Bud Browning Explained

Bud Browning
Birth Date:5 October 1911
Birth Place:Lawton, Oklahoma, US
Death Place:Fort Collins, Colorado, US
High School:Enid (Enid, Oklahoma)
College:Oklahoma (1932–1935)
Career Position:Guard / forward
Career Start:1935
Career End:1943
Years1:1935
Team1:South Kansas Stage Lines
Years2:1936
Team2:Santa Fe Trailways
Years3:1937–1943
Team3:Phillips 66ers
Cyears1:1943–1948,
1953–1954,
1958–1964
Cteam1:Phillips 66ers
Highlights:As player:

As coach:

  • 7× AAU champion (1944–1948, 1962, 1963)

Omar M. "Bud" Browning (October 5, 1911 – September 11, 1978) was an American basketball coach. In 1948, he became the United States' second Summer Olympics men's basketball head coach. Browning led 1948 USA team to a final record of 8–0, en route to a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics basketball tournament, in London. Browning became the winning-est coach in AAU tournament history, when his teams won AAU championships in 1962 and 1963.

He performed as a player in the AAU from 1935 to 1943, but achieved his greatest fame as a coach for the Phillips 66ers, leading them to five consecutive AAU national titles from 1944 to 1948, and to two more titles in 1962 and 1963. Browning first achieved name recognition in the AAU in 1935, when he helped lead the Southern Kansas Stage Lines win the national championship over the McPherson Oil Refiners, 45–26. He was selected for the AAU All-American (all-star) team. The following year, playing for the Santa Fe Trailways team of Kansas City, he again was named All-American helping to take Santa Fe to third place over the Hutchinson Western Transits, 35–33.

The following year, Browning was recruited by the Phillips 66ers, who after a lapse of several years, reconstituted a new team to compete in the 1937 AAU championship. Browning joined such players as Joe Fortenberry, Jack Ragland, Chuck Hyatt, and Tom Pickell. The next two years the team took second in the national tournament, losing to the Denver Safeway Stores both times in the title game. Finally, in 1940, Browning played on his second national championship team, as the Phillips 66ers took their first AAU title, beating their nemesis the Denver team, now known as the Nuggets, in the title game, 39–36. In 1941, he played on the Phillips 66ers third place team, and in 1942 on the second place team.

In 1943, Browning helped the Phillips 66ers win their second national AAU title. The following year, he was named player-coach for the 66ers, and went on to an even more famous career as a coach. After winning five consecutive titles as first player-coach and then coach of the Phillips 66ers, in 1948 he became the United States's second Olympic men's basketball coach. Browning led the team to a final record of 8–0 en route to a gold medal in the 1948 Olympics in London, England.

Browning retired from coaching after 1948, but came back and coached the Phillips 66ers for one year in 1954. The team was not a factor in the AAU tournament. Browning returned to coaching the Phillips 66ers in 1959. Browning also coached the Phillips 66ers in the National Alliance of Basketball Leagues, and led them to two more AAU championships, in 1962 and 1963.

In 1957 Browning was named to the Helms Amateur Basketball Hall of Fame.