43
East grads Rozenblad, Brown to enter Hall of Fame
Two 1978 East grads
part of Ebony Lifeline
Hall of Fame class
Two 1978 East High graduates will enter their inaugural sports hall of fame when the Ebony Lifeline Support Group holds its 18th sports HOF banquet Friday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Hall in Youngstown.
Sylvia Rozenblad and Darren Brown will be among 13 scheduled for induction by the group, which is a local self-help group for minorities.
Rozenblad is being honored for softball. Brown is headed for induction for football.
Although both attended out-of-town colleges, their paths varied after that.
Sylvia Rozenblad
Sylvia Rozenblad was introduced to softball while serving as a batgirl for the legendary Cobras, the first all-black men’s slow-pitch team in town.
Her father, Lawyer Mitchum, organized the Cobras and was its player-manager.
“The games were more family-oriented with the wives and kids along for cookouts afterwards,” Rozenblad said of the get-togethers at Volney Rogers in Mill Creek Park. “Both teams stuck together.”
As a batgirl starting at age 8, Sylvia recalled the names of Ron Harris, Charles McRae, Skeeter Harris, Willie McGaha and James Mitchell in the lineups.
“I was always around the team as batgirl or water girl or something and the guys played catch with me during warmups because I was good at it.”
At East, Sylvia made All-City Series in basketball as a senior and also played volleyball.
“We didn’t have softball at that time,” said Rozenblad, who got a scholarship to attend Riverside (Calif.) College, where she played volleyball.
“I’m 5-7, but I was very athletic and a great server,” Sylvia said of her volleyball skills.
She then transferred to San Diego State, where she also played volleyball. In her two years at SDSU, Rozenblad studied computer networking.
Rozenblad’s adult softball career began after graduation from East, when she joined the Linton Ladies as a 17-year-old.
“I could barely hit the ball past the pitcher, but I was fast, so I still had a high batting average,” she said. “While the pitcher and catcher were always fighting over my balls, I’d reach first base.”
Before that summer was over, Rozenblad was among Linton’s top home run hitters.
Her other local-team playing years were spent with Fran’s Hilltop, Charlie’s Angels, Southern Tavern and the Elks. Lineups during some of the seasons included Sylvia’s older sisters Gloria (Dean), Cynthia and Deborah.
As a member of the BASA (Black Athletic Softball Association), Rozenblad’s traveling-team slow-pitch career spanned 23 years with teams from Akron, Toledo and Detroit that participated in the “Worlds” in Columbus, St. Louis, Memphis and Alabama.
“The best-of-the-best,” Sylvia said. “It was the top of the line.”
Rozenblad played every position during her 35 years that ended after neck and back injuries suffered in a car accident in 2012.
She earned MVP, Golden Glove and player-of-year honors, as well as recognition for highest batting average and most RBIs.
Rozenblad, now 54, also coached girl softball teams for ages 9-12 and 13-17 and still volunteers at Warriors Inc. as a mentor.
After returning from California, Rozenblad attended YSU.
“It was a big adjustment,” she said of leaving Ohio for three years after high school. “That was one of the reasons I came back home — I was homesick. But I always kept a 3.5 GPA in California.”
Years later, she resumed schooling and graduated from ITT in 2010 with a class-high 3.9 GPA in computer networking.
At the time of her accident in 2012, Rozenblad was playing with X-Factor, a traveling team out of Toledo.
“I was one of oldest on the team, which had plenty of 18- and 19-year-olds.”
Darren Brown
The 54-year-old Brown, who moved to Georgia in 1986, came back to Ohio recently to watch the Army at Kent State homecoming game, which also served to recognize former team captains.
“I keep up with my old alma mater,” said Brown, a former Golden Flash player who set the school’s career touchdown record before graduating in 1984. “They invited old team captains for the weekend.”
After a redshirt season, Darren played wide receiver and became a four-year letter-winner who set Kent’s career TD record of 10.
“That’s long gone,” Brown said of his 10 TDs. “Back then, that was enough, but guys get 10 in one year now because of more passing.
He said he never made an All-MAC team, but was nominated twice for offensive-player-of-the-week honors.
Darren played for coach Ron Blackledge for two years, then for Ed Chlebek. He then played one year with the semi-pro Canton Bulldogs team.
Before attending Kent on a scholarship, Brown was Golden of another kind: a Golden Bear.
At East, Darren made first-team All-City Series his junior and senior years and second-team as a sophomore. At the time, he was a 6-foot-1, 185-pound tight end.
“That’s about the size of a punter nowadays,” said Brown, who noted that the late Jim Traficant was East’s quarterbacks coach during Darren’s senior year.
After living in Kent, Brown returned to Youngstown for a year, then moved away at age 26.
“I was dating a lady from Campbell and her brother lived in Atlanta and I was bored, working for the Pic-Way Shoe Store on McCartney Road,” he said. “I’ve been in Georgia ever since.”
Living in Stone Mountain, Ga., Brown is employed by Goodyear as a store manager.
Darren has grown weary hearing about southern football superiority.
“All you hear down here is talk about the SEC ruling football,” he said. “I wish somebody up north would put them in their place.”
His northern roots took a double blow on the national stage when Florida State beat Ohio State in the 2007 BCS championship game in January, followed by Florida’s win over the Buckeyes in the NCAA Final Four basketball championship game in April.
Brown takes some solace in knowing that Alabama coach Nick Saban is a Kent State graduate.
“They don’t let me have that one,” he said of southern football faithful.
To stay grounded, Brown recalls some of the highlights of his youth, like playing little league at Mary Haddow School on Oak St. Ext. or with Paul Crowley’s East Side Kiwanis Babe Ruth team or the state champion 13-year-old Babe Ruth all-star team that Brown played on.
Whatever the endeavor, Darren Brown came to play.