Courtesy Dodge City Globe

(January 6, 2009) As a 6-foot-4-inch high school basketball standout in upstate Groton, N.Y., Steve Brown saw western Kansas as an opportunity to extend his hoops career and a chance to live near his brother Dave.

As a wide-eyed Fort Hays State basketball recruit, little did he know that southwest Kansas athletics would grow to be his life. After radio stints in Iola and Chanute, Brown put down roots in Dodge for what would be the last 12 years of his life.

The Voice of the Dodge City Red Demons for most of eight years died in his Dodge City home at the age of 44 in January 2008 from complications due to cancer that was first diagnosed in his kidney in 2006. At first diagnosis in March of 2006, Brown was told that he had just two months to live, but friends, coworkers and well-wishers started an initiative soon afterward to get Brown into the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where intensive chemotherapy treatments and rehabilitation gave him nearly two more years to continue his labor of love on the radio airwaves.

The first thing those close to Brown say about him is that he was a fighter; he worked and lived life the way he always had until he physically no longer could.

For his contributions to the field of broadcast and sports in this corner of Kansas, Brown will be posthumously honored with a new scholarship in his name by the Dodge City Community College broadcast department.

DCCC Dean of Students Anthony Lyons said Brown's would be one of two new scholarships and would most likely be unveiled for the fall 2009 semester. The Brown scholarship will go to a student interested in sports broadcasting, while the second new scholarship, named in memory of fellow radio personality Eric Warshaw, will likely go to a student interested in electronic media sales.

Both scholarships are currently in the fundraising stage.

"He would have been very honored and very humbled at the same time," said Brown's widow, Bobbi, when asked how her late husband would have reacted having a scholarship in his name at the college.

"I'm sure he'd be delighted," added Steve Deno, longtime Rockin M Radio colleague and Brown's self-proclaimed best bud. "Because now it's harder than ever to break into radio."

A big kid

Brown was the type of guy who lent himself to numerous best buds, and those that shared his chosen profession say there weren't too many play-by-players in the state who could call a game like him.

"He put so much energy into his broadcast," said DCCC broadcast professor John Ewy. "When he went to a game, no matter if it was a little 1A eight-man football game, he made it an event."

But what made Brown such a community staple wasn't just his booming voice or his genial personality that emanated into the cars and homes of listeners across the state. His commitment to sports on every level and ardor for his community made him fondly known in most nooks of southwest Kansas.

When he wasn't on the air lending his voice to the masses for Red Demon football or Dodge City Legend basketball, he could be found officiating middle and high school sports or hosting karaoke most Wednesdays and Fridays at your local watering hole.

"He was like a big kid," said Dave Bachelor, who sat with Brown for five years as a color commentator for football, basketball and baseball games across Kansas. "Life was a big candy bowl for Steve."

The whirlwind of local sports and recreation activity to which Brown devoted the latter part of his life certainly effected his personal relationships, but it wasn't something that separated him from his loved ones. Steve's all-in mentality was a part of what Bobbi termed a great curiosity and zest for life.

"He told me that there wasn't anyone else he knew who could go to their job and just have fun, and that's how he saw going into work every day," Bobbi said. "Our relationship was a case in point of quality over quantity, because we didn't have just a whole lot of time together. But what we did have was very full and very rich."

After asking for her children's blessing to make Bobbi his wife in 2004, Steve and Bobbi Brown embarked on their journey that included a honeymoon in Hawaii, vacations centered around major league baseball stadiums and Monday Night Football house parties complete with a widescreen projector. It was at a few of those parties that Brown went to bat for his buddy Deno with future wife Karen.

"I would see him over there, and he was pitching me to Karen," Deno said. "He would say 'He's kind of quirky' because he knew she liked quirky, and it was just the type of guy Steve was."

Brown was Deno's best man at the wedding. Deno was a groomsman at Steve and Bobbi's wedding as well. One of Brown's color commentators, Jeff Hiers, married Steve and Bobbi at Wilroads Gardens Christian Church.

Deno remembers on-air exchanges between the two friends and radio personalities, as both were on in the morning as well. Whether it was school lunch discussions on cheesy peas or singing happy birthday to a friend at Dodge City Medical Center to the tune of the Commodores' "Brick House," Brown was always in the mood for cutting up.

"He was really a guy's guy," Bachelor added. "One of his big thrills was when he and Bobbi got their hot tub. He rigged it up to where he could watch sports from the thing."

Lasting legacy

For someone to travel the 1,500 miles from Groton to make a life for himself in western Kansas is part of the phenomenon that was Steve Brown. After four record-setting basketball seasons at Groton High, he was recruited to play for the FHSU Tigers.

Brown's record for most points over four years (1,373) has not been broken since he set the mark in 1981, and he is still tied for the most points scored in a single GHS game (43). He will be inducted into the Groton Central District Athletic Hall of Fame on Jan. 16.

After completing one season at FHSU, a change in the coaching regime caused Brown to lose his athletic scholarship, a chance happening that his brother Dave said was one of the best things to ever happen to Steve. He went on to call play-by-play for two consecutive NAIA basketball national championships won by FHSU.

He found his way to Dodge in the mid-1990's after stops in Iola and Chanute, and took on a morning show at what was then K95 with sports play-by-play duties. It was not until his second go-round with Rockin M Radio in 2000 that he was given the nickname "Voice of the Red Demons."

"He was very proud of the nickname," Bobbi said. "And he knew his sports like an encyclopedia."

As cancer crept up on Brown, though, it offered a new perspective on life and life's work for the Steve and Bobbi. After spending six months at MD Anderson in Houston and missing the bulk of the 2006 football season, Brown came back to Dodge just in time to call the final DCHS football game of the year.

Dodge High beat Goddard 42-28 on that October night. It was the first district win for the Red Demons in seven seasons.

Brown was awarded a signed football by the 2006 Demons after the monumental win for both the team and the prodigal play-by-play man.

The man who gave into tears while watching a Sportscenter feature story or Extreme Home Makeover was moved by the gesture of a team that reciprocated his love and passion for the games he called.

"He kept looking forward to that day," Bobbi said. "It made him so proud to do what he was able to do while he was able to do it."

Whether it was calling a USBL game at the what he and Bachelor coined the Cow Palace, officiating a sparsely attended middle school softball game or deejaying Friday night karaoke, Brown left a towering hole in the community when he passed; one that one person may not ever again be able to fill in southwest Kansas.

Interested parties can contribute to the Steve Brown or the Eric Warshaw scholarship foundation with a check made out to Dodge City Community College.