Elwood Stanley Brown (April 9, 1883 – March 24, 1924) was an American sports administrator, and basketball coach. As a leader in the YMCA, he promoted sports in the Philippines, helped establish the Far Eastern Games, and founded the first Boy Scout troops in the Philippines. He also helped organize the American Expeditionary Forces Games and the Inter-Allied Games. Brown worked closely with Pierre de Coubertin and the International Olympic Committee in propagating the Olympic Games through the YMCA.
Involvement in sports
Brown joined the YMCA in 1892, and stayed for life. At the Chicago YMCA, he assisted Physical Director George Wolf Ehler,[1] 1898–1903. Brown then studied at Wheaton College in Illinois, where he was also a basketball player and coach (1904 and 1905 seasons), but could not complete his course due to financial constraints. He next served as coach of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignbasketball team for the 1905–06 season, then was hired as Chicago YMCA Physical Director in 1906. In 1907, he became Physical Director of the Salt Lake CityYMCA, serving until the start of 1910.[citation needed]
Offered the job of Physical Director of the Manila YMCA, Brown moved to the US Philippine Islands in January 1910 and immediately introduced basketball and volleyball. (Since then, the Philippines has become a regional power in men's basketball.)[citation needed]
In the summers of 1910 and 1911 (mid-February to late May), by request of Governor-General William Cameron Forbes, Brown set up a sports program for Filipino insular government employees at the summer capital of Baguio, a hugely successful project that favorably impressed the Governor. After he was appointed Chairman of the Playground Commission by Gov. Forbes, Brown set up a network of public playgrounds in Manila.[citation needed]
In November 1910, Brown proposed the establishment of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF) which was founded in January 1911 with Gov. Forbes as president and Brown as the Secretary. Simultaneously, various sports bodies for individual sports were organised under the PAAF umbrella. The PAAF was recognized in 1929 by the International Olympic Committee as the Philippine Olympic authority, and later changed its name to Philippine Olympic Committee in 1975.[2][3]
In 1911 Brown became director of athletics at the famous Manila Carnival. The Carnival was an exposition and festival showcasing American and Philippine culture, commerce, industry, politics, military, and tourism, would last from 1908 to 1939, and would be copied by other cities and towns across the islands. Brown used the Carnival to promote sports in Asia. In the same year, the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation invited foreign participation at the Manila Carnival games.[citation needed]
In September 1912, Brown proposed the organization of a "Far Eastern Olympic Games" during the 1913 Manila Carnival, that resulted in the formation of the Far Eastern Olympic Association, with Gov. Forbes as president and Brown as Secretary-General (1912–January 1918), and the holding of the Far Eastern Olympic Games, January–February 1913. (In 1915, the names were changed to Far Eastern Athletic Association and Far Eastern Championship Games. With the help of Franklin Brown of the Tokyo YMCA, Japan, negatively influenced by Kanō Jigorō, reluctantly joined the Far Eastern Games. The Games met regularly until 1934,[4] when the politico-military situation in East Asia destroyed the momentum of international cooperative endeavors.)[5][6]
Brown collaborated with J. Howard Crocker and YMCA from missionaries in China, Japan and the Philippines, to establish the Far Eastern Championship Games.[7][8]
"Under the directorship of Elwood Brown, the YMCA transformed the Manila Carnival from a commercial exhibition to an athletic spectacle. The carnival achieved recognition as the Far East Olympics with the inclusion of teams from Japan and China in 1913." – Gerald Gems in Journal of Sport History, Spring 2006.[9]
With the collaboration of Everett Stanton Turner (a YMCA stalwart of education, sports, and Scouting in the Philippines),[10] Brown and the YMCA injected sports into the Philippine education curriculum.[11]
A full account of the historical influence of Brown's organizing efforts in Asia is the article "Muscular Christianity and the “Western Civilizing Mission”: Elwood S. Brown, the YMCA, and the Idea of the Far Eastern Championship Games" by Stefan Hübner in Diplomatic History, 39.3, December 9, 2013, pp 532–537. The abstract of the article describes Brown as "one of the most important promoters of muscular Christianity and “Olympism” during that period."[citation needed]
In 1920 Brown, representing the International Olympic Committee and the YMCA, traveled through South America and organised the South American Athletic Federation.[citation needed]
As the physical director of the Manila YMCA, Elwood Brown also became the Philippines' first Scoutmaster, organizing the very first Boy Scout troops in 1910.[13][14] Not surprisingly, Brown then involved the Boy Scouts in social service in the Manila Carnival. (Arguably, a part of his Scouting legacy is the Boy Scouts of the Philippines which was inaugurated in 1938 and has since become one of the largest Scout associations in the world.)[citation needed]
The Annual Report of the Boy Scouts of America, February 8, 1912, page 8 indicated that there were three Scoutmasters in the Philippine Islands as of January 1, 1912. The three Scouting organizers in the Philippines at that time on record were Elwood Stanley Brown, Mark Thompson, and George H. Mummert.[16]
During his world tour, Boy Scouts Founder, Sir Robert Stephenson Baden-Powell, sent back to London articles for publication in the British Scouting periodical The Scout. In issue no. 224, 27 July 1912, in the article "In the Cannibal Islands," Baden-Powell made a brief narration about his trip to Manila. He mentioned "Boy Scouts of the Philippines" and that he had been met by a "Guard of Honour." He quoted Brown's and Roosevelt's letters about the Manila fire and the Manila Carnival in which Manila Scouts rendered service. In the article, Baden-Powell urged his young British readers "to get into correspondence with your brother Scouts in Manila… The Chief Scoutmaster is Mr. Elwood Brown, Y.M.C.A., Manila."[citation needed]
Later life
Brown died of complications from a heart attack on March 24, 1924, at age 40.[17]
References
^George Wolf Ehler (1865–1947): Professor of physical education and Director of Athletics, University of Wisconsin. Chicago YMCA Physical Director, 1892–1904. Held various volunteer and professional positions in the Boy Scouts of America, 1910–1940, retiring as assistant to Chief Scout ExecutiveJames Edward West. Recipient, Silver Beaver, BSA. (Cf: The New York Times, February 16, 1947.) Authored Exercises Upon the Horse, Parallel Bars, Horizontal Bar (Chicago: YMCA, 1898).
^Turner, Everett Stanton, Nation Building, Manila: YMCA, 1965. Digitised 2006, University of Michigan.
^"Among the notable works and contributions of the YMCA in the Philippines were the organization of the first training class for schools in physical education; establishment of the first law school in English, now the College of Law of the University of the Philippines; conduct of the first Far Eastern Athletic Meet, the precursor of the Asian Games; organization of the first chartered Boy Scouts troop for Filipino boys; conduct of the first student conferences and first Rural Development Youth Work Camps; organization of the first National Fund Campaigns; and, establishment of the first gymnasia and swimming pools for Filipinos." –"History of YMCA International Work in the Philippines" at YMCA International Work in the Philippines: an inventory of its records, Elmer L. Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
^While the Scout Association of Japan recognizes Clarence Griffin (1873–1951) as Japan's first Scoutmaster and his 1st Yokohama Troop as Japan's first recognized Scout unit, no such richly deserved recognition is given to Elwood Stanley Brown and his three YMCA troops by the Boy Scouts of the Philippines.
^Unfortunately, the Miami News / Miami Metropolis archival site, formerly here[permanent dead link], was removed or closed in 2015. Hence citation of this article can no longer be accessed online.
Boy Scouts of the Philippines, On My Honor: Stories of Scouts in Action, Manila: Boy Scouts of the Philippines, 2001.
Contains full text of Roosevelt letter to James West – received by the BSP National Office from the BSA.
Buchanan, Ian, "Elwood S. Brown: Missionary Extraordinary" in Journal of Olympic History, Fall 1998, pages 12–13.[1]Archived September 19, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
Clymer, Kenton, Protestant Missionaries in the Philippines, 1898-1916, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986. ISBN978-0252012105.
England, Frederick, "History of the Far Eastern Athletic Association" in Official Bulletin of the International Olympic Committee, No. 2282, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1926, pages 18–19.
England arrived in the Philippines after Elwood Brown requested the government for a playground supervisor. England became Manila school's superintendent and Manila playground director. He was appointed as the first Philippine physical director in 1922, and was later succeeded by Regino Ylanan. England authored Physical Education: A Manual for Teachers, published by the Bureau of Education and Bureau of Printing, Manila.
Contains a detailed narrative of Brown and the YMCA's extensive work in propagating sports among Filipinos through the Philippine educational system and his massive influence in international sports competition in Asia.
Johnson, Wait & Elwood Brown, Official Athletic Almanac of the American Expeditionary Forces 1919. A.E.F. Championships, Inter-Allied Games, New York: American Sports Publishing, 1919.
