Chad Brown still remembers the recruiting visit in 1987. Colorado football coach Bill McCartney sat in the living room of Brown’s home, first talking to Chad, then to his parents.
Of course, McCartney talked football. That’s what Brown wanted to hear. But the Buffaloes’ head coach then turned to Brown’s parents and told them that being a Colorado Buffalo would be the springboard to the rest of his life. McCartney told Brown’s parents he would make sure that springboard would provide every opportunity possible.
After he finished with his football thing and started talking about the bigger stuff, I tuned out a little bit, Brown admits with a laugh. That was for my parents.
But some 30 years later, Brown still remembers and he knows exactly what McCartney was talking about and why his parents listened so intently. Even though his long and illustrious playing career is in the rearview mirror, Brown is still reaping the benefit of his CU experience and now he wants to provide a similar opportunity for current and future Colorado Buffaloes.
He is doing so by giving back and endowing a scholarship for the CU football program. He would no doubt love to see the Buffaloes return to the elite level at which they played when he was part of the program, and he also wants to help current and future Buffaloes understand that there will be more to their lives than playing the game they love.
I’m at the age that this kind of thing is super important to me, Brown said recently. No doubt, I want the kids who go to college to play football to be incredible football players and have incredible success on the football field because that’s what they came there to do. But at the same time, you are going to be a regular citizen and an alumni of the University of Colorado for far longer than you will be a part of that particular team or longer than you play football. So use that experience at Colorado as a springboard to literally the rest of your life.
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