When Bob Brown was told he would be inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame this summer, the former Notre Dame High School and Eastern Tennessee State University basketball star wept for several minutes, caught off guard by the level of recognition.
Just because the honor was unexpected, though, doesn’t mean it was undeserved.
And for one of the top all-time players produced by the Chattanooga-area prep basketball scene, it’s the next stop on a journey with humble beginnings.
Brown was still young when his family — brother Billy and their mother Dolores — moved from Detroit to East Ridge. He grew up in a duplex at 4037 Dalewood Circle, right off Belvoir Avenue. It was there that Brown would wake up at 6 a.m., walk over to an outdoor court in the Shackleford family’s backyard and shoot hoops every morning before school.
The Brown brothers loved basketball, and they had miniature hoops posted throughout their home.