A much beloved sports icon from Taylor’s early days is being honored today.
At the April 27th meeting of the Taylor City Council, city leaders read a proclamation designating May 6, 2023, as “Pet Brown Day” to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the untimely shooting death of Elmer “Pet” Brown, a world champion wrestler from Taylor, born in 1888.
“Before movies, before radio, before baseball or football, there was an urgent need for entertainment in Taylor,” said Dan Doss, a Taylor resident and a member of the Williamson County Historical Commission, at the meeting. “In the early part of the 20th century, that void was filled by wrestling and wrestling clubs. Far and away, the best wrestler was Pet Brown.”
According to Mayor Brandt Rydell’s proclamation, which was read at the meeting by District 4 City Councilman Robert Garcia, “Pet began wrestling as a hobby as a young boy, and quickly became known for his athletic prowess and skill, and attended a wrestling school in Chicago with his cousin Jim before dropping out of school to start a new business building roads in Williamson County, purchasing much of the equipment for his business with earnings from the wrestling matches he had won,” he said.
In 1913, Garcia read, Brown began training with Adolph Ernest and won numerous tournaments, including the World Middleweight Championship in 1916, officials said.
Joe Burgess, chair of the Friends of the Moody Museum, said Brown has a prominent place in Taylor’s history.
“At the Moody Museum ... we have a bust of Pet Brown, and this was actually in the Taylor fire house at one time because Pet Brown was also a fireman,” Burgess said. “And you will notice the replica of the old City Hall, which is where Pet Brown actually won his world championship fight.”
Doss said if world events had gone differently, Brown could have potentially won a medal in the Olympics.
“In 1914, one of the biggest sporting events ever held in Williamson County, was the welterweight wrestling championship held at the old Taylor Opera House, which was on Main Street, but it burned in 1927, so it’s not there anymore, and Pet Brown won,” Doss said. “He was at his best in 1914. The 1916 Olympics was scheduled to be held in Berlin, Germany. The stadium had already been built and of course, it was cancelled for World War I, and I always wonder, would Pet Brown have won a gold medal had he represented America in the wrestling contest of 1916?”
City leaders said Brown, who was shot and killed by a constable on May 6, 1923 in Cisco Texas, contributes to the day to Taylor’s legacy of being a home to sports legends.
“Pet Brown was widely known in the City of Taylor and beyond, and was beloved by the community for his kindness, modesty, good nature, and generosity,” Garcia read. ”His memory lives on, even 100 years after his untimely death.”
