DENVER (AP) — Irv Brown, a Final Four referee who also coached baseball at University of Colorado, did color commentary on ESPN’s first college football broadcast and pioneered sports radio in Denver, died Sunday. He was 83.
Brown’s nephew confirmed the death.
In a statement sent late Sunday afternoon, the Colorado Buffaloes said Brown died from complications from an aggressive form of lymphoma that was diagnosed just last Wednesday.
Brown officiated in four of UCLA’s Final Fours in the 1960s and ’70s. He forged strong working relationships with everyone from Bob Knight to Dick Vitale, who tweeted that Brown had the whistle for his last appearance as a coach in the NCAA Tournament in 1977.
Brown was a fixture on talk radio in Denver, working with longtime partner Joe Williams on shows that spanned four decades.
He also coached baseball at Colorado before that program was shut down in 1980. Always quick with a quip , he once said: “I made CU baseball what it is today. Extinct.”
Brown was in the booth for ESPN’s first college football telecast, a game between Colorado and Oregon in 1979.
