In the weeks before Tony Brown’s death, Clark Atlanta University and alumni rallied to support one of their own with a scholarship named after the graduate, who was battling cancer.
The goal is to raise $100,000 for a basketball scholarship endowment at his alma mater.
Brown, who officiated more than 1,100 NBA games over almost two decades, died last week, his family announced. He was 55.
By Wednesday, more than $112,000 had been raised for the scholarship.
Brown, a 1989 graduate of the historically Black university, was diagnosed in April 2021 with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He recovered to the point where he was able to return to work in the NBA replay center last season, according to an article from The Associated Press. He entered hospice care in Atlanta in recent days, his family said.
“As a husband and father of three, Tony knows the value sports and education has played in his life and his family’s,” the website promoting the fundraising effort says. “The Tony Brown Basketball Program Scholarship Endowment was created to make sure that no athlete has to choose between their sport and education.”
Brown worked at Delta Air Lines while in school and retired from the company in 2007. He became a basketball referee in 2002 and worked four NBA All-Star games in 2006, 2017, 2018 and 2021, according to a news release. Earlier this month, the Clark Atlanta men’s basketball team visited Brown and signed a basketball jersey as a gift.
“Our entire family is grateful for the Clark Atlanta team coming to see Tony,” his wife, Tina Taylor-Brown, said in a statement at the time. “We had a chance to meet the young men who will benefit from this endowment scholarship for Clark Atlanta University’s basketball program. We want them to be able to focus on being student-athletes and not having to work a job. Academic excellence should be their job. We truly hope that Tony’s NBA and Delta family can help us achieve this goal.”
Attorney Mawuli Davis, one of the primary organizers of the scholarship effort, said the family is still pursuing the $100,000 goal and hopes to present a check for that amount to Clark Atlanta at its men’s basketball season-opener Nov. 7.
“Tony Brown embodies everything it means to be a Clark Atlanta basketball player,” Clark Atlanta coach Alfred Jordan said. “His hard work, determination, and perseverance are what set him apart from the rest because those qualities are hard to come by these days.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
