Apr. 25—Oh, the places he's gone. The people he's seen.

It's good to be Kent Brown.

The Hammond native and University of Illinois graduate is retiring after 36 years in the sports information business. All but four of those were spent at his alma mater.

He has loved every minute of it. Well, almost.

"I would say that in the 36 years that I've done this, I've had less than one handful of fingers of days that I wasn't excited about going to work," Brown said. "I've had a really good run and did things I really liked doing. There were only a few days when I knew something not pleasant was going to happen that day."

How many of us can say that?

Because of his position, Brown has met some of the biggest names in sports, including the biggest in basketball: Michael Jordan.

When the GOAT's son Jeffrey played at Illinois from 2007-'10, Brown became his contact within the athletic department.

"I was the person Michael would call when he got close to the arena so we could let security know," Brown said. "I'd meet him in the tunnel to give him his ticket.

"That was a thrill when your phone rang and Michael Jordan's name popped up. It was pretty big."

There have been so many other special moments for Brown during his time on the job.

In January 2020 at the College Football Playoff title game, Brown delivered Red Grange's Illinois jersey for a halftime ceremony in New Orleans. Grange was honored as one of the 11 greatest players of all time, along with fellow Illini Dick Butkus.

"I found myself in the green room with Jim Brown and Roger Staubach and Barry Sanders," Brown said. "It was very surreal sitting there watching the second quarter of the national championship game with all these college football immortals. That was incredibly cool."

There have been many more "cool" experiences.

"Over time because of the position and because of different opportunities, you found yourself at places that were very unique," he said.

One of the highlights for Brown has been spending time with Butkus. When the iconic linebacker was announced as a member of the athletic department's Hall of Fame, he agreed to sit down for on-camera interview for "historical purposes."

"I got to ask the questions. I was the interviewer," Brown said. "To sit there and be able to really ask Dick Butkus for 45 minutes whatever I wanted to ask, that was pretty cool to do that with somebody of his stature."

Hoop dreams

In 1988, while working as a graduate assistant at Illinois, tall guy Brown (he's 6-foot-61/2) was asked to help out with the NBA All Star Game at Chicago Stadium.

He missed the Slam Dunk Contest (won by Jordan, of course) because of a conflict with an Illinois men's basketball game. Brown worked Sunday for CBS.

"My job was to the prompt the West team when to leave the locker room to go out on the court," Brown said.

He sat amongst giants, figuratively and literally. The West roster that year included Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon and Brown's basketball hero, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The thrill of a lifetime.

"Just to shake his hand and say, 'When I was a kid, I shot a sky hook all the time, and you were my idol,'" Brown said. "It meant something to me to do that."

Mr. Cub

Brown is an unabashed supporter of the team that calls Wrigley Field home.

"My baseball idol growing up was Ron Santo," Brown said.

He remembers getting a pack of Topps baseball cards in 1971 from the Decatur Osco. There was a Santo card inside. Brown held onto it. Good plan.

In the early 2000s, the baseball card turned out to be handy. Each year, the Cubs welcome a representative from Illinois athletics to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Brown accompanied the coach to the broadcast booth and got to meet Santo.

The next year, Brown took his Santo card with him and had the Hall of Famer sign it.

"It's one of my most prized possessions just because of his personality," Brown said. "Growing up as a kid, he was my guy."

Friendly folks

Brown has worked with a string of high-profile coaches and athletes at Illinois. So, what are they really like?

"People are generally very nice," he said. "Most people I've dealt with have been very cordial, very professional. That's one thing I've tried to be with the folks we run into. We have a job to do."

Brown has been in a few uncomfortable situations.

"When I've known about a coach's firing before the coach did. It's hard because you have a relationship with that person, yet we have a job to do," he said. "Those things affect so many people with a coaching change."

Brown has been universally praised by Illinois coaches over the years. He heard from many of them, both current and former, after announcing his retirement.

Tough days

Only one basketball team ends each season with the big trophy, and that has never been Illinois.

Brown was with the team after a Final Four loss to Michigan in 1989 and after the national title loss to North Carolina in 2005.

"I was pretty close with both those teams and the coaching staffs," Brown said. "It means so much. Having to talk to them shortly after the game: 'Dee (Brown) and Deron (Williams), we have to go to the press conference now.' No one wants to talk after losses. Those guys understood what we did, but those were really tough discussions."

Much worse than losses are devastating accidents, like the one that paralyzed late Illinois defensive end Bobby Roundtree.

While on the staff at Kansas State, Brown dealt with an accident involving defensive coordinator Phil Bennett's wife, who was struck by lightning while jogging and later passed away. She spent 10 days in the hospital, and Brown's job was to update the media.

"That was really hard," Brown said. "His two kids were the same age difference as my two kids, so it really hit me."

Sadly, the Brown family experienced a similar loss on Aug. 16, 2004, when Kent's wife, Robin, lost her battle with cancer.

"I was sitting there with two children, 6 and 9, the same situation as Phil was," he said. "You lose your partner and you are trying to figure out what you are going to do next with your children, who are your top priority.

"Having watched Phil go through that helped me."

The St. Joseph community and Illinois athletic department rallied around the Browns.

"The support I got from the staff and the athletic department staff was incredible," Brown said. "Ron (Guenther) basically gave me as much time as I needed."

Co-workers Cassie Arner, Derrick Burson and others took on added duties.

"There was about three weeks there where I needed time to get my life back in order," Brown said. "I wouldn't wish that on anybody, but I will tell you the response from our community, the town of St. Joseph, the people around and strangers, it was very humbling what people will do for someone in a situation like that.

"I will never be able to fully thank everybody."

Brown is remarried to Amy, who is now CEO of the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club. They live in Urbana.

The Browns have a "Brady Bunch"-esque family with six kids: Nicholle Metzger (husband Todd), Ty, Cameron, Lexi Henkelman (Cari), Cory Henkelman (Jessica) and Mallory MacDermott (Sean).

Kent and Amy have five grandchildren.

Brown's official retirement will be in June. He is about to turn 60 and plans to be remain in the workforce in a to-be-determined capacity.

Happy place

Ask Brown his all-time favorite moment at Illinois, and it is an easy answer — one that matches that of so many Illini basketball fans: March 26, 2005, Rosemont's Allstate Arena.

Illinois rallied from a 15-point deficit in the final four minutes against Arizona to earn a spot in the Final Four.

"At the end, it was very hard not to have an emotional outburst," Brown said.

Brown is supposed to stay professional. His loyalties are with Illinois, but he has work to do at the game.

Brown was going to the Final Four no matter what. He booked a room because Bruce Weber was set to get numerous Coach of the Year awards in St. Louis.

"My mind went to 'If this is not ending well for us, after tonight, I need to get ready to go to St. Louis,'" Brown said. "In the next couple of minutes, we whittled the lead down. I shifted back to 'I better get to a spot where I can get on the floor if this game ends and we win.'

"That will be a memory I will never forget."

And he will always remember walking out and seeing the crowd on championship Monday.

"That's what everybody works for. To be in that position for the final game of the basketball season," he said. "I remember stopping for a just a few seconds to take it in and what it all meant to get to that point."

Only one event topped it for Brown: watching his son Ty play for the state basketball championship in 2016 while at St. Joseph-Ogden.

"That was an incredible moment to watch your child compete and win a state championship," Brown said.