I began my sportswriting career under Dick Olmstead, who taught me about the importance of history. Olmstead was a fanatic about recordkeeping, and if anybody dared to say some new young athlete was great, he was quick to say, “Let me tell you about Paul Warfield, Bill White, and William McKinley.
Warfield and White graduated from Warren Harding High School long before there was a need for a second high school. While both had legendary prep careers, it was their post-graduate work that was remarkable.
Warfield starred at Ohio State, in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns and the Miami Dolphins,, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983.
White made his mark in the classroom and on the baseball field. He starred at Harding, Hiram College, and was an eight-time All-Star for the New York/San Francisco Giants, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Philadelphia Phillies. He later became president of MLB’s National League. White will receive the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2026.
McKinley was a Kinsman product who became a Major League Baseball umpire after serving in World War II. McKinley appeared in the World Series in 1950, 1952, 1857 and 1964. He worked the All-Star Game in 1953, 1958 and 1962. If you were lucky enough to hear him present as a guest speaker, you would understand why he was revered nationwide.
As many of you know, I recently helped Steve Arnold, a legendary high school coach at WGH, write his autobiography, entitled Born to Lead: Trailblazer, Mentor & Life Coach. Much of that exercise involved examining the history of Warren athletics. We both agreed that such a manuscript would not be complete without a word about the Browner brothers, who emerged in the 1970s as the greatest sports family in all of Warren sports history.
In their honor, Sixth Street in Warren will be named Browner Way on Friday, July 17. It’s where Ross, Jimmie, Willard, Joey, Keith, and Gerald grew up with their sisters. It’s a fitting tribute, one I think even Olmstead, my old mentor, would celebrate.
In conjunction with the dedication, Steve and I present “Chapter 38: Oh, Brother!” as a tribute to the Sensational Six, five of whom died far too early.
CHAPTER 38
Oh, Brother!
EDITOR’S NOTE: In documenting the events of Steve Arnold’s life, it goes without saying that we have recounted a brief history of Warren athletics. The author and the coach agree that such a dissertation would not be complete without a mention of the Browner brothers.
While Paul Warfield will always be remembered by Warrenites as the GOAT, the achievements of the Browner brothers will never be surpassed. It goes without saying that they are the greatest family of athletes ever to call Warren home. Ross, Jimmie, Willard, Joey, Keith, and Gerald all played at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities. Four of the six were drafted to play in the NFL.
As a Harding alum, Arnold grew up in the shadow of the Browner brothers. They all played a variety of sports in the 1970s and 1980s, and Ross, Jimmie, Joey, and Keith had lengthy NFL careers.
Aside from their football skills, the editor recalls Ross running in the Ohio state track meet, Jimmie owning a black belt in karate, and Willard being a leading scorer on the Raiders’ basketball team under Coach John Lawhorn.
Arnold is adamant that the Browners do not get enough credit for the mark they made on athletics nationally.
“I don’t think they get their just due, given they came from one family. I’m not talking stepbrothers or half-brothers. They were the product of a hard-working family. They were all raised under the same roof by Julia and James Browner.”
The boys were not the only athletes in the family, either. Sisters Olivia and Burdette played sports, too.
Arnold was attending a football clinic in Iowa when he asked a number of the assembled coaches to tell him the names of the best combination of brothers to play in the NFL. Everyone struggled to come up with a name.
“Any time you ask that question, everyone names the Selmon brothers — Lee Roy, Dewey, and Lucious (WFL). They forget about the Browners for some reason,” Arnold said.
In 2024, Arnold and David were at a Steelers training camp in Pittsburgh to observe Hardng alum, James Daniels. Steve asked the same question of legendary head coach Mike Tomlin.
“He thought for about 20 seconds and said, ‘Oh, that’s easy. That’s the Browner brothers.’ I was so elated that he recognized the Browner brothers,” Arnold said.
Ross was the oldest and set the standard for his siblings. He was one of the most decorated players in college football history, winning the Outland Trophy and Maxwell Award at Notre Dame. Brothers Jimmie and Willard followed him and played for the Fighting Irish.
Arnold believes Ross could have been the MVP of Super Bowl XVI had the Bengals won the game. Instead, the 49ers won, 26-21, and Joe Montana won the prize.
Like his brother, Jimmie played for the Bengals. Joey played at USC and was a six-time Pro Bowler for the Minnesota Vikings. Keith also played at Southern Cal and was drafted into the NFL by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Willard had a free agent stint with the Steelers.
Younger brother Gerald was a 6-foot-4, 315-pound defensive lineman for Georgia and Grambling. There was always talk of him being the best athlete in the family. Warrenites fans whispered he could dunk a basketball with both hands as a 250-pound freshman.
“Gerald was my age,” Arnold said. “We played on the same all-star baseball team that was coached by my father, Mr. McMillan, Mr. Hines, and Rich Middleton,” Arnold recalled.
Gerald, like Willard, had a brief stint in professional football, playing for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
Gerald and Steve reunited briefly in 1989 when the Arnold family went to Pasadena to see his brother, David, play in the Rose Bowl.
“I remember seeing Gerald there. He was wearing a big yellow events jacket. We got to talk briefly before we were ushered off to our seats. It was unbelievable to see him again.”
Ross returned to Warren in 2016 for the inaugural Legends Football Banquet and Golf Outing. Arnold picked him up at the airport and recalls trading stories.
“As soon as we got into Warren, Ross said: ‘Steve, ride by the Hot Dog Shoppe, and take me down by my old home, off of Tod Avenue, SW.”
Ross pointed out some of the West Side spots the brothers frequented. Sixth Street, Eighth Street, Karl Avenue, and Baker Street were where the boys roamed and played when they were growing up.
“We rode around and actually parked in the driveway (of his parents’ home) and reminisced a little bit. Ross got out and talked to the guy who lives there now. You could tell it was bringing back memories for Ross. He said he remembered him and his brothers would leave the Y, stop at the Hot Dog Shoppe, and get 10 hot dogs between them. They would eat them and a bag of fries before they got home.”
“A lot of credit goes to their mom and dad. They raised their sons and daughters the right way,” Arnold added.
Ross summed up the family dynamics pretty well.
“Warren was a great place to grow up,” he said. “One thing about it was our parents always wanted us to stay off the streets and not be in gangs and all that type of thing. (They wanted us) to learn a trade or something that was going to be a positive in life. Sports really turned out to be one of those positive things.”
Ross attended the 2016 banquet to pay tribute to the Harding football team, as well as make a presentation on behalf of the National Football League. It was the fiftieth year of the Super Bowl, and the NFL — in an effort to honor the hundreds of players who had participated in the biggest games of the half-century — awarded a golden Wilson football to every high school that had had an alum (coach or player) listed on a Super Bowl roster. Arnold accepted three balls that night on behalf of Harding High School, marking the Super Bowl achievements of Warfield, Browner, and Manningham. All are proudly displayed in the trophy case at the high school.
A greater honor was yet to come.
In 2021, Jimmie sent Coach Arnold a collection of Browner memorabilia, much of which he still treasures.
“He (Jimmie) said it was a gift from him and his brothers to me for being the first African American football coach in the history of the Warren School System. It was something I never expected and means something very special to me,” Arnold said.
The coach used some of it to make a Browner Family Wall of Honor at the high school.
“I didn’t want their name to be forgotten,” he said.
To this day, players can look to the wall for motivation to work hard and achieve whatever potential they might desire.
* * *
■ According to available records, only Willard Browner has survived the new millennium. Five of the brothers — Ross (2022), Jimmie (2024), Keith (2025), Joey (2026), and Gerald (2016) — have died in the last decade. Willard was last known to reside in the Dayton area.