09/10/2026
Last Sunday, the Dawgs lost one of their best.
Ed, who you all should know as the founder of the Galway Browns Backers, was taken from us after a lifetime at the Dawg Pound.
He passed away suddenly from a heart attack while swimming on the Australian coast, something he loved doing in our Galway Bay almost as much as tuning in for the game each week.
That being said, after 67 years of Browns fandom, it’s fair to say the team put his heart through a lot. Particularly in that last game, with the Browns snatching it from the Steelers in a last minute field goal we actually managed not to miss!
I knew him as my father before I got to know him as a fellow Browns fan, though even that distinction didn’t last long. Since before I could remember we were perhaps the only two people on our street throwing the pigskin around. And of course I can still picture him hunched over his laptop yelling “C’MON BROWNIES!” usually accompanied by more colourful language. Eventually I took a perhaps misguided interest in what all the commotion was about and we started watching games together.
He loved having my company, but this also this meant he had a little more leverage in our family democracy to go to all the Browns stuff he could. One fateful morning at Browns Training Camp, Ed spotted a stand advertising Browns Backers Worldwide. Since 2018, we’ve come back with a lot more than an autograph from Joe Haden.
From the very beginning, he loved this community of people who would yell at games right alongside him. He travelled to the Browns with me whenever they happened to be playing in Europe (yes, both times against the Vikings in London, and yes, both losses). Through podcast appearances and meeting so many of you at Thirteen on the Green and further afield, he touched the lives of Browns fans far beyond Galway.
These are big shoes to fill, and I hope to have some news on that front soon. In the meantime I hope we can remember all the great times we spent with Ed, even with what were usually less than ideal circumstances for our team.
3-1’s pretty good, though!
Go Brownies,
Ryan
