Tommie Brown’s achievements earn Hall of Fame induction
OROVILLE >> Tommie Brown, Oroville High School Class of 1955, is being honored posthumously as a 2021 Oroville Union High School District Hall of Fame inductee.
An outstanding threesport athlete, Brown played football, baseball and basketball all four years of high school. He played varsity basketball and baseball starting his sophomore year as well as boxed. He was a four-year Block O member and active in the Associated Student Body serving as its president his senior year. He was also served as class vice-president when he was a sophomore and served on the student council executive committee.
Prep athletic honors came in abundance to Brown during his high school career. He was cocaptain of the football team as a senior, and made the All-Sierra Foothill League team as a junior and again as a senior. He was honored as All-Sierra Foothill League in basketball in his senior year as well as being selected to the All-Star team at the Acker Basketball Tournament.
As a senior, Brown was fourth in scoring in football in Northern California putting up 138 points for his undefeated 1954 team. That team scored 303 points while allowing just 34. That year, Brown was the first Oroville High athlete to be selected to play in the prestigious North/South Shrine Football game in Los Angeles. In the 1950s, the NFL Detroit Lions had an All-Pro defensive back known as Dick “Nite Train” Lane. In the north state, Brown was known as “Little Nite Train.”
Following graduation, Brown followed his Oroville High coach and OUHSD Hall of Famer, Joe Felipe to Yuba College, where he played one year for a team that went undefeated. He then signed a professional baseball contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was assigned to Grand Forks, North Dakota, where he played for the Pirates Class D team. He then played on the Pirates Minor League team in San Jose for several years.
Following his baseball career, Brown returned to Oroville where he and his friends formed a social club known as The Highlighters which was part of the Oroville YMCA activity club.
Brown had a lifelong work career as a long distance truck driver for Foster Farms, and was employed there until his retirement.
In the South Oroville African-American Historical Society March 2020 issue of “The Next Generation,” Brown is featured in an article written by president and OUHSD Hall of Famer, John Henry Rivers. It chronicles Brown’s life in Oroville from the time his family located to the city in 1945.
In his letter of support for Brown’s induction into the OUHSD Hall of Fame, OUHSD Hall of Famer, Col. Fred Jones, United States Marine Corps, retired, and 1959 Oroville High graduate, wrote: “I started to spend time with him when he was a student at Yuba Junior College. I was absolutely in awe of his remarkable athletic ability and I was thrilled that he took the time to mentor me and help me with football. … Our friendship was unusual as he was much older than me. Since I was a promising high school athlete, he was one of the guys who encouraged me to stay on the ‘straight and narrow’ and get good grades.
“When my father abandoned our family, he reached out to me with empathy and encouraged me to hang in there and do the best that I could to help my mother and improve myself. His compassion and concern for my welfare helped me immensely through a difficult time in my life. … Tommie’s most memorable personal attributes were: his positive attitude and infectious enthusiasm, his honesty, great work ethic, sincerity, compassion and generosity. … In a few words, Tommie Brown had a positive impact on Oroville and most especially, Southside.”
Brown passed away on April 17, 2011 and is survived by his son Kevin Brown and his family.