As a member of some of North Central College’s most successful basketball teams, Robert Brown ’90 was able to take his place among the Cardinals’ top individual players of all time while also tailoring his skill set to help propel his teams to heights previously unseen in the program’s history.
The Chicago native arrived on campus in 1986 as part of a tremendously talented group recruited by Head Coach and North Central Athletic Hall of Famer Bill Warden ’55. Brown immediately recognized the challenges he might face in become a standout on such a squad.
“It was something that I felt I would have to work at,” Brown said. “I wasn’t highly recruited. Coach Warden took a chance on me and hopefully it paid off for him as much as it paid off for me. It drove me to work even harder to be successful.”
That drive would soon bear fruit, as Brown put up just over 12 points per game as a freshman on a team that finished with an overall record of 16-10. Following the season, Brown was challenged by the coaching staff to extend his shooting range in order to take advantage of the recently implemented three-point line.
“The coaches said that my outside shot was something I needed to work on to continue to help the team and myself to be successful,” he said. “Our coaching staff helped with the basics and fundamentals of shooting, and I put those into practice with the team and on my own.”
By his sophomore season, Brown had improved well enough to have his most prosperous season as an individual, putting up 20.4 points and 4.7 rebounds per game while shooting a team-best 48.5 percent from the three-point line. Despite earning Third Team All-College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) accolades, Brown saw the need to further evolve as a player and agreed to a change suggested by Warden that was initially met with resistance.
“Coach Warden told me he wanted me to move to point guard,” Brown said. “I really had a lot of pushback when he asked me. I had a pretty successful year statistically as a sophomore, but I realized that had I accepted the responsibility and the role that Coach was trying to put me in, we might have had a more successful year.
“After that, I told him I was ready to accept the responsibility of playing point guard, knowing that it would take away from my personal numbers but would help us become a better team. I think that was a pivotal point in my maturity and development, not only as a basketball player, but as a man.”
Once again, Brown put forth the work to make such a transition a success, as he and the team prospered in a 1988-1989 season which saw the team finish 19-9 overall and win a share of a CCIW Championship. Brown averaged 16.6 points per game and shot at a 58.2 percent clip from three-point range, a single-season school record, which still stands.
Brown was voted the CCIW’s Most Outstanding Player as a senior, as he put up 16.3 points per contest and helped lead the Cardinals to their first outright CCIW title in 30 years and a 21-6 record which established a single-season school record for wins that would stand for 16 years. He graduated as the program’s all-time leader in three-pointers made (135) and remains North Central’s career leader in three-point percentage (.489). His 1,597 career points ranked him third in school history at the close of his career and he remains fifth on the all-time list.
Brown maintains a point guard’s mentality in his professional career and frequently calls upon his experiences and skills gained in his career as a collegiate student-athlete in his daily life.
“My experience playing at North Central really shaped me personally and professionally,” he said. “It taught me leadership, how to be a better teammate and how to communicate better. It has really shaped my leadership style, knowing how to put others in position to be successful.
“As a point guard, my job was to be the coach on the floor and put my teammates in position to win. That’s how I view my role as a leader in my career, making sure I put my team, colleagues and company in position to win.”
