Former Tennessee football assistant coach, Sweetwater star Kippy Brown dies at 71

Former Tennessee football assistant coach Charles "Kippy" Brown has died. He was 71.

Brown was a trailblazer as the first Black quarterback to play at Sweetwater High School in 1969, and he led the Wildcats to back-to-back state championships in 1971 and 1972. Brown was recruited by Tennessee in high school, but opted to go play for Memphis. He became the first Black quarterback to play for Memphis, which was known as Memphis State when he played from 1974-77.

Brown eventually worked under three different Vols football coaches before winning Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seattle Seahawks in 2014. The Seahawks notched a 43-8 victory over the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos.

Brown was the wide receivers coach at Tennessee under Johnny Majors from 1983-89 and then again for Phillip Fulmer from 1993-94 as assistant head coach. Tennessee acquired the nickname "Wide Receiver U" when Brown worked for Majors, as Brown coached receivers like Anthony Miller, Tim McGee, Alvin Harper and Carl Pickens to greatness.

Fulmer said having Brown on his staff was a "fantastic time in our life," in a 2015 documentary produced by The Bingham Group.

"Kippy is smart, he's energetic, his personality is infectious. He's a great recruiter, and he's a detailed football coach," Fulmer said. "It really came together at a great time for us in our careers. We kind of changed the culture at Tennessee back to a winning program. We just had a lot of fun doing it."

Brown returned to Knoxville again in 2009 when Lane Kiffin hired him as wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator before the Chick-fil-A Bowl in December of 2009. Less than a month later, Brown was named the interim head coach after Kiffin left Tennessee for Southern Cal after one season.

UT instead hired Derek Dooley to replace Kiffin. Brown returned to the NFL as the wide receivers coach for Pete Carroll from 2010-14, and the Seahawks went to two straight Super Bowls before Brown retired in 2015.

Brown spent 22 seasons as an NFL assistant. His first NFL job was the running backs coach for the New York Jets from 1990-92 before he returned to Tennessee. He then went on to be an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Miami Dolphins, the Green Bay Packers, the Houston Texas and Detroit Lions, where he was the associate head coach and passing game coordinator in 2008.

"Had Lane not left, I would have probably left to come (to Seattle)," Brown told Knox News in 2015. "But I wouldn't leave if I was going to become the head coach. I took my shot, it didn't happen, so that's how I got out here, and I'm really happy about it."

In the same interview, Brown said he didn't feel like he had a real chance at the job. Brown was supposed to get the first interview, he said, and he ended up getting the last interview and by then, former athletic director Mike Hamilton had made up his mind.

"Anytime you lose, it's disappointing," Brown said. "But I couldn't be happier the way things have turned out. I feel like I'm blessed, because obviously that wasn't meant for me. This was, and it's been great."

Brown spent one year as a head coach in his career. He led the Memphis Maniax in the XFL during the 2001 season before the league folded. Brown called it "probably the most fun" he had in his career with his brother and good friends on his staff.

His coaching career began as an assistant coach at his alma mater from 1978-80. He was a wide receivers coach at Louisville for the 1982 season before joining Majors at Tennessee.

"There was a lot of things that stand out about him," former Memphis coach Richard Williamson said in the documentary. "He was a little things guy. He was very involved in little things, and we all know in the football business that little things lead to big things."

Brown was the oldest of 13 children. His nickname became Kippy because his grandfather liked to call him Skippy based on an old television Western he enjoyed. After his grandfather died, Brown's mother thought the nickname sounded too much like a dog's name, and Brown was known as Kippy from then on.

Brown was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women's athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll ; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social‬ . Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks: knoxnews.com/subscribe