Phil Estes remembers his first visit to Meade Stadium on the University of Rhode Island campus. The year was 1977, he was a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire, and he played guard for the Wildcats football team, the defending Yankee Conference champion.
“I remember the stadium, the concrete,” he said, referring to the small grandstand, topped by a tiny press box, on the west side of the field where aluminum stands rise in the shade of the Ryan Center now. “I also remember they were really good. I was playing as a sophomore, and a guy by the name of Dick Bell was the defensive tackle, and he trashed me. He had a day with me. He was having fun. “
Bell, All-Yankee Conference (URI’s league in those days), helped the Rams to a 21-20 upset of the Wildcats, a key decision in URI’s 6-5 finish in Bob Griffin’s second season as head coach.
“Probably I didn’t help that situation much,” Estes said. “I learned a lot. He was big, strong, physical, and I had a real hard time with him. I just remember that was a huge game for us because it would have put us back in the playoffs again, and I think that kind of knocked us out.”
Estes will return to Meade Stadium again Saturday but this time as the 19-year head coach of Brown football. The 1-1 Bears and 0-4 Rams will kick off at noon for the 101st time in one of the oldest rivalries in college football. Brown will try to retain possession of the Governor’s Cup for the sixth consecutive year.
Estes was captain of the 1979 UNH team that beat URI, 21-6, at Meade Stadium. He made subsequent visits to Kingston as an assistant coach at UNH and as an assistant at Brown under Mark Whipple before succeeding Whipple in 1998. But that first road trip to the Ocean State was special.
“I remember us staying in Pt. Judith in this hotel. It had an indoor pool down there, and it had all these pool tables. It was a huge distraction for us as players because as soon as we walked in we couldn’t wait to come down and jump in the pool. So the coaches were a little upset, but it was just kind of neat to be on the seacoast, coming from New Hampshire and all that stuff. It was just kind of unique going down to play.”
It was also special because Estes has family in the Warwick area. He is a descendent of Gen. Nathanael Greene, the Revolutionary War hero from Rhode Island. “On my mother’s side my grandmother’s maiden name is Craig, and my Great-Grampy Craig was married to a Greene, and it goes all the way back. So we would come down here as kids because of Rocky Point. That was pretty neat for me to be here as a vacationer and then come down here on business.”
As a star football player at Laconia High School in New Hampshire, Estes received scholarship offers from UNH, UMass, UConn, Maine and Boston University, but not URI, possibly because recruiting usually suffers during a coaching transition.
Estes is a youthful-looking 58 now, father of two daughters and a son (Brett, a Brown punter), and owner of an enviable record. His teams have won three Ivy League championships and finished in the top half of the league standings in 15 of his 18 seasons. He is 73-54 in the Ivy League and 109-72 overall. He has more Ivy victories than any Brown coach and stands 10th on the overall victories list in the Ivy League. He has recruited and coached four Ivy League players of the year, and five of his alums have won Super Bowl rings. As a coach, he has changed with the times.
“I’ve adjusted to the players. I used to just fly off (thinking that) yelling and screaming and flying off the handle made them tougher and better and more responsive. This day and age, kids have changed. They want to know the why. They’re more analytical about it,” he said.
“I think before I speak. I don’t put my foot in my mouth nearly as much as I used to,” he added with a laugh. “I haven’t changed a lot. I haven’t changed my strategies. We try to be consistent with all that but (it’s) the subtle changes of thinking before you say something and trying to have the answers before I ask the questions.”
Estes has seen big changes in the Ivy League in the last two decades with Harvard setting the bar ever higher. Increased financial aid means that the eight Ivy schools, always at the top of various university rankings, can recruit players who are “just below the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) level” but smart enough to meet the Ivy League’s Academic Index. Also, he has seen the Ivies adopt practices like multiple uniforms and frequent social media updates that excite high-school kids today. Last week against Harvard, for example, Brown wore black uniforms and BMW brown helmets. Yes, BMW brown. Estes had seen a brown BMW, loved the color, somehow obtained the formula and arranged to have the team’s Riddell helmets painted. And Brown is receiving more institutional support to keep up with the Ivies. A $12-million renovation of locker rooms, offices and meeting space starts at the end of the season.
“A lot has changed. I think that people are looking at it and saying football is a great vehicle to sell the Brown name. We have more people that are behind this, whether they be alumni or administrators. We reach out to so many people across the country. It amazes me, the far-reaching arms of Brown football. Twenty-three years ago when we got here, people on the West Coast didn’t know Brown was in the Ivy League. They knew the big three (Harvard, Yale, Princeton), and that was it. Now, it’s a lot different.”
A decade ago, Estes said he would consider an opportunity to coach a big-time program with crowds of 80,000 and daily media attention. This week, two days before the URI game and 39 years after his first visit to Meade Stadium, he said he will probably end his active coaching career at Brown.
“Brown has been the best thing that happened in my life. They gave me an opportunity when others wouldn’t. . . . Brown took a chance on me, and the rest is history. Brown has been really, really special for me, for my family.”
