Upon retiring from playing football Brown moved back to
Burnley and opened a restaurant. After a few years he was persuaded by the then Secretary of the Football Association,
Stanley Rous, to return to the game, and in 1951 he joined Sheffield Wednesday as a coach. After seasons at Wednesday, Brown left to start a managerial career.
Back to Burnley In 1954, Brown returned once more to Burnley when he was appointed as manager. His arrival back at the club was not well received by some of the senior players at Burnley who were unhappy in anticipation of being managed by such a figure of moral integrity. Undeterred by the potential backlash, Brown set about instilling in the club the same values of integrity, hard work and honesty that he held dear. He oversaw the development of a new training centre on the outskirts of the town, and, as well as using paid labour, helped to dig out the ground himself. Brown also "volunteered" several of his players to help out, including big names such as
Jimmy McIlroy and
Jimmy Adamson. Perhaps to compensate for his own poor treatment as a youngster, Brown, with the support of new chairman
Bob Lord, developed a strong youth setup at Burnley which continued to be fruitful long after his departure. He also became known for his tactics and his pioneering use of short corners and huge array of free kick routines which were copied across the land.{{cite web Brown kept Burnley in the top half of the First Division for three seasons but could not resist the opportunity to move back to the North East and manage his boyhood club, and was appointed as manager of Sunderland in 1957.
Sunderland Brown was appointed as Sunderland manager at a time when the club was in the middle of a series of scandals over illegal payments to players and was struggling at the bottom of the First Division table. Brown saw the appointment as an opportunity to "clean up" the club that he had supported as a child. At a time when paying young players' parents bribe money to sign for a particular club was commonplace, Brown refused to do so: Despite Brown's arrival, Sunderland were relegated at the end of his first season at
Roker Park. Over the following years Brown gradually turned the club's fortunes around whilst simultaneously clearing out the corruption. The club finally earned promotion back to the First Division in the
1963–64 season, however Brown shocked the fans when he quit the club at the end of the season.
Sheffield Wednesday Brown was lured to Sheffield Wednesday, and
Hillsborough Stadium, which was at the time the "most sumptuously-appointed stadium in the land", before the start of the
1964–65 season. The board had specifically targeted Brown with the aim of cleaning up the club in the wake of the
match fixing scandal that had recently affected the Owls. Brown was well respected amongst the players and quickly restored pride in the club. Brown led the club to the
FA Cup final in 1966, their first final in over 30 years. Wednesday met
Everton in the final, who had made it there without conceding a goal whilst Wednesday had won every match away from home on the first attempt. Wednesday dominated for the first hour of the game going into a 2–0 lead, but Everton mounted a comeback and went on to win the match 3–2. The game is widely regarded as one of the best finals to be held at the
old Wembley. Brown remained at the club until February 1968 at which point he re-joined Sunderland.
Sunderland again and later career Brown was relegated with Sunderland again in the
1969–70 season, and after two failed attempts to regain promotion he was sacked in November 1972. Brown spent time coaching in Norway and assisting at
Plymouth Argyle. He then left the game completely and spent a retirement blighted by ill health until his death in
Barnstaple,
Devon, in 1996. ==Managerial statistics==