By Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw

(Fourth In A Series)

Hubie Brown will tell you, the Atlanta b team is a family. “That’s why we’ve been as successful,” says the boyish-looking head coach. “We’re together, so together we get it done.”

They may be a family. But when Hubie walks out onto the Omni court during practice and calls for the ball, barking, “Okay, let’s go,” you instantly know who the head of this family is. It is 46 year-old Hubert Jude Brown.

Standing like a dwarf among the mountainous Tree Rollins, Tom McMillen and Steve Hawes, Hubie takes command. He loves coaching basketball now, but that’s not the way it all began. Growing up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, his eyes were not on baskets but on bases. Baseball was his first love.

“I dreamed of the major leagues, playing first and then coaching,” says Hubie. He well remembers his high school playing days at St. Mary’s in Elizabeth. “It was a great school with a great spirit for sports.” In St. Mary’s the fiercely competitive Hubie became All State in baseball and also in basketball.

Hubie Brown continued to have dreams of home runs even when he attended college. “When I graduated from Niagra in ‘55,” remembers the Atlanta coach, “I had my heart set on beginning a baseball career, but it was not meant to be.” A minor calamity struck that same year. A freak eye injury permanently removed the possibility of playing any of the sports he loved. But, absolutely undaunted, Hubie Brown turned to coaching. He knew the involvement in sports was to be his life.

At the point, again, St. Mary’s entered his life - not the one in Elizabeth, however, it was another in Little Falls, New York. There Hubie became athletic director and his amazing career in basketball began. “I loved high school sports,” says Hubie, “so after a couple of years in the army, I stayed with high school coaching for nine years.”

In 1967 greater things began to happen. Virginia College, William and Mary, beckoned him and opened the big time for this vital active young man. Only one year later Duke offered him the position of top assistant. “Those were fun years,” recalls the grinning Alan Alda look-alike, “and they were the years I began offering clinics to other coaches, especially high school coaches.”

The reputation of Hubie Brown as a coach and keen handler of men spread like a forest fire. It wasn’t long till the pros beckoned. Larry Costello, a former teammate of Brown at Niagra and head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, named Hubie his assistant in 1972. “That’s when I met the two greatest basketball players this game has ever seen,” recalls the coach excitedly. “Who?” I asked and he looked at me like I am dumb indeed. “Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. Robertson was the greatest ever,” says Brown, “any coach will tell you that.”

At the youthful age of 41, in 1975, the Kentucky Colonels named Hubie Brown head coach. The Colonels had talent but no teamwork. The Brown skill for getting the best and insisting on “family” worked. Kentucky won its only ABA championship that year. “The excitement was tremendous,” recalls Hubie, “but the leagues merged and soon I was out of a job.”

Not for long. Atlanta called Hubie Brown in 1976 and once more the job of shaping a team floundering in the big leagues became his priority. How well has he done it? The record clearly shows it. In 1977, he was named NBA Coach of the Year, the most coveted award in basketball. Then in 1978 CBS named Brown their choice of Coach of the Year.

“That was a wonderful honor too,” says Hubie, “especially since we did not win the playoff.” Atlanta did not win, but the series went the full seven games and Washington won what was a real squeeker.

Everyone agrees that Hubie Brown is an exciting coach to watch, apart from his successes. His “family” knows he is behind them as he leaps and claps and argues on the sideline. “He’ll even cry and go on his knees,” says one of his assistants. He has also been known to stand chin to chin with officials, as he emphatically and colorfully explained his view of a call. “Head referees have their own interpretation of the rules,” says Hubie without apology, “it is a constant gripe of coaches around the league.”

And so, what’s next for Hubie Brown? “Just this week I have signed a five-year contract with the Hawks,” says the coach. “That makes it nice for me and my family too.” Hubie, his wife Clare and their three children live in Dunwoody and attend the new All Saints parish. “We used to be in St. Jude’s,” says Hubie, “but we switched when the parish was split. We love Atlanta and we love our new parish.”

As he headed out to muster his high leaping Hawks waiting for his direction on court, I thought I would get a little prediction from this old basketball man. Who did he like for the World Series? “Oh no,” he laughed, “ I’m making no prediction, but some one should do something about that guy Cosell. He knows nothing about the game.”

Knowing how Hubie Brown wins his point most of the time, I decided not to give him any argument. He was gone hustling his gigantic players. “Okay, you guys line it up, let’s go.” Basketballs were flying high in the air.