Since Mike Brown and Anita Rossing Arrived at the University of Hawai`i five years ago, the UH diving program has steadily improved to become a national power.
The culmination of this emergence happened last year when QionJie Huang became Hawai`i’s first ever NCAA Champion in diving. Huang and teammate Rui Wang had four Top 6 finishes at the Women’s NCAA Championships, more than any other school. Brown’s sixth year at Hawai`i has the potential of being even better.
While at Hawai`i, Brown has earned the 2001 PCSC Co-Coach of the Year with his wife and co-coach Anita Rossing. In 2002, Brown was voted WAC Diving Coach of the Year by his peers and followed that in 2003 with NIC Diving Coach honors. Highlighting Brown’s collegiate coaching career are three NCAA Diving Coach of the year awards while he was coaching at Texas. Texas won 14 National Team titles, (2 AIAW, 12 NCAA) and had divers win seven individual national titles, (1 AIAW, 6 NCAA).
On the international diving scene, Brown was a U.S. Olympic Diving Team coach in 1992 (Barcelona) and he also coached the U.S. Olympic Team Tour in 1980. While serving as a U.S. National team coach for 20 years from 1977-96, Brown coached the U.S. teams at the World Championships in 1982; the World University Games in 1979, 1981, 1985, and 1987; the FINA World Cup teams in 1983, 1987, 1989, and 1991; the 1990 Goodwill Games; and the 1991 Pan American Games. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Brown coached divers from Sweden, Finland, Austria, and China.
Before his coaching career, Brown excelled as a competitive athlete. At George Washington High in Denver, he became the Colorado State Champion in swimming and gymnastics while earning high school All-America honors in diving and trampoline. At the collegiate level, Brown focused on diving t Dartmouth College where he won three EISL Conference Championships from 1968-1970 while earning NCAA All-American honors in 1969 and 1970. After receiving an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship to attend Indiana University, Brown won the 1971 AAU National Diving Championship on the 1-meter springboard. In Brown’s favorite event, the 10-meter platform, he was a National AAU finalist in 18 of the 20 National AAU Championships held between 1967 and 1976. Between 1968-1976, Brown was able to represent the U.S. as an athlete in international events in Canada, Russia, South Africa and the U.S.A.
While coaching in Austin from 1976-1994, Brown was involved in diving on many levels. He founded the Longhorn Diving Camp in 1977 and under the administrative guidance of Anita Rossing, the camp grew to where it was serving over 100 divers every summer. Brown guided the Longhorn Diving Club senior team to several Top 3 finishes at the U.S. Diving Championships.
Brown enjoyed serving as Meet Director of a variety of diving competitions including the 1980 U.S. Diving National Championships. With the administrative help of Chuck and Sherel Knesel, Brown created the All-American Diving Invitationals and Austin Cups that were colossal annual diving events for nearly 20 years. Brown has also been extensively involved with U.S. Diving, Inc., on the national administrative level including serving on the Board of Directors and as the Chairperson of the Olympic International Subcommittee of USD.
Brown graduate from Dartmouth with an A.B. in mathematics and earned a master’s degree in secondary education from Indiana in 1973. He enjoys reading, skiing, and swimming with dolphins and whales. He and Rossing live in Honolulu with there daughter, Rika.
