Leroy Brown the Largemouth Bass

Died 1981 - Eufaula, Alabama

When Tom Mann caught Leroy Brown with a strawberry jelly worm in 1973, he knew the fish had spunk. Instead of eating Leroy for supper, he moved him into the bass breeding tank at his bait shop. Then he cut a hole in the wall of his office, moved the tank against it, and spent hours watching Leroy.

Though Leroy wasn't a particularly large fish, and though he lacked distinctive markings, Tom could instantly pick him out from every other bass. He was aggressive, Tom would say. He had personality. And as Mann's Bait Company grew into Tom Mann's Fish World, Leroy's reputation grew as well.

Leroy lived in that tank for eight years. By the time he died of old age, he was the most famous fish in America. Alabama's governor sent a telegram of condolence. Over 800 people attended Leroy's funeral; mourners dropped strawberry jelly worms into the casket. The Eufaula High School Band played "Bad Bad Leroy Brown." His pallbearers were the luminaries of the bass fishing world. It poured rain on the day of Leroy's funeral, and he was temporarily interred in Tom Mann's walk-in freezer. This proved to be a fatal blunder; during the night, a ghoul broke in and stole Leroy's frozen body -- casket and all.

A stunned bass-fishing world combed the globe for Leroy Brown. Three weeks later, an alert baggage handler at the Tulsa, Oklahoma airport spied a suspicious fish-sized box (with a nasty smell) and notified the authorities. It was Leroy. Sadly, he was too far gone to return home; the locals threw him away. But his casket was sent back to Fish World and placed on permanent display, a lasting memorial to a fighting fish. Next to it, Tom Mann erected a statue in Leroy's honor. Its inscription, in marble, reads:

MOST BASS
ARE JUST FISH
BUT LEROY BROWN
WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL

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