407 yards, LB was 37th with 430. In 75 O.J. had another great year with 1807 yards, LB was 51st with 352. By 1976 Mike Thomas was the leading rusher for the Redskins. Not sure but I think injury may have contributed to Larry Brown's drop in production and departure from pro football. But in his prime he played with some of the best and was right there with them. Given his undiagnosed impairment I think it would be appropriate to place him in our ring of honor.

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Post by AJcat7755 » January 31st, 2019, 12:29 pm

katlander wrote:
January 31st, 2019, 2:32 am
Larry Brown was a Washington Redskin in 1969. His hearing problem was discovered by Vince Lombardi who was the new Redskin coach. Larry proceeded to rush for 888 yards as a rookie which was 4th in the NFL. Gayle Sayers was the leading rusher that year with 1,032 yards. Vince Lombardi died of cancer on September 3rd, 1970. That year Larry Brown led the NFL with 1125 yards and 4.7 per carry. In 1971 Floyd Little led with 1133 yards and LB was 6th with 948. In 72 O.J. led with 1251 yards in 14 games and 89 YPG. LB was 2nd with 1216 yards in 12 games and 101 YPG. OJ set records in 1973 with 2003 yards. LB dropped to 15th with 860 yards. In 74 OJ led with 1407 yards, LB was 37th with 430. In 75 O.J. had another great year with 1807 yards, LB was 51st with 352. By 1976 Mike Thomas was the leading rusher for the Redskins. Not sure but I think injury may have contributed to Larry Brown's drop in production and departure from pro football. But in his prime he played with some of the best and was right there with them. Given his undiagnosed impairment I think it would be appropriate to place him in our ring of honor.
I'm going to be the evil person here, but it's K-State's ROH, meaning what did they do at K-State, not just what did they do afterwards. Nothing against him, but he didn't do much stat wise, award wise, or win wise in his 2 years at K-State. Those were 2 of the forgotten years in K-State's history as well so it doesn't get much publicity. He got into the Redskins HOF for what he did for the Redskins and deservingly so. He hasn't been even nominated for the NFL HOF though, but that really is a shame and he should be. He is known for his time with the Redskins, not K-State.

"achieved performance that warrants consensus All-America level status at K-State or performed at a program-transformational level that warrants consideration"

He was at the 2015 K-State spring game with Clarence Scott, who was put into the ROH that year. If he was going to make it in, they would have done it at that time. If they start opening it up to NFL production, it's going to open the doors to many more players.

There are several players that were not consensus AA that haven't made it into the ROH yet. Even Chris Canty was an consensus and unanimous AA and isn't in the ROH. It's not easy to get into.

Again, nothing against Larry as a player or person, it's just that there is a list of criteria to make it into the ROH and isn't meeting all of it same as many other great players.

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Post by Watutalkaboutwillis » January 31st, 2019, 2:20 pm

Have been surprised about Canty and Leckey not getting up there. Those two probably did enough to be up there for on the field performance while at KSU.

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Post by iowa_wildcat » January 31st, 2019, 2:39 pm

Chris Canty left a year early for the NFL. Did he ever come back to campus and graduate?

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