former AW coach Richard Brown is dead

...and he takes with him many a story he was handsomely rewarded to keep from coming to light.

B.S. Dick Brown died without any great sum of money. Use some judgement when you post this kind of crap lie. Let's just hope your obituary treats you with the lack of dignity that you possess. Dick fought the good fight for a long time, but it finally got him. RIP.

Why use two different handles and use the adverb , "finally" ?

AW was dirty as sin back in the day, everyone knew it then and certainly there were plenty of positive tests and other anecdotal accounts which have come out since. Brown was right in the middle of it all. So while it is unfortunate that he passed, as we all someday will, it is also wrong to attempt to whitewash his career.

Dick Brown, a track and field innovator who coached Mary Decker Slaney and other Olympians during four decades in Eugene, died Saturday at the age of 78 after a battle with leukemia.

Brown moved to Eugene in 1978 to work as the exercise physiologist with Athletics West, Nike’s fledgling group for post-collegiate athletes. His scientific approach to running made for a natural camaraderie with Bill Bowerman, Brown’s longtime friend and collaborator.

“Dick Brown and Bill Bowerman were very close,” said Peter Thompson, who was administrator of the Oregon Track Club when Brown arrived and later served as a consultant coach for Athletics West. “Bowerman recognized and respected Dick’s similarly innovative thinking, and they collaborated on various projects over the years.”

One notable collaboration was their work with Slaney — then Mary Decker — who moved to Eugene in 1979 from Boulder, Colo.

Brown applied his background as a physiologist to help Slaney overcome a string of injuries and win gold medals in the 1,500 and 3,000 at the 1983 IAAF World Championships.

Brown was coaching Slaney a year later during her infamous 3,000-meter final in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, when a collision with South African Zola Budd caused her to fall and suffer a serious injury. Brown later acknowledged advising Slaney to run with the pack instead of pulling in front, as she was accustomed to doing.

Brown went on to coach Olympians Suzy Favor Hamilton and Vicki Huber, as well as paralympic gold medalist Marla Runyan, who is legally blind.

In 2001, Brown founded the Eugene Health and Performance Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provided fitness education to the general public and included a post-secondary training group for female runners.

Brown also served as a adjunct faculty member with the Department of Human Physiology at the University of Oregon, lecturing students on the applications of his physiological research for elite athletes.

Brown continued his research even after he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2010. He was drawn to non-traditional subjects and conducted some of his final research on the concept of “grounding,” which posits that direct physical contact with the Earth can benefit athletes in recovery.

“He did a lot of fringe stuff like that, trying to say, ‘Can we eke out another 1 or 2 percent performance gain, but do it legally?’” said Chris Minson, former head of the UO physiology department.

The synthesis of science and coaching was one of Brown’s greatest contributions, Thompson said.

“He was a towering presence but a quiet, humble man but with very clear convictions and an immensely inquiring mind,” said Thompson, who took over the Health and Performance Foundation after Brown’s cancer diagnosis. “He would understand processes which other people just couldn’t see.”

Did he coach Kim Gallagher?

I think she was coached by that coach that received a lifetime ban...can't remember his name at the moment.

No one is attempting to "whitewash his career" -- at least not so far on this thread.

Yes, the history and legacy of AW is a mixed one at best. That's no secret to anyone in the sport, and hasn't been a secret for a very long time. Nothing new there.

But two indisputable facts remain, and we should not forget them.

One, Dick Brown made major contributions to the development of track and field and distance running. That is not changed by whatever involvement he may have had in the dark side of the sport.

Two, the man just passed away. And he did so after a long battle with one of the toughest diseases out there.

So grow up. Show a little human decency and common respect.

There are plenty of times and places to talk or write about the problems of our sport and their history and evolution. This is not one of them.

Chuck Debus

B-Sample wrote:

Did he coach Kim Gallagher?

va coach wrote:

One, Dick Brown made major contributions to the development of track and field and distance running. That is not changed by whatever involvement he may have had in the dark side of the sport.

What major contributions to the development of our sport has Dick Brown made? I can't think of anything.

va coach wrote:

There are plenty of times and places to talk or write about the problems of our sport and their history and evolution. This is not one of them.

This is true.

*slaps head*Thanks.

ole miss razorback wrote:

Chuck Debus

B-Sample wrote:

Did he coach Kim Gallagher?

Read the obit and bio posted above.

Was there wrote:

What major contributions to the development of our sport has Dick Brown made? I can't think of anything.

Back in the 1990s I used a handheld device Dick Brown developed called a Leap (?) machine. It had hundreds of training activities (including sex!) with some kind of vo2max rating and you could combine activities to hit target goals. It also allowed you to log everything you did. I remember it was very expensive ($500?) because back then there was not a single device like iPhone running a million apps, in those days a dedicated device ran a single app. I would love to have the Leap application for my smart phone.

va coach wrote:

Read the obit and bio posted above.

Nothing in there about major contributions.

Brown was co-inventor of the Aqua Jogger.

I don't know that Brown made major contributions to the sport, but he did coach some successful athletes, he co-wrote a book for the masses on fitness running and he had a huge hand in developing the computerized training programs that the Lydiard Foundation uses. Those are contributions of some sort.

Wow. Honestly I thought he had passed away several years ago. I didn't know him but I happened to have learned some years back that he had a terminal form of cancer. I think it was leukemia but I could be wrong about that. But it was my understanding he had only months to live, if that. So if he just passed away he lived a good 3 years longer than I would have thought. Impressive.

Condolences to his family.

go away

Buyout wrote:

...and he takes with him many a story he was handsomely rewarded to keep from coming to light.

dick brown coached people i know for free. no peds included to be sure. this was non elite stuff. most good coaches dabble on the grey line. and are in it for the love or addiction of it.