"Double Play, " Sculpture Capturing Dramatic Baseball Play with Male Nude, 1953

Joe Brown, who followed R. Tait McKenzie, as America's leading sculptor of athletes in action. Brown sculpted just a year after he was named boxing coach at Princeton University. Like his mentor, McKenzie, Brown oversaw an athletic program while pursuing his sculpting work, and in his early years, he preferred to depict athletes in the nude, in the Classic Greek manner. Brown excelled as an athlete at Temple University and modeled for artists in Philadelphia, including Walker Hancock and McKenzie, who became his teacher for several years. Later, Brown became famous for his public sculptures, including Full Swing and Punter, now located near Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia.