Millsaps' Sean Brewer follows father into MSHOF

Posted on: July 23,2016

Sean Brewer was one of the greatest players in NCAA D-III history.

(This is the first of a series of stories on the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2016, which will be inducted in ceremonies Saturday night, July 30, at the Jackson Convention Complex. See below for ticket information.)

Rick Cleveland

The so-called football factories contributed by far the most to the College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2015. No surprise there. You had superstars such as Ricky Williams of Texas, Brian Bosworth of Oklahoma, Trev Alberts of Nebraska and Wes Chandler of Florida…
And right there, right in the middle of them, you also had: Sean Brewer, Millsaps College.
He may have been a surprise, but he belonged, just as Sean Brewer belongs in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, where he follows his father, the late Johnny Brewer.
At Millsaps, in the early 1990s, Sean Brewer dominated games as an undersized defensive lineman nobody could block. He was a 5-foot, 10-inch, 235-pound, one-man wrecking crew, who made 435 tackles and 52 quarterback sacks in four seasons, three of which he made first team All America.
Brewer was so good that the trophy that goes annually to the outstanding lineman in Division III is called the Sean Brewer Trophy. He was an elite, Division I talent who didn’t fit the Division I mold.
The late, great Johnny Brewer, a Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer who starred at Ole Miss and then made All Pro and played on championship teams with the Cleveland Browns, would be so proud. Johnny, Sean’s dad, was his first coach in tiny Redwood, 10 miles north of Vicksburg.
“Football was supposed to start in the third grade but Redwood was so small they let a few second graders play,” Sean Brewer, now a middle school principal in Madison, says. “My dad was the coach, which was pretty cool. How many second graders get an All-Pro, NFL Champion as a coach?”
Not many, but then how many second graders have a mother who was once a recording star and was the first serious girlfriend of Elvis Presley? Anita Wood Brewer, Sean’s mom, was before she fell in love with Johnny Brewer, a rangy, 6-4, 235-pounder who played both tight end and linebacker. Anita is petite, all of 5 feet, 2 inches.
Says Anita Brewer, laughing, “Poor Sean got his height from my side.”
But the son had his dad’s football ability and his dad’s passion for the sport. At Warren Central, where he helped his team win a state championship, he played linebacker and fullback and then defensive tackle and offensive guard. He was quick, strong and relentless.
But he was also short, about four to five inches shorter than the linemen recruited to play D-I. Sean played and starred in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game. He played with — and well — against guys who would go on to play for Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, State and USM. But those schools passed on Brewer. Does he wonder, Brewer is asked, what would have happened had he been given the opportunity at the higher level?
“I probably can’t count how many times the thought went through my head,” Sean Brewer says. “I had played against guys who became big stars. I think I know…But, you know, I’ve been at peace with that for a long, long time. The good Lord put me where I needed to be and I’ve never looked back. I love the guys I played with. I’ve got great memories.”
Many of those memories involve his dad helping Tommy Ranager coach the Millsaps Majors. Johnny Brewer, who worked in insurance, tailored his schedule so he could be at both Millsaps practices and all the games as a volunteer coach.
“We were able to be on the field together, sweat and practice together,” Sean Brewer says. “Being as close as I was to my dad, that meant a lot.”
Football-wise, Johnny Brewer taught Sean Brewer a lot more than technique.
Says Sean Brewer, “The best advice Dad ever gave me was that when you’ve worked as hard as you think you can, there’s always a little bit more.”
At Millsaps, Sean Brewer proved it.
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To purchase tickets to the BancorpSouth Induction Weekend festivities, call 601 982-8264 or click here and follow the links.
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Read Rick Cleveland’s Mississippi Today column about Gov. William Winter winning The Rube Award for his lifetime contributions to Mississippi sports.