SPORTS

Brown Boys’ Club coaches shaped lives in Wilmington

Jack Cobourn
Special to The News Journal

From the late 1960s to the 1980s, the Brown Boys’ Club in Wilmington served as a training ground for award-winning high school basketball players in Delaware.

But the building on North Spruce Street served a much more important purpose.

“All our kids were together, it was like a big community,” Gil “Jack” Jackson said. “They all supported each other, the older guys supported the younger guys.”

Coaches like Jackson, Mike Miller, Richard Johnson and John Triplett fostered that culture of fellowship. Recently, many of their proteges gathered to honor the quartet that had made such a difference in their lives at what is now known as the H. Fletcher Brown Boy and Girls Club.

Jackson was an All-State player at Dickinson in 1965. After graduating from Elizabethtown College, he wasn’t sure what to do next. So he started coaching the boys club’s Golden Bears basketball teams. Jackson would go on to teach, administrate and coach at Sanford, where he guided the boys team to the 1986 state title.

Jeff Beard played for Jackson at the boys club and Sanford.

“Jack taught me the importance of academics in addition to sport,” Beard said. “That provided me some opportunities to go on to Howard University, Howard University Law School ... Jack and his lovely wife Patti were right there when I graduated law school. That shows me the type of commitment he has in the overall development of a person.”

Before he became a coach at the Brown Boys’ Club, Mike Miller (far right) was a player there from the time he was 6.

Devin Park emceed the recent gathering. He and brother Darin were first-team All-State in 1981 for Claymont High School. Devin Park learned chess at the boys club and remembers borrowing books from its library.

“The four of those [coaches] made such a difference in not only my life, but the lives of all the other people that were there,” he said.

Tony Washam went from playing at the boys club, to playing for Concord High and then in the NCAA Tournament with West Virginia University. The club taught him the importance of academics and accountability. For instance, Washam said, in order to play basketball at the club, kids had to show that they had finished their homework and have it signed by a parent.

“I wouldn’t be on my way to opening up my very first restaurant if I didn’t have the confidence instilled in me from Brown Boys’ Club,” Washam said. “[Basketball] gives you the discipline that’s needed to do things in life, and basketball transcended me into different areas in my life.”

Jackson said the boys club helped make him a better person.

“It helps you to be a teacher,” he said. “When you’re teaching young kids to play, they’re starting from the basics, whether it’s making a layup, making a foul shot, defending, so you have to develop teaching techniques and ways to get that across. So it only helps you as you move further up the ladder.”

Jackson would become an assistant coach for the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s team, where he would help lead the Quakers to eight Ivy League titles. From 2005 to 2010, he was head men’s basketball coach at Howard University. Last year, he was inducted into the Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame.

High basketball IQ

Miller has been a protege of Jackson’s since the former first came to the boys club as a 6-year-old in 1961. After playing for teams coached by Jackson, Miller went on to Howard High, where he led the Wildcats to a 24-0 record and state title in 1973.

Beard remembered Miller as an extremely intelligent player.

Gil Jackson (far right) and one of his Brown Boys’ Club basketball teams.

“Mike necessarily wasn’t the best basketball talent, but Mike has a basketball IQ that’s off the charts.” Beard said. “He was able to effectively compete with guys who were four, five, six inches taller than him because of his basketball IQ.”

After playing at Wesley College in 1975, Miller joined the boys club as assistant athletic director and basketball coach. Miller was an assistant coach at Mount Pleasant, then became head coach of Howard High in 1988. Today, Miller lives in Florida, where he works at an addiction treatment center.

Johnson attended P.S. Dupont High School, then went to Delaware State University on a football scholarship. Disillusioned with his experiences, Johnson came to the boys club at the age of 19, when he was hired as physical education director.

“We did a lot of other things than basketball, we did a lot of educational things,” Johnson said. “We made sure they got their schoolwork done everyday, that was first and foremost. When they played Monopoly, it taught them money management, we played Risk, which helped their critical thinking.”

After his work at the boys club, Johnson became the recreation director at Ferris School for Boys. Johnson now works for the City of Wilmington Department of Public Works.

Darryl Chambers, who was second-team, All-State in 1986 and 1987 while at Howard High, will always remember Johnson’s mantra.

“Anybody can be MVP, but only the team can be called the champion,” Chambers said. “He taught us that and I took that with me.”

While many have great basketball memories from that era at the Brown Boys’ Club, Park’s favorite moments came off the court.

“To me the greatest memory was going out to eat with the coaches,” he said. “Even spending the night, the weekend, with the coaches when we had tournaments out of town, they would cook for us. Those were my great memories— the fellowship, the fun and the good times we shared, not just with the coaches, but with each other. It made us like brothers, it made us like family.”

Then and now

While Miller was glad to be honored for his work, he said he wished Wilmington had a program like the one that served him so well during his childhood.

“Do they get the same things [today] that we got back then? Absolutely not,” he said. “That’s one of the things that’s missing in the city. The boys club was our second home, if you got out of school at 3, you were at the Boys’ Club at 3:30. It’s definitely missing.”

Club officials say the facility offers a variety of programs for kids and teens, but admit the organization needs to improve its outreach. Rachel Kane, executive director of both the Brown and Fraim boys and girls clubs, said that the club offers before- and after-school care for children 12 and under and clubs that focus on a variety of interests, from cooking to athletics. Teens can get homework help and learn financial skills through the club’s Money Matters, Stock Market and Keystone Club programs.

Kane said around 40 teens utilize its programs each night, but the club has room for many more.

“We definitely need to do some outreach and some collaborations with some other established programs that are doing stuff for teens and just offer that free membership to those kids,” Kane said. “I also kind of feel like we need to not only reach the kids, but reach the parents and that’s where the challenge comes in. Specifically, the kids that might need us the most might not come from the best home situation, so how do we get those kids to see coming to the club is more beneficial than hanging out at home or on the streets.”

Triplett worked for the boys club for 21 years doing various jobs, from greeter to mentor. He also worked for the Brandywine School District and owned a couple of successful small businesses. He died at the age of 54 in June 2006.

His son, Anthony Bordley said it was important his father and the others were recognized because of how they helped create strong, confident men.

“To recognize my father after all this time, recognizing them after all this time, it’s a long time coming,” Bordley said. “It’s well deserved for all those gentlemen. They’ve moved me and others to become the men that we are.”

If you’re interested in volunteering at Delaware boys and girls clubs, contact Leslie McGowan at LMcGowan@bgclubs.org or (302) 792-3780, ext. 117.