Sleuthing Series — Brown & Gold Club

JCCC Archives presents the Sleuthing Series, where every Tuesday, we bring you an image from our past and ask you to help us find out more!

Brown & Gold Executive Council, May 1990. Seated on the first row, far left, is Reuben “Jake” Jacobson. Jake developed and conducted several programs and served as v.p. of Brown & Gold. He stepped down from B&G duties in 2000, at the age of 91.

What We Know

  • “In the early 1970s, Community Services began providing programs to people over 60 and the Brown& Gold Club was established.  Members could attend credit and noncredit classes free on a space-available basis.”  Virginia Krebs in Visionary Voices: An Oral History of Johnson County Community College, JCCC, c1994.
  • The club was formed in November 1973.  Dane Lonborg, Asst. Dean of Instruction, launched the idea after hearing similar programs discussed at conferences.  First called the Gold Card Club, it soon changed its name to Brown & Gold Club.  In 1975, the club had just over 500 members.  By spring membership was more than 2,000 Johnson County Seniors.  Clearly it was filling a need.  By the mid 1980s, the membership list contained nearly 15,000 members.
  • In addition to free tuition (on a space-available basis), members could attend free (on a general admission basis) College-sponsored public events.
  • In addition to annual holiday parties, the club co-sponsored events with both college and county groups.  Some of these were: Brown & Gold Club Potpourri Series, Windows on the World Travelogues, Senior Quest, Saluting the Century, Candidate Forums, Elderhostel, Great Decisions, Gold Diggers (gardening), Gold Links (Mentoring/Tutoring/Networking), G.O.L.D. trips (Go Out Look Dine), SeniorNet chapter (computer/Internet learning for seniors)
  • In October of 2013, the college announced that the Brown & Gold Club would merge with an off-campus organization to take over administration of the organization.  Coming of Age/Shepherd’s Center Central (SCC), which served Johnson County and the Kansas City metropolitan area could grow and develop services beyond the county.

What We Don’t Know

We don’t know if people in early pictures were actually Brown & Gold members.

If You Know More…

Contact  librarians: Anita Gordon Gilmore (agordong@jccc.edu, ext. 4369) or John Russell (jrussell@jccc.edu, ext. 3284).  You may also comment below!

For More Information…

November 1973.
December 1974.
February 1975. Community Education lists a workshop on puppetry lead by Mr. George Latshaw.
April 1978.
Brown and Gold member honored, February 1983.
February 24, 1985. Senior’s Night at basketball game.
February 24, 1985. Seniors Night, 7,000th Brown & Gold member honored.
June 1989.
June 1989.
August 1991, Brown & Gold Reception.
Check presentation from Brown & Gold Club to President Carlsen and Dr. Sopcich, August 1995.
Brown & Gold executive board with Santa, December 1997.

  • Much of the information above is from Historical Information gathered by Karen Conklin 2003, printed 9/9/2006 from the old web http://web.jccc.net/…
  • Changes announced for Brown & Gold, Campus Ledger, October 10, 2013.
    Article erroneously states that the club was established in the late 1980’s.  Several other sources note that it was established in 1973.
  • For more information on Jake Jacobson, see Charles Bishop’s The Community’s College, c2002.