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Miles Harold Brown, once referred to as "the most valuable player OU ever had" by the Athens Messenger, was born in Mason, West Virginia, on July 16, 1911. While he was a student at Parkersburg (W.Va.) High School, he earned athletic medals in a number of events.

After his matriculation in 1929, he attended Ohio University, participating in three varsity sports--football, basketball, and track. His daughter, Martha Shepherd, states that "his parents couldn't afford to send him to college, but he secured an athletics scholarship which obliged him to play football, basketball, and track (his favorite sport was baseball!). As part of the scholarship, I think that he waited on tables." He lettered three times each in track and basketball, and twice in football. During this time, the University basketball team won two championships and Brown was chosen as an All-Buckeye Conference forward. Meanwhile, Brown capped his track career by placing first in shot-put and second in discus at the All-Buckeye Conference Championships; setting Ohio University records in both events. Brown's football teams were even more successful, as the Bobcats won three championships during his playing days. His senior year was perhaps the most notable, as he quarterbacked OU to its storied 14-0 win over Navy in 1932, passing for both of OU's touchdowns and earning the game ball. In non-athletic student pursuits, Brown was President of the Torch honorary, Vice President of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, a member of the Blue Key honorary, and was one of three students on the Campus Activities Advisory Board. He graduated from Ohio University in 1933 with a degree in Commerce.

Brown was hired in 1933 to teach at the Gallia Academy High School in Gallipolis, Ohio. In 1942, he was appointed principal of that institution, and he commenced graduate studies at Ohio University soon after. In 1945, he received his Master of Arts degree in education, writing a thesis entitled A Study of the Student Withdrawals from the Gallia Academy High School with Proposals to Off-set Losses . There is a copy of this thesis in the OU Archives, and it can be found under the call letters R378.771 137o 1945-br c.1.

Brown held the position of principal at Gallia Academy until 1952, when he became the principal of the Intermediate School in Miamisburg, Ohio. Four years later, he left education to serve as administrator and business manager for the Gallipolis Clinic, a medical clinic. Following the merger between the Gallipolis Clinic and the Holzer Hospital, Brown returned to academic life, becoming the Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Miamisburg in 1962. After a year in that position, he became the Superintendent of Schools for Miamisburg, a position he held for three years. During that time, he was inducted into the Ohio University Athletic Hall of Fame.

In 1967, Brown accepted an offer to join the Ohio University education program in South Vietnam, working especially to establish secondary schools in Saigon, Hue, and Da Nang. He served there for three years and returned to Ohio, accepting the position of interim city manager of Gallipolis twice during the 1970s. He died in 1983, leaving a widow, Eloise Niday Brown, and a daughter, Martha Katharine Shepherd, who lives in Australia. Mrs. Brown passed away in 2002.