1965

Bill Brown may be the only person ever cut from the Dartmouth freshman baseball team to go on to a successful career in the major leagues. Bill, now the traveling secretary for the Detroit Tigers, has spent the years since graduation in activities that many '65 sports enthusiasts will envy.

Mike O'Connell, a close friend and fraternity brother of Bill's, says Bill was a "baseball nut" even before his college days. Mike describes Bill's interest in sports to be an extremely pure one that always expected the very best out of the game. He recalls that an early sign of Bill's talent was seen in his "masterminding" their Kappa Sigma team to an interfraternity Softball championship.

Bill's transition between fraternity softball and professional baseball came through his mailing "shotgun" letters to all the major league teams in the spring term of our senior year. Red Rolfe '31, Dartmouth athletic director and former Detroit manager, allowed Bill to use his name as a reference, and Bill feels this factor may have been instrumental in the special attention he received from the Tigers. Jim Campbell, then general manager of the Tigers, invited Bill to an interview at Fenway Park in Boston over Green Key Weekend and followed with a job offer shortly thereafter.

Passing up more customary employment or graduate school opportunities, Bill became an administrative assistant in the Tiger scouting department shortly after leaving Hanover. Although somewhat low on the organization chart, he was in an excellent position to watch the Tigers evolve into the World Series Champions of 1968 and to know such baseball legends as Denny McLain, Mickey Lolich, Al Kaline, and Norm Cash. Bill spent one year as the "jack-of-all-trades" business manager for a new Class A minor league team in Lakeland, Fla., but was soon promoted back to the parent club in Detroit. He served in the public relations department for the next ten years. In 1979, he was named to his present position as traveling secretary.

Bill describes his job as essentially that of a team travel director. His responsbilities are to book all flights, hotel rooms and buses for an entire major league season. He also has to make contingency plans in the event that rain or extra innings delay the normal conclusion of the game. He begins his annual sequence of activities by booking commercial flights in November and December for the approaching road games. January is spent working out the details of hotel arrangements. Buses and equipment trucks are arranged as the season gets under way and Bill continues on 24-hour call whenever and wherever the 40-person Tiger contingent travels. Although he often finds himself in what frequent travelers will recognize as "no win" situations, Bill was recently quoted in the Detroit News as saying, "the satisfaction of the job is seeing things go right and happen as they're supposed to and they do most of the time. It's seeing that rooms are ready and waiting, that the buses are there and that the right flight arrangements have been made. If you don't hear any complaints, I suppose it's the reversal of damning with faint praise."

Bill and his wife, Judy, a high school Spanish teacher, spend much of their free time in an activity Bill should know well; they are world travelers. They have visited Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Argentina and have just returned from a trip to Chile, a country they found to be both beautiful and interesting. Bill's primary hobby in the offseason also centers around the world of sports. For several years, he has refereed both basketball and football games for colleges and high schools in the Detroit area.

Although Bill's present position can often lead to a higher role in baseball, he says he thoroughly enjoys his job and has no immediate ambition beyond that of being a good traveling secretary. He does regret that the business of sports has become somewhat more complicated than in his earlier years due to the emergence of such difficult issues as free agency, drug testing, and salary arbitration. He encourages classmates to contact him, either in Detroit or at Tiger road games. Bill may not always be able to supply game tickets, but does promise to be an excellent source of advice for any members of our class needing to know "the best way to get out of town in a hurry."

Keeping the Detroit Tigers on the go keeps BillBrown '65 on the go. He is profiled in the '65column.

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