The Rev. Abraham Brown seemed like exactly the right man with whom I should talk about Black History Month.

He turns 81 next month. Born here, on Harrison Alley, off Central Avenue in downtown Tampa, once the apex of Tampa’s black community. He’s a preacher, a leader, was a football coach at Middleton and Blake after playing the sport and graduating from there. Heads the Prison Crusade here and has for the longest time, has saved a lot of minds and young men in his time and is of good sound and body and one heck of a man.

Rev. Abraham Brown

He has a deep, clear and resonant voice that he does not often raise, but he can. Some say he sure as heck sounds like they think God would sound like. He does. I have said that often and will say it again. Makes me stand at attention. He’s the man Tony Dungy may one day come to work for.

“Martin Luther King did this for us. It is a fine thing,” Brown said. “It makes me think of the other times, for example, when blacks were not allowed to play pro football. Remember. And I coached all-black teams against all white teams and then through integration. I know. I know,’’ and he does.

I covered several all-black state championships at Phillips Field, one of the best between Blake and Quincy. It was a big deal.

Sure was, Brown said.

“[FAMU coach] Jake Gaither taught me if you blocked and tackled better you would win,’’ he said. “That is what we did. I coached it as an assistant and as a head coach for a long time. My players also came to my early practices before school classes began. In those days I got the jump on the old white schools. Only Holland Aplin at Robinson did it. He was the toughest for me.’’

Abe produced nine who made it to the NFL, including Lloyd Mumphord, a defensive back who played so long as a star Miami defensive back; and the wonderful Leon McQuay, a sensational running back who was so effective in Canada but who died a young man.

We called him X-ray McQuay around here. He played for the University of Tampa in the 1970 win against FAMU at old Tampa Stadium. He was a star in the Spartans’ 49-7 victory. Some feared trouble in the stands. There was none. None.

“It meant a lot to us today,” Brown said. “Remember how recently it was the knock was on black quarterbacks and the pros looked down them, too?’’

I do.

“Remember Joe Gibbs and Doug Williams had a lot to do with that and the Bucs,’’ Brown said. Williams was recruited from Grambling by Gibbs and played for the Bucs. He is now with the Bucs’ front office.

“It was a major upset, but there have been a lot of upsets along the way today, haven’t there been?’’ asked Abe.

“I remember the all-black days. I remember the white vs. black, schools. I said it before, I taught blocking and tackling first and the hardest. Not all. Some white schools did. But punting and passing was important to those folks then.

“That business about the trouble at games, we never had any anytime. Before the FAMU-Tampa game I didn’t expect any and we had none. I know, before all this, a big meeting was called, whites, blacks, men, women, police, fire, rescue, school officials, principals and coaches and the rest and someone stood up and said the football games would be policed carefully and in substantial numbers. And they said we could play games on Saturday mornings.
“Well,’’ Abe said, “I stood up. I said I thought in this country you are innocent until proven guilty. I said we didn’t want to do that. I said we teach kids to play football and leave differences on the playing field. I said no, we didn’t like the idea.

“Well, it was as quiet as a rat licking cheese,’’ Rev. Brown said.

“Nobody said nothing. And, nobody did nothing and we kept on playing at night, like we all like we all wanted to do. And had no problems, like you said, none at the FAMU-Tampa game with all the whites on one side and the blacks on the other, no problems. None. It was a game and it got over and the people there got over whatever was ailing them.”

We’ve come a long way, he said, from black teams playing all-black teams and whites playing whites. Abe said he was grateful to his God for allowing him to be a part of it and to live to see it happen as it has. It’s a blessing.

It is, old friend and pioneer, Abraham, a blessing, indeed, sir.