Joseph D. Brownell served as president of Northland College for 28 years, from 1914 until his retirement in 1942. This was the longest tenure of any of Northland's seven presidents. He graduated from the old Northland Academy in 1904 and joined the English faculty of the college in 1910 after graduating from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He became president in 1914.
At the time, Northland was an educational outpost in Wisconsin's cutover country. Under Brownell's leadership it became one of the foremost institutions of higher learning in the upper Midwest. While all of us remember him as Northland's longtime president, we also remember him
as "Dan" Brownell, Northland's most successful football coach. Brownell began coaching in 1910 and produced an undefeated and un-scored upon team in his first season. The Lumberjacks, or Hilltoppers as they were also known in those days, outscored five opponents, 103 to 0. Northland also went undefeated in 1911. A Brownell-coached team did not lost a game until the last contest of the 1912 season.
He retired as coach after the 1912 season and a year later was appointed president. He maintained a life long interest in athletics and was a strong supporter of the athletic program during his 28 years as president. Brownell appreciated the need for athletic and physical education facilities on campus and continually urged that these facilities be provided. A request for a new gymnasium was foremost in his annual recommendations to the board of trustees throughout his tenure as president.
Finally, this last spring, the new physical education building became a reality, more than two decades after Brownell retired. His steadfast, lasting devotion to the athletic program, helped keep others keenly aware of the need and helped to make the new physical education facilities possible.
