Liberal’s Brown Named FHSU Football Coach

He was deemed too young to be head coach at the time. It was 2001 and legendary LHS coach Gary Cornelsen announced his retirement. Young defensive coordinator Chris Brown was just cutting his teeth at the time after replacing Shane Taylor as D-coordinator. Liberal went with successful Pratt coach Rich Anderson and Brown moved to Topeka to join the Washburn staff. After nine years with the Ichabods, the 1992 LHS grad finally gets his chance to be head coach. Brown will be named the head football coach at Fort Hays State Friday afternoon. Brown had been Washburn’s defensive coordinator under Craig Schurig. FHSU let coach Kevin Verdugo loose after a 3-8 season but one year after the school’s first winning football season since 2004. Brown, 36, is a native of Liberal and was a three-time All-America free safety at Pittsburg State. He was the CNN Division II National Player of the Year in 1995, a member of the NCAA Quarter Century Team (1975-99) and was inducted in the Gorillas’ hall of fame in 2006.

Brown was an all state player for Liberal in 1991 and quarterbacked the Redskins to the state championship game. Brown was also an all state baseball player at Liberal in 1992 and led the team to state.