‘Your homeboy’ Roger B. Brown, pioneering sportswriter at the Star-Telegram, has died
Listen up DFW, your Mississippi homeboy is gone.
The legendary Roger B. Brown, the first full-time black sportswriter and columnist at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram who went on to become a daily fixture on KKDA-AM hosting a sports radio show as the voice of the community, passed away Monday. He was 61.
I met the laid-back, quick-witted Brown when I was in college at the University of Texas in 1986. I was covering the Red River Shootout for the Daily Texan and Brown had recently joined the Star-Telegram.
The details are fuzzy now, but Brown wanted me to call the Star-Telegram editor Bruce Raben to help him settle a dispute.
Although, I had just met him, I was his “homeboy.”
Ummhmm. (Roger B. Brown voice)
Brown’s career at the Star-Telegram began with him covering high schools and owning the recruiting beat. He broke the story about Dallas Carter All-America linebacker Jessie Armstead signing with the Miami Hurricanes in 1989.
He was a homeboy, too.
Ummhmm. (Roger B. Brown voice)
Everybody was Roger B.’s homeboy and everybody called him Roger B. or B.
Brown advanced from covering high school to the NBA and Dallas Mavericks, becoming not only the first black reporter to cover a major professional beat at the Star-Telegram but one of the first at any paper in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
NBA stars like Derek Harper of the Mavs soon became homeboys, too.
Former Star-Telegram columnist Gil LeBreton likes the tell the story of Roger B. writing a column about going fishing with Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley during the NBA Finals with no quotes from either in the published product.
Why did he need quotes to talk about his homeboys?
Ummhmm. (Roger B. voice)
Former Star-Telegram writer Jeff Caplan told the story on Facebook about the time he was covering North Texas for the Denton Record-Chronicle and he got left in the cornfields of DeKalb, Ill., following a game against Northern Illinois.
“Roger B. told me not to worry about it. ‘Finish your stories and I’ll give you a lift to Chicago,’” Caplan said he was told.
That day he became a homeboy, too.
Ummhmm. (Roger B. voice)
But while Roger B. forged his foundation in Dallas-Fort Worth at the Star-Telegram, he became a trusted and familiar voice of the community during his time with KKDA-AM, where he again broke ground with what would become the longest running daily black sports talk show in the state.
From 1990-2012, “Talking Sports With Roger B. Brown” could heard weekdays from 6-7 p.m., and on Sundays from 6-8 p.m. His barbershop style connected with the African-American community as the homeboy network, “hosted by your Mississippi homeboy Roger Brown.”
He also talked sports, as sports director, during “The Willis Johnson Morning Show.”
But it was his daily talk show the struck a chord and earned him loyal listeners while bonding the community with a number of guests and callers who all soon became co-hosts.
Roger B., a product of Jackson State University and Tougaloo College and therefore a fierce supporter of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, was always helping other homeboys break into the business.
It was no different when I joined the Star-Telegram in 1995. I soon became a co-host, then I hosted my own high school show while remaining a regular guest after I moved to the Cowboys beat.
Roger B. left the Star-Telegram in 2001 and his radio career ended in 2012 when the station laid off most off its employees and was sold.
His voice in community has been gone for sometime but word of his sudden death on Monday still hit like a ton of bricks. Former co-workers, colleagues and listeners remembered him fondly as a great guy and good friend.
“So sad to hear about Roger B. Brown, who died today,” said Mavs.com writer Dwain Price on Twitter Monday. “Roger B. and I were co-workers at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I also was one of his co-hosts on a sports radio show at KKDA. Roger B. had this unique way of keeping you laughing at all times. Please keep his family lifted in prayer.”
NBA legend and former slam dunk champ Spud Webb said, “Sorry to hear the news, had listened to him for a long time, always promoted things we were doing in the neighborhood, will be truly missed.”
Kevin Lyons, a former Star-Telegram staffer, had a similar reaction and experience.
“This is awful news. When I first started at the Star-Telegram, Roger B. was one of the first big names who was nice to me. He used to have me over to his house all the time, sharing stories or giving out advice. RIP.”
But they remained in disbelief. None more so than national media pundit Roland Martin who worked with Brown at the Star-Telegram and KKDA, and who now broadcasts on rolandsmartin.com.
“I am stunned that my Mississippi homeboy is gone,” Martin said in a text to the Star-Telegram. “We were colleagues, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers, and dear friends. Roger B. was a consummate professional who was always smiling, laughing, and putting folks at ease.
“We played phone tag on Thursday and Friday. He left me a 40-second voicemail. I can’t believe that’s the last time I will hear him saying, ‘What up, Ro! Call your homeboy back!’
“Man, I wish I could.”
Don’t we all.
DFW, your homeboy is gone.
RIP Roger B.
Ummhumm.
Roger B. Brown leaves to mourn sons Michael and Rylan, daughter Ryan, a sister Alicia Brown Young, a brother Kenneth Brown and a devoted partner Jocelyn Johnson.
Services are pending.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 2:15 PM.
