Ross Browner with friend Peter Zabroski. (Courtesy Photo)
Ross Browner, Notre Dame defensive end from 1973-1977, was a two-time national champion, two-time unanimous All-American, and a College Football Hall of Famer—a true game-wrecker.
Browner was ferocious on the field and a loyal friend and “Notre Dame Man” off it.
In a 2014 interview with The Observer, he succinctly described his approach to the game: “I went in with a total mentality of go in and be a destroyer of offenses.”
Mission accomplished.
Sought after by many big-time schools while in high school in Warren, Ohio, Browner resisted a hard sell from Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes to stay home and play for the Buckeyes. He had been greatly impressed by Ara Parseghian and liked the size of Notre Dame’s campus compared to Ohio State’s. As he recounted in the book What it Means to be Fighting Irish (Triumph Books, 2004), “Ohio State has a very impressive campus, but eighty-six thousand students or whatever it was really concerned me, compared to just six thousand at Notre Dame.”
Browner was a four-year starter under Ara Parseghian and Dan Devine, playing on the 1973 and 1977 national championship teams. In his career, he totaled 340 tackles, 77 tackles-for-loss, 12 fumble recoveries, 10 deflected passes, and two blocked kicks. He holds school records for career tackles by a defensive lineman, tackles-for-loss in a single season (28 in 1976), career fumbles recovered (12), and career tackles-for-loss (77).
In his junior season of 1976, Browner was a unanimous All-American and won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best defensive lineman. He was also named the United Press International Lineman of the Year.
During his senior campaign, Browner was again a unanimous All-American and once again UPI Lineman of the Year—the only player to ever win the award twice. He also won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s best player and the Lombardi Award as the best lineman, finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting.
Picked eighth overall in the 1978 NFL draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, Browner went on to a 10-year pro career. He earned team MVP honors in his rookie season and set the Super Bowl record for tackles by a defensive lineman (10) in Super Bowl XVI against the 49ers. In that game, one of his tackles was a sack of former teammate Joe Montana. Browner played nine seasons with the Bengals (1978-86), starting 121 games, and ranks fifth on the Bengals’ all-time sack list with 58.
Tim Prister, publisher of IrishIllustrated.com and a long-time observer of Notre Dame football, saw Browner play and expressed a strong opinion about how good he was: “Ross Browner was the most dominant defensive player in the history of Notre Dame football. He was a man-child as a freshman, a Heisman Trophy-like presence on the ’77 national championship team, a proud representative of his alma mater, and a great NFL player. There are not enough superlatives to describe his prowess on the football field.”
Off the field, Browner was a joy to be around. Peter Zabroski, a classmate and long-time friend who was a varsity baseball player at Notre Dame and graduated in 1978, said of his friend: “(Browner was) the nicest, most outgoing person you could ever meet. We always laughed, smiled, laughed some more—his deep laugh shaking the room… We always ended our conversations with ‘I love you, bro.’”
Zabroski added: “Ross was a ‘goodwill ambassador’ wherever he went. He spread laughter and smiles. His gregariousness made those he encountered smile and laugh as well. He loved Notre Dame, and what meant more to him than his football awards was his diploma… because he worked so hard for that.”
Ross Browner established a reputation in the 1970s as arguably the most dominant defensive player to ever wear the blue and gold. That reputation persists to this day, making Ross Browner a most deserving recipient of the title All-Time Irish Hero.
(A version of this story previously appeared in Fighting Irish Preview, January, 2022)