Remembering Coach Brown

Recently I took my wife, Masami, to see the movie, 42.  It’s been out for a while and I’ve wanted to see it, but I just haven’t had the time until now.  Prior to the movie, I really knew next to nothing of the history of Jackie Robinson.  I’m glad I went and now understand his story.
I’m just sharing a “stone” in my life that I remembered after seeing 42.   (The “stone” comment is in reference to my book, Reasons for HOPE In the Mosaic of Your Life.)
 
I cried three times during 42.  As we were driving home I remembered something from my Freshman year in high school, and  I’d like to share it with you.
 
In 1976 my family moved from Newark, Delaware to Lexington, Virginia where I attended Lexington High School (LHS). It was quite a change, to say the least.

My parents had divorced, my mother had remarried and my father had disappeared.  In Lexington there was still a “white” church and a “black” church, a “white” section of town and a “black” section of town.  I didn’t know until recently that my graduating class was the first to be integrated.  That was just the way that it was back then.  Unfortunately, I never questioned it.  To my embarrassment, after watching 42 I realized that I was not a Branch Rickey.  For those of you who might not know who that is, he was the man who signed Jackie Robinson and thereby broke the color barrier in professional baseball.  I, however, was not like him.  I was a follower.
 
I’d always loved sports, and for me that was how I fit in wherever I went.  Sports and humor were the tools that I used. Enter, Coach Brown.
 
Coach Brown was my baseball coach.  He also ran the Boy’s Club of Lexington, which was conveniently located about a mile from my house.  Since I was new and didn’t know anyone that was where I hung out.  While there, Coach Brown taught me how to play Ping Pong, basketball, Spades and Hearts!  I loved it.
 
Hanging out at the Boy’s Club also gave me the opportunity to play on an organized basketball team for the first time.   What a learning experience.  I praise God for that time because what I learned there allowed me to eventually play for my U.S.A.F. base team in Japan, where we even played against the Japanese Olympic team.
 
Coach Brown was a black man.  He treated me with respect and that first year of high school he was more of a father to me than my biological father.  I’ll never forget playing one of our basketball games on “the Hill.”  That was the “black” section of town and when I walked into the gym I was the only “white” face there.  I felt totally out of place.  Coach Brown acted as if nothing was going on and just encouraged me to do my best.
 
A problem  arose when I got comfortable in Lexington and made new friends.  Things changed.  Coach Brown didn’t coach my sophomore year and I quit hanging out at the Boy’s Club.  The new friends that I made weren’t overtly prejudiced, as long as folks stayed in their places.  I’m embarrassed to say, I adopted that mentality.
 
I remember how I treated one of my classmates, a Caucasian young lady who started dating a black classmate.  To my friends and I, she became the “invisible woman.”  We wouldn’t even talk to her anymore.  I’m still embarrassed by my attitude and behavior.
 
I’d not thought of Coach Brown for a while until watching the movie, 42. 
 
God has radically changed me over the years.  It all started when I went to Japan and met my wife.  I shared in a previous article about how her father impacted me.
 
It wasn’t until I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior on May 15, 1987 that things started to change.  I started trusting Jesus and His Word and it was only then that I saw God taught in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that the “first man,” was Adam  and that his wife, Eve, “was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20)   This means we all go back to one man and one woman, just as the Bible claims (Acts 17:26, above).  Acts 17:26 teaches that we are all of “one blood” so there is only one race, the human race — and everything we see in the world supports that.
 
My prayer is that you know Christ as your Lord and Savior.  If you do, never forget what He did for you and where He’s brought you from. Sometimes remembering where we come from helps us appreciate where we are at the moment.  Thank you Coach Brown for setting an example for me.  I didn’t live up to it for a while, but I’m praying that the message that I leave now is one that would make Coach Brown and Branch Rickey proud.  More importantly, I pray it makes my heavenly Father proud so that one day I will hear,  “’Well done, good and faithful servant…” (Matthew 25:21).
 
Stay bold,
Carl and the rforh Team!
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