Gilbert Brown - College Career

College Career

Back in high school, Gilbert never looked at big-time football factories such as Michigan. He wanted to get away from what he saw in Detroit. He wanted a quiet, smaller environment in which to live after one of his classmates was gunned down. So he turned down Bo Schembechler and the University of Michigan to go to a school known for its powerful basketball program, and not for its football ability: the University of Kansas. The Kansas Jayhawks coach Glen Mason said, "The very first play of the first drill, he goes up against a lineman and he absolutely demolished him. We just looked around at each other."

When he was a Junior, Gilbert competed in the state tournament for high jump. He won 6 gold medals. With the Jayhawks, Brown helped build a winning program along with fellow defensive lineman and future NFL first round pick Dana Stubblefield (Kansas went to the Aloha Bowl in '92). But Brown went through more difficult times during his college years: a friend Brown had just met on campus died unexpectedly of spinal meningitis, and Brown's father died of congestive heart failure during Brown's senior year.

He started all but 2 games in four seasons at the University of Kansas (1989–92), and was tied for sixth in school history in tackles by a defensive lineman with 168, fifth in career tackles for loss with 30, and had 7½ career sacks. He finished second on the team in sacks, tackles for loss and fumbles recovered in 1991 while helping the Jayhawks hold opponents to an average of 150.9 yards per game on the ground, which was the best run defense at Kansas since 1968 at the time. A year earlier, as a sophomore, was named as the Jayhawks’ ‘Co-Defensive Most Valuable Player’ and earned second team All-Big Eight Conference recognition. Brown started nine games at nose guard as a freshman...An All-Academic Big Eight selection in 1991.

Still, Brown made a name for himself in football. He was poked in the eye one too many times his freshman year, so he started wearing the tinted visor that he wore throughout his professional career. And he came up with that gravedigger move at Kansas—after a big defensive hit, he would dig an imaginary grave, which became his trademark and nickname.

He majored in human development.