WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Donnie Brown was all about football.

The 1969 Butler graduate was a three-year letterman for the Golden Tornado, playing linebacker, fullback, handling the kickoff and PAT duties.

“I was probably one of the last straight-on kickers around,” he said, laughing.

But he was just embarking upon a lengthy football career that netted him a scholarship to Wake Forest and seven years as the strength coach for the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals.

Now he's landed himself in the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame. Brown will be inducted along with Mike Seybert, Cliff Diehl, Mickey Haley, T.J. McCance and Howard Hammonds during a 5 p.m. ceremony Sept. 18 in the high school cafeteria. The honorees will then be recognized on the field prior to Butler's home football game with North Hills that night.

“I'm thrilled about this,” Brown said. “When I was a kid playing Midget football for Penn Street, guys like Terry Hanratty, Mike Kelly, Bill Rettig, the Saul brothers ... Those were my heroes. It didn't get any better than that.

“I wanted to be like those guys. Now, to be joining the Hall of Fame with them is very humbling. I grew up in a Golden Era in Butler in the 50s and 60s — life was a lot simpler and slower back then. ”

Brown was primarily an inside linebacker in high school. He saw action on special teams as a sophomore in 1966 as Butler finished 6-3. He started at linebacker in 1967 and 1968 and was part of a defense that produced eight shutouts.

“I was brought in at fullback for blocking or in short yardage situations,” Brown said. “But playing for Coach (Art) Bernardi, you knew what your prime position was.

“Our best team was my junior year (1967). We lost our opener to Youngstown Ursuline (20-8) in a monsoon. Then we won seven straight and would have gone to the WPIAL championship game had we beaten New Castle.”

The Golden Tornado dropped a 16-6 decision to New Castle that year after shutting out five of its seven opponents during the winning streak. Butler was 6-3 during Brown's senior season in 1968, losing decisions of 12-0 to Hempfield, 7-6 to Hopewell and 14-6 to Beaver Falls.

“Three losses was considered a bad year in those days,” Brown said.

He wound up at Wake Forest when the Demon Deacons hired Cal Stoll as head coach. Stoll had been recruiting coordinator at Michigan State and Western Pennsylvania was one of his primary areas.

Brown said Stoll became good friends with coaches Bernardi and Paul Uram after recruiting Rich and Ron Saul to Michigan State “and that's how I wound up at Wake Forest.”

Brown was a sophomore on the 1970 Wake Forest team that won the school's first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Wake Forest was 6-5 that year, 5-1 in the ACC.

“We started off 0-3 that year, then beat Virginia,” Brown said. “Our quarterback's girlfriend was killed in a car crash after that game and we thought our season was in big trouble. Then we wind up winning the ACC.”

Wake Forest went 6-5 the following year. Under a new coach in 1972, the team finished 2-9. Brown started at linebacker and was named the team's MVP.

“Being MVP of a 2-9 team ... I don't speak about that to too many people,” Brown said.

Brown backed up eventual Pittsburgh Steeler draft pick Ed Bradley at outside linebacker for much of his collegiate career. He and Bradley both live in Winston-Salem and are good friends to this day.

Uram called Brown one day to inform him new St. Louis Cardinals coach Bud Wilkinson was looking for a strength coach. He interviewed and got the job.

“I never envisioned coaching in the NFL, but I did want to enter the coaching field,” Brown said. “That's why I went back to Wake Forest and got my masters in teaching. I finished that up at Saint Louis University while I was with the Cardinals.

“I loved football and my time playing in Butler. I started playing football when I was 10 with the Penn Street Cardinals and 25 years later, I ended my career with the NFL's Cardinals. The lasting friendships I made and the local rivalries — that's what I remember most.”