Feb 24, 2016 5 min read

CALIFORNIA – Bill Brown’s four-decade college basketball coaching career ended Wednesday night with a first – a rain delay.

It also included something that has been too common this season – a loss.

Edinboro spoiled the final game in Brown’s 20-year career as head coach at California University by holding a late rally and edging the Vulcans, 79-75, in a PSAC West Division game.

Even with all his experience, Brown certainly could not have envisioned his finale being stopped by, of all things, rain.

The game was halted with the score tied 32-32 and 1:27 remaining in the first half when the Convocation Center roof began leaking, caused by heavy rain in the area. After a 10-minute stoppage, officials decided to send the teams to their respective locker rooms and start halftime early.

“I told the officials that I had instructed somebody in the stands, if we fell behind, to go up on the roof and jump up and down until it created a hole,” Brown joked.

The leak stopped a few minutes later, and when play resumed, Edinboro pulled away, using a pair of 7-0 runs to take a 63-52 lead with nine minutes remaining.

The Vulcans rallied in the final four minutes, closing to within 77-75 after a layup by Tony Richardson with 25 seconds left. Edinboro’s Henri Wade-Chatman converted a free throw to make it a three-point game before Cal’s Luka Andjusic, who scored a team-high 17 points, had his potential game-tying three-pointer bounce of the rim.

The loss was the 10th in a row for Cal as the Vulcans ended the season with an uncharacteristic 4-18 record in the PSAC and 7-18 mark overall.

“My only regret is that we didn’t win this year,” said Brown, who had a 365-211 record with the Vulcans and led Cal to the NCAA Division II Final Four in 2008.

The 64-year-old Brown, however, is glad that he could go out on his own terms, at a time of his choosing.

“If you stay in it long enough, then you’re going to be fired,” Brown said. “It was important for me to go out the right way.

“As a coach, you always know when it’s time. The program needed new direction because we didn’t accomplish the things we are accustomed to accomplishing. It has been an exciting journey.”

Brown was right. It was time.

Though Brown was a five-time recipient of the PSAC Coach of the Year Award, something happened after the 2007-08 season, when Cal won 28 games and advanced to the Elite Eight for the only time under Brown. The Vulcans went on a slow but steady decline, spinning their wheels in mediocrity then getting worse. Cal finally hit bottom this season.

Attendance at games dwindled, even after the team moved several years ago into the 6,000-seat Convocation Center. Many games drew only a few hundred fans, which left Cal without the strong homecourt advantage it had at Hamer Hall.

Maybe the program fell victim to complacency, or reduced budgets, or scholarship reductions or recruiting mistakes. Maybe Brown just go tired or fell victim to coaching burnout.

Something has been missing. A change had to be made and Brown knew it. And he’s thankful he had a chance to spend 20 mostly memorable seasons at Cal.

“It has been an interesting year. I prefer to look at the positives and hopefully everyone will remember the entire 20 years. I had a lot of fun. It has been an exciting journey. It has been tedious at times because of my physical limitations.”

Brown is a double amputee. He had his right leg amputated below the right knee in 2006, the result of a 20-year battle with Type-I diabetes. He had the left leg amputated two years ago.

Through it all, Brown maintained a don’t-feel-sorry-for-me attitude and never complained or made excuses. His positive approach to life inspired not only his players but those who know him.

Brown was as good a recruiter as there was in major college basketball from 1980 to 1985, when he was an assistant at Arkansas under legendary coach Eddie Sutton. When Sutton moved on to Kentucky, Brown was hired as the head coach at Sacramento State, where the athletic director was Tom Pucci, who would eventually hire Brown again at Cal.

After two seasons at Sacramento State, during the schools’ transition to Division I, Brown became an assistant at Tennessee for one season. Then he moved back to his native Ohio to become head coach at Division III Kenyon, a place where stringent academic requirements make it difficult to win. Brown, however, won big and guided the Lords to two NCAA Division III tournaments in eight years.

In 1996, he was hired at Cal to succeed Jim Boone, who left for Robert Morris after taking the Vulcans to the Final Four of the Division II tournament.

Brown said he had no plans beyond today.

“I’m going to take (Thursday) off. I haven’t thought past that,” Brown said. “I have plenty of time now to think about the future. I’m fortunate that my children have given me nine wonderful grandchildren. I still have unfinished business. I want to be healthy enough to enjoy my family.”