James E. "Big Fuzzy" Brown

Sport: Coach

Induction Year: 1992

The longest football dynasty in the top classification of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association started with a loss.

For 15 years, Ellis “Little Fuzzy” Brown was head football coach at Istrouma High of Baton Rouge and his twin brother, James “Big Fuzzy” Brown, was an assistant coach. But in 1950, after his only losing season, “Little Fuzzy” was promoted to assistant principal and his brother took over the coaching reins.

“Big Fuzzy” inherited a team that won only one game the previous year, and the Indians opened the 1950 season with a 12-7 loss to Lake Charles High.

Their only other loss in his first two seasons was to Little Rock , Ark. , in the second game of the 1951 season. Istrouma won eight state championships in 13 years under “Big Fuzzy.” In the top classification, the only other school that ever came close to that performance was Shreveport ‘s Byrd High—winning six titles in the first 12 years of the school’s existence.

Istrouma defeated Fair Park of Shreveport four times in the 1951 and 1952 seasons—twice in regular-season play and twice in Class AA state championship games.

Holy Cross of New Orleans, led by future Notre Dame standout Joe Heap, was a heavy favorite over Istrouma in the 1950 Class AA semifinals. Holy Cross, which had never lost to istrouma in six previous games, was favored by 13 of 20 sports writers in a statewide poll. But Pete McCulley’s 47-yard pass to Jim Mitchell and Dickie Craddock’s eight-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter gave Istrouma a 12-7 come-from-behind victory.

“They are a remarkable club,” Holy Cross coach Lou Brownson said after he watched Istrouma convert three fourth down gambles in a victory over Baton Rouge High.

Fair Park played both championship games without key players. When All-State halfback Rogers Hampton was sidelined by a back injury in the 1950 showdown, Tommy Davis rolled up 168 yards rushing in 25 carries for the Shreveporters. But it wasn’t enough in a 19-13 loss.

In 1951, Fair Park out-gained Istrouma by more than 100 yards rushing in their regular-season match-up and led 7-0 at halftime. But four second-half turnovers enabled Istrouma to score a 20-7 victory.

When they met again in the championship game, Davis was sidelined by a knee injury suffered in a playoff victory over Terrebonne the previous week. Unheralded halfback Dick Jamison had 102 yards rushing for Istrouma, including a 35-yard touchdown run, in his team’s 19-7 victory. End Larry Grissom, tackle Gus Nordstrom and fullback Harry Hodges were first-team All-State selections for the champions.

There was no three-peat in 1952, but Istrouma continued its mastery over Fair Park with a 2-0 victory over a team that bounced back from that loss to give the West Shreveport school its only state football championship.

When Billy Cannon was a senior at Istrouma, the Indians started a streak of three consecutive state titles with a 40-6 victory over Fair Park in the title game. That was Brown’s only unbeaten team, and he always considered it his best team. Cannon, who later won the Heisman Trophy at LSU, set the state scoring record with 228 points.

Istrouma defeated Byrd of Shreveport 14-7 in the finals a year later, and rolled past LaGrange of Lake Charles 34-13 in the 1957 title game.

He had a chance to make it four in a row with another unbeaten season in 1958, but Istrouma couldn’t hold on to an 18-0 lead over Lake Charles High and suffered a 20-18 loss in the playoff semifinals.

Brown’s teams also won state championships in 1959, 1961 and 1962, claiming 11 district titles in his first 13 seasons. Two of his players, Cannon and guard Roy Winston, are in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

At a banquet honoring him on Jan. 16, 1962, Brown said, “There are reasons why things like we are having here tonight happen. We are living in the best city in the United States and we have a fine community and fine school system. We’ve been fortunate to have a group of parents who have sent us some outstanding athletes, who have been willing to pay the price.”

Dr. Robert Alost, president of Northwestern State University, spent the first three years of his teaching career as an assistant to Brown’s Istrouma staff. “I can sum up the sercret to his success in one word,” Dr. Alost recalled. “Work. He had a life-long loe affair with football. It was his whole being. He was a great stickler for details, and an innovator. He was going to pro camps in the 1950s.”

The Brown boys grew up in the Arizona community of Claiborne Parish, but their family moved to Minden before they entered high school.

Their father, John C. Brown, was left in an orphanage when he was six months old. He completed only three years of formal schooling, but he became a self-educated and successful businessman. He managed a saw-mill and had a 200-acre farm when the twins went to LSU in 1925.

They played football at Minden High, but saw little action because they were too small. “Little Fuzzy” participated in football at LSU, and both boys played basketball and baseball.

“Big Fuzzy” started his coaching career at Morgan City , with his 1933 team bowing to eventual state champion Jesuit of New Orleans in the playoffs. “Little Fuzzy” coached at Picayune, Miss., and Baton Rouge High before getting the head coaching position at Istrouma in 1935—and hiring his brother as an assistant coach.

Istrouma won its first state championship in 1938, scoring a 19-12 victory over Haynesville.

“Big Fuzzy” Brown retired from coaching after the 1967 season, his only losing season. He died in 1977.