The Brow

The Brow was a Detroit sports cheerleading legend. I don't recall seeing a thread devoted to The Brow, so I'll start one. He attended all the games, leading cheers for the fans no matter how bad the team was. He used to greet the Wings at the airport in the wee hours in the middle of winter. I heard that one time when he wasn't there the players asked about him and found out that his car had died so he couldn't get there. Steve Yzerman passed the hat and they got him a car. The Brow died in 1997. If you have any memories of The Brow I'd love to see them.
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Mr Diroff sent his kids to the same high school I went to. He was sometimes a subsitute teacher there as well and lived on the border between Rosedale Park and Brightmoor. He cut his cheering teeth in the early 1980's by doing that stuff at my High School's sporting events.

My last Brow experience was when I had just seen the summer home I was going to purchase in Northern Michigan. Dad and I went to the bar at the corner to get a bite to eat and discuss if I should buy it. The menus all had different pictures on them, snapshots taken of people in the bar. Mine had a pic of Mr Diroff. I knew then it would be a good idea to buy it. Initially it was, but now its just a giant sucking sound out of my wallet [[like all real estate in Michigan!)

I got to meet him once,he was drinking coffee at the Big Boy in Livonia. He had just got back from an away game or the airport. I still miss him at the games.

Mitch Albom wrote a nice column about Joe right after he died:

http://mitchalbom.com/d/node/1255

I remember him bringing condiment containers at the Tiger games and yelling something like "We need to catsup, they can't cut the mustard".
I used to see him all the time at the Ram's Horn at Plymouth and Telegraph.
A truly nice guy and unique character.

Saw him at a lot of games, always wandering around cheering in differant sections. Got a chance to see him often at Piston games in the late 80's. Once he parked his beat up station wagon next to me and we walked in the Palace together, that was kind of cool. He was one of a kind, a throw back to a differant era, and a unique and sincere man.