A tight-knit family. Values. A work ethic. Browns defensive end Courtney Brown got all this and more from tiny Alvin, S.C.,
population 1,000. And he has emerged with a solid education, a standout career at Penn State and a very promising future
ALVIN, S.C.: To 9-year-old Rockavius King, Alvin's annual festival parade on July 1 could have been a huge disappointment.
Two of the town's three pro football players, Tampa Bay quarterback Joe Hamilton and San Francisco cornerback Pierson Prioleau,
smiled, waved and threw candy as they were driven down Santee River Road in sport utility vehicles. But King wanted to see the No.
1 pick in this year's NFL Draft, new Browns defensive end Courtney Brown, and he was house-hunting back in Cleveland on the eve of
the team's training camp opening later this week.
"Why isn't he here?" Rockavius moaned.
"He's got things to do," responded Brown's mother, Shirley.
To make amends, quick-thinking Shirley opened her purse and presented the boy with an old Penn State football schedule with a color
picture of Courtney on it.
That was enough to pacify Rockavius. He carefully studied the photo, which seemed destined for a place of honor in his room.
"He plays football, basketball and runs track," Rockavius' mother said proudly. "But not if he doesn't keep his grades up."
A tiny burg situated on state Route 45 between St. Stephen and Jamestown, Courtney Brown's hometown of Alvin, S.C., isn't on the
road between here and anywhere. It has no stoplights, six stop signs. No restaurants, no big-chain gas station, only a rusty old
bait shop with a pump in front.
About 40 miles northeast of Charleston, Alvin has mainly convenience businesses, such as Kinlaw's Barbershop and Pool Hall, the M & B
Community Mart and a hair salon in a family home. Alvin's hubs are Kinlaw's, the 12-year-old recreation center and Bethlehem
Baptist Church, attended by most of its voting population of 1,000.
Most of Alvin's residents work in nearby factories. Its only millionaires play football. But its people don't act deprived. In some
ways, they seem rich.
"We may be country bumpkins, but our values are high," said Efern Kinlaw, Brown's cousin.
Everything valued in Alvin -- hard work, religion, education, manners, respect for elders, athletic achievement, close-knit family
and community support -- seemed to come together to make Brown the first player chosen in April's draft.
No other athlete at Macedonia High School got up at 4 a.m. to study for a test besides Brown. Few would think of lifting weights
early in the morning, then again later with his teammates, as Brown did. People in Alvin who went to college probably wouldn't try
to repeat his feat of taking 19 hours at Penn State one semester during football season.
But if you meet people from his hometown, Brown's work ethic appears totally in character.
On June 30, Brown's father, Ervin, retired after 38 years of service at Albany International, a textile plant that manufactures
felt. Ervin, a month shy of age 57, worked his way up to supervisor, but for most of that time, he toiled the midnight-to-8 a.m.
shift, earning the money to buy what neighbors say was the first brick house in Alvin. For the last 10 years, he's also held a
part-time job as a magistrate. He tells his wife he's a workaholic.
Tommie Lee Kinlaw, 51, owner of Kinlaw's, never went to barber school. Self-taught, he started by practicing on his family and
friends, then earned his license working in shops. Kinlaw has cut hair for 35 years and might handle 25 customers on a busy day
where the going rate is $8 a head or $12-13 if a beard needs trimming. The people of Alvin trust him implicitly; one woman lets him
shape her eyebrows with a double-edged razor blade. When Prioleau got married in May, Tommie Lee cut Brown's and Hamilton's hair in
a hotel room before the wedding.
Peter Prioleau, father of Pierson, has been Alvin's fire chief for 18 years and was one of 13 residents who built the fire station.
He's also spent 14 years as supervisor of public works in the nearby town of Goose Creek. Before that, he worked at the General
Electric steam turbine plant outside Charleston.
Five Brown children, including Courtney, the baby of the bunch, had Ervin to keep them in check and headed in the right direction.
But it was Courtney's half-brother, Rodney Kinlaw, son of Ervin, who taught Courtney to lift weights, igniting Brown's obsessive
work ethic.
Rodney was a star running back at Macedonia High School before an off-again, on-again career in three years at South Carolina
State. It was during those college days that Rodney recognized what 14-year-old Courtney, then 6-foot-1 and 165 pounds, might
become.
"Courtney was clumsy, lanky, goofy," Efern Kinlaw said. "But Rodney told me, `Courtney is going to be the man, and I'm going to
build him.' "
Rodney said he looked at Courtney's hands and feet and knew he was going to be at least 6-foot-5 or 6-6. (When Cleveland drafted
him, Courtney measured 6-5 and 271 pounds.) So he took Courtney, then a sophomore, to the now-battered weight bench next to the
pool table at Kinlaw's and showed him the right way to lift.
"I knew he had the talent to go to the next level," Rodney said. "He was a remarkable kid, willing to listen and do the right
things. I knew with a little help he was going to go a long way."
After the mandatory day off, Courtney beat Rodney to Kinlaw's for their second weight session.
Rodney, 35, works in shipping and receiving for a company in Goose Creek, still lifts weights and tries to help other kids like
Courtney. To show a friend of his son's how strong he could get, Rodney said he picked up a Toyota Corolla by its bumper and
hoisted the car 10 times.
Religion runs deep in Alvin, where Bethlehem Baptist Church has more than 300 members. Timberland High School football coach
Phillip Morgan, who was Courtney's coach at Macedonia before school consolidation, found a recent example. "Our softball team went
to Georgetown for a playoff game and got hammered," Morgan said. "The Georgetown coach's mother had died. Our girls got the
Georgetown girls together afterward and went out in the middle of the field and held a prayer for her."
Faith is a strong component of Courtney Brown's personality, too.
"In Courtney's mind, even with all the publicity he's gotten, I don't think it's taken away from the fact that he feels the things
he's doing are a gift from God," Morgan said.
It's hard to tell whether skipping church or skipping school would bring an Alvin kid more grief. Examples of good students are
everywhere. Shirley Brown was valedictorian of her high school class in St. Stephen. Peter Prioleau's nephew graduated from
Princeton and is now a Secret Service agent protecting Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail in New York.
Courtney Brown graduated in four years with a degree in integrative arts from Penn State. His lowest score on a high school test
was a 91. During his senior year at Macedonia High, he was a teacher's assistant.
"I didn't have to make Courtney study; he did it all on his own," Ervin Brown said. "When he was in the seventh grade, he was
already playing football (and) came to us and asked if he could play basketball. I told him if he didn't keep his grades up, he
knew what would happen. I never had to say anything else.
"I used to think he was pushing himself so hard, doing so much, was so tired. I'd say, `Don't overload yourself.' A few teachers
used to tell him that, too. He'd keep pushing, lifting weights and going to practice."
Ervin Brown said Courtney got his first letter from Penn State as a freshman. But when it came time to choose a college, Courtney
went about it meticulously.
"He had a list of what he wanted in a college," said Matthew Bradberry, Brown's basketball coach at Macedonia and now a
Timberland football assistant. "Tops on his list were things like graduation rate, the degree he wanted, then came a winning
program."
Morgan said when Courtney went to choose an agent, he was just as methodical. He had Penn State compliance coordinator John Bove
tape record every meeting.
Courtney Brown is a private person who says little, but he's obviously proud of what he's done. His room at home is filled with
trophies and awards, neatly framed and hung. Even his Boy Scout ribbons dangle from a string on the wall. And he had the constant
support and encouragement of the community.
When Pierson Prioleau got married on May 20, 250 people from Alvin showed up at his wedding in Radford, Va.
On May 6, Alvin held a Courtney Brown appreciation banquet at the rec center, and it drew a crowd of 1,500. A Charleston television
station put together a 15-minute highlight film of his career. Bove represented Penn State. Also in attendance were buddies
Prioleau and Hamilton, but they wouldn't sit at the head table.
"I was surprised there weren't more people there," Morgan said. "I was afraid I wouldn't get in. It got so bad that the deputy
sheriff had to stop the autographs so Courtney could eat."
Organized by Brown's cousins, the event nearly grew out of control.
"We were shopping for days," Shirley Brown said. "When Courtney came home, he opened up the refrigerator and said, `There must
be about 50 dozen eggs in here.' I did have about 32 dozen for the macaroni salad."
Brown was uncomfortable with all the attention. During the dinner, Morgan said Courtney "sat there with his head down and looked
up every once in a while."
It's no surprise that Alvin residents are proud of having three players in the NFL. "We always believed if young men and young
ladies got involved in something positive, we'd try to push them to another level," said Hamilton's father, Joe Sr.
"They always tried to be the best from the beginning, and we always told them they could make it," Tommie Lee Kinlaw said.
But Alvin players take some criticism with the praise. Hamilton Sr., with two sons who played football, devised a set of signals
during the game.
"If one of them had a negative play so far as their attitude, they'd look at the 50-yard line about six or seven rows up, and I'd
give them the eye contact. If they were running their mouth, I'd point to my mouth; that means shut it up. If they did something
where they weren't thinking, I'd point to my head."
But the elder Hamilton was always there. In Joe Jr.'s five years at Georgia Tech, his dad only missed two games, even attending
during his redshirt season.
Kinlaw couldn't sit in the bleachers for high school games. He'd roam the sidelines, shouting at the kids.
"I'd follow them up and down the field," Kinlaw said. "I'd say to Courtney, number 86, `Stick 'em Big Six.' When he'd hear us
yelling, he put one of those guys on his back. Then I'd yell, `That's the way to do it, Big Six.' "
Big Six is now No. 92 for the Cleveland Browns. The parties that used to be held at Kinlaw's pool room on Saturdays when Brown,
Prioleau and Hamilton were playing for Penn State, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech will now switch to Sundays. The regulars are
hoping that the NFL trio will get them a big-screen TV.
"It's gotten pretty wild at times. I thought the roof was going to come off this place," Kinlaw said. "For big games, we'd cook
out steaks in the back. I can remember some days when we'd watch Georgia Tech on offense and Penn State on defense."
Everyone at Kinlaw's is itching for football season. Tiny Budweiser flags representing all the NFL teams have been hung with their
new favorites -- Cleveland, Tampa Bay and San Francisco -- side by side in the center of the room.
"The new millennium and we've got the first draft pick in the world," said Nolie Fayall, doling out $1.25 beers at Kinlaw's one
afternoon. "It hasn't hit me yet. All those millions. You'd expect that type of millionaire to be in Beverly Hills."
