Rick Brown came to the Des Moines Register in 1978. As a fantastic sports writer in general and with a terrific knack for covering golf, Brown has done it enthusiastically on both the amateur and professional side of golf throughout his career – including covering the careers of Iowa Golf Hall of Fame members Zach Johnson, Gene Elliott and Mike McCoy just to name a few.

An 11-time Iowa Sportswriter of the Year winner, Brown recently retired from The Register in December of 2015. Over the years Brown has dutifully updated, maintained and added to ‘The Book’ – which is a large binder started by Bert McGrane that has newspaper clippings, scores, photos and other information from IGA championship and point events dating back several decades – sometimes dedicating hours searching through microfiche for old stories and information to add.

“Rick has done a tremendous job documenting and compiling the history of IGA Championships and Point Events throughout the years,” IGA Executive Director Chad Pitts said. “It’s always neat to see the stat or fact that Rick will come up with as it relates to the current year’s Iowa Amateur – that type of info always seems to be on the tip of his tongue.”

Mike Green, Director of Athletic Communications at Iowa State University also echoes Pitts’ comments.

“Rick has been one of Iowa golf’s greatest ambassadors,” Green said. “Simply put he is the Grantland Rice of Iowa Golf. If Rick called to do a story, you felt pretty special.”