Sports
Tim Brown a Tiger to Remember
Friday, 15 June 2012 by Chuck Kelly
Tim BrownFolks who live in Bell County's Precinct 2 know Tim Brown as your longtime Bell County Commissioner.
But, how many of you realize that Belton High School classmates of 1969-70 knew him as "Timmy" Brown, a great athlete, All-District in three sports --- track, basketball and football and All-State champion in discus as a senior.
Tim Brown is a Tiger to Remember!
Track was Brown's biggest sport, After winning the district discus title in his junior year with a record toss, he went on to win district and regional titles with record throws as a senior and finished his Tiger career by winning the Class 3A state discus championship with a record throw of 183' 6", breaking the BHS school record set by the legendary Richard Inman by 22 feet! The title toss was the second best throw in the state regardless of class in 1969 and ranked among the top ten in the nation.
Brown was selected to the all-state track team by the Texas Sportswriters Association as one of four boys in discus and he was ranked among the top ten boys in the nation in discus.
Timmy Brown was a 6'4" all district basketball postman in his junior and senior years. According to his Athletic Wall of Fame resume by Dr. Billy Wilbanks, Brown was noted as "a tough inside player, a tenacious rebounder with more than 20 rebounds in one game several times, and occasional high scorer, with highs of 31 points as a junior and 36 as a senior". He was the 2nd leading scorer on the 23-9 team of 1970.
He was named 1st team all district and Super-CenTex as a big tight end and tackle on the 1968 Big Red football team that won district with a 9-2 record. After missing seven games with a broken arm in his senior season, the 6-4, 220 pound Brown returned from his injury in time to help lead the 10-2-1 Tigers to their best playoff record in school history, advancing all the way to the state semi-finals before being edged 10-6 by West Columbia.
A number of Division I schools, including Texas, USC. Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas A&M recruited Timmy but he accepted a track scholarship from the Aggies and threw the discus for them before graduation in 1976 with a degree in Environmental Design and later earned a master's in land development from A&M in 1986.
Tim Brown, son of Tom and Mary Belle Brown of Salado, was self-employed before moving back to Bell County where he was elected to the Commissioners Court in 1994. He currently is serving in his fourth term, closing in on 20 years.
Brown and his wife of 29 years, Lana, have a home in Salado where she has worked for an attorney for years.
Their son, Roger Smith, and granddaughter, Caymen Smith, live in Pflugerville. Smith is assistant manager at a car dealership in Killeen.
The couple's daughter, Alexis and her husband Nate Leonard have a small contracting business in the Dallas area.
Being a county commissioner is a full time job, Brown said. "I've found out that when I try to do something on the side, I just run myself into the dirt. I draw a set of plans for people once in awhile or do a little consulting job but I really haven't done much else the last few years," he said. "I'm too old to start something else but I'm not ready for the rockin' chair yet. There are still a lot of good things that need to be done and I enjoy going to work every day. It's work that I like, it's worthwhile and at the end of the day, you feel good about what you were able to do."
