Clifton Brown Finds His Place In History At Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Clifton Brown never expected the phone call.

When David Squires, Program Director of the Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame, reached out ahead of the second annual induction ceremony, Brown assumed it was routine business. As a voter himself, calls about the ceremony were typical for Brown, but not this time.

“When he said ‘Congratulations’, I was like, what?” Brown said. “It really was an honor that hit me. That moment, for sure, held a lot of pride.”

Brown, a 45-year sports journalism veteran, who currently writes for the Baltimore Ravens, was inducted into the Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame (BSHOF) on April 11 at North Carolina A&T State University. 

It was his first Hall of Fame induction.

He was joined by BSHOF founder Rob Parker, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel assistant managing editor for sports Garry D. Howard, and trailblazing USA Today NBA reporter Ron Thomas as the organization’s second class of honorees.

For Brown, the moment felt bigger than a career milestone. He looked out at a room packed with family and friends who had traveled from across the country to be there, and felt something he said only hits you at a certain point in life.

“When I saw the audience full of so many relatives and friends who thought enough of me to come,” Brown said. “At the age I’m at now, to see that many people you love gather together for a happy occasion, that really is special.”

His path to that room was not a straight line. Brown’s career stretches from the Boca Raton News in 1981 through the Detroit Free Press, spending 19 years at The New York Times, with stops at The Sporting News and the Indianapolis Star.

At the Times, he became the first Black golf writer in the paper’s history. 

His connection to Baltimore runs deep as well. He first came to the city in 2013 as a Ravens insider for Comcast SportsNet, before eventually joining the Ravens organization directly in 2018.

Brown's bond with Parker stretches back to the early 1990s, when the two covered the New Jersey Nets and later the New York Knicks alongside fellow journalist and author Curtis Bunn.

Parker, who co-founded the Hall alongside Squires and others, called it one of his fondest memories of Brown.

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“It was the Three Musketeers with us,” Parker said. “I think we were the first to have three Black writers covering an NBA team together. Curtis wrote for Newsday. I wrote for the Daily News. [Clifton] wrote for the New York Times.”

They competed hard for every story. But when someone landed the exclusive, or had a piece grab the attention of the masses, the other two were the first to celebrate.

“Covering the Knicks with Cliff and Rob were the most fun years of my years on the beat,” said Bunn, now a published author who founded the annual National Book Club Conference. “It was highly competitive, yet we built a bond that would extend a lifetime. We did our jobs professionally and competed hard, but maintained our friendship throughout.”

Bunn said the three knew that “our success or failure would likely impact young Black journalists coming behind us. It's safe to say we succeeded.” Bunn added: “And over last 30 years, after we each moved on, we have maintained our brother-like connection.”

“He’s one of my closest friends in journalism,” Parker said of Brown. “I’m a little younger than him, so it was good to see somebody doing what I was doing, but with a little more experience. I learned from him.”

For Brown, the evening wasn’t just about looking back on his career. At the ceremony, he spoke directly to the young journalists in the room. The ones just starting to find their footing in a business that does not always make it easy.

“Anyone who wants to talk to me about journalism, I always want to make time,” Brown said. “I want to see more Black people, more women, more people of all colors and backgrounds in journalism. Having different voices covering the world is very important to society. A lot of doors that were closed for me and for people before me are open now. I want to leave those doors open for them.”

He closed with a message drawn from real experience.

“They say I’m a Hall of Famer,” Brown said. “But I’ve been laid off twice. When hard things happen that are not in your control, you have to get off the carpet. Believe in yourself. And keep winning.”

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