Chris [nl]Brown, who served as an assistant coach for the Augsburg College men’s hockey team in the 1996-97 season, will return to Augsburg as men’s athletic equipment supervisor and men’s hockey assistant coach.
Brown was head coach at Marian College for four seasons, 2000-2004, compiling a 65-36-7 record, and was head coach for the Hamline University men’s hockey team in the 2004-05 season, compiling a 4-20-1 record.
Brown was an assistant coach for the Auggies during Mike Schwartz’s first season as head coach at Augsburg. He also served as the college’s sports information director during the 1996-97 school year.
“It’s great to be able to get a person of Chris’ caliber to come back and be a part of our program,” Schwartz said. “It’s great for our players.”
Brown will replace Augsburg alumnus Brad Schwartzbauer in the assistant coach and men’s athletic equipment supervisor positions. Schwartzbauer served in the positions for the 2004-05 school year.
Brown played collegiate hockey at the Wisconsin-River Falls, where he was a captain of the Falcons’ 1993-94 NCAA Division III national championship team. He scored 43 goals and had 57 assists for his 100 points in his 115-game collegiate career, earning NCHA All-Academic honors twice. He also played two seasons of junior hockey in the U.S. Hockey Association in Waterloo, Iowa., prior to playing at Wisconsin-River Falls.
Brown left Augsburg in 1997 to serve as an assistant coach at Alaska-Anchorage of the WCHA, which was led at the time by his former River Falls coach, Dean Talafous. He coordinated all recruiting efforts for the Seawolves during his three-season tenure there.
In 2000, Brown took over as head coach for Marian. The Sabres won MCHA regular-season titles in 2001- 02 and 2003-04, while winning postseason conference tournament titles in 2000- 01 and 2001-02. He compiled a 65-36-7 record at Marian, including a 51-8-3 league record and a conference-record 27-game winning streak. His 2001-02 Sabres squad went 16-0-0 to become the first MCHA team to ever claim an unbeaten league season. He earned MCHA Coach of the Year honors in 2001-02 and 2003-04, and was a finalist for the American Hockey Coaches Association’s Division III National Coach of the Year award three times.
Brown also served as men’s golf head coach at Marian.
Brown earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism with an economics minor from Wisconsin-River Falls in 1994, and earned a master’s degree in organizational leadership and quality from Marian. He also served as a sports editor and reporter for the Hastings (Minn.) Star-Gazette newspaper prior to starting his coaching career.
Brown is a member of the NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey committee.
