Silas Coley Brown began the Columbia Athletic Club in mid–1982 at its current location on Forest Drive across the street from the Happy Bookseller. Then racquetball was quite the thing, and fitness centers were seen as the salubrious side of social opportunity – in other words, meat markets. Today the Columbia Athletic Club and facilities like it are fun, for sure, but they are absolutely necessary for a health–conscious population.

The population within a three–mile radius around the club is the location’s greatest asset. There’s more than a critical mass of educated, accomplished people who demonstrate their physical fitness needs with paid memberships. The place stays full. Overall, the club’s population is 54% women and 46% men.  

William Coley Brown, Silas’s son, was born at Providence Hospital in 1968. He finished Irmo High School and graduated from USC with a finance degree in 1991. He earned an MBA at Wake Forest in 1994. And for several years he worked for the people behind the Applebee’s Restaurant chain. He came on board at the Columbia Athletic Club as general manager in 1996.

W. Coley Brown joined Columbia Athletic Club as general manager in 1996. Photo by John Temple Ligon Also in 1996, he married his Wake Forest classmate. They have three children, the oldest being seven. They live in King’s Grant off Fort Jackson Boulevard. Raising three children is busy enough, but Brown plays 3.5 league tennis with the Columbia Athletic Club’s team. Golf, on the other hand, has to wait. There’s no time.

Brown promotes exercise, obviously, but he swears the biggest physical challenge to overcome is diet. There’s just too much delicious bad food around, what dieticians call empty calories. For $49 a month, any couch potato can completely transform in less than a year. The discipline it takes to show up at the Columbia Athletic Club is not all that tough to master.

The building is well maintained, the equipment is about the best there is, and the people are friendly. After all, everyone at the Columbia Athletic Club is on the same team, so to speak. Everybody is out for physical improvement, which has to have something to do with mental improvement.

The most productive time, according to Brown, is spent on the weights. Resistance training actually continues long after the weight lifting session. Muscle tissue continues to recover for maybe two days after the workout. With women, especially, the quality of bone mass enhancement is not found in just about any other exercise.

The pool is underutilized, mostly because swimming takes a little more effort with the swimsuits. The club invites little kids to bring their mothers with them until 4 pm every day. Up to that time a kid can get in free with an accompanying adult’s membership. Swimming lessons are available four days a week.

Racquetball is still part of the offering, but what’s hot now is the cardio class. For the price of membership exercisers show up in droves for the classes beginning at 5:30 in the morning, the second busiest time of the day. The busiest time of the day begins at 5:30 in the afternoon. The third most active period is lunchtime. But all day, every day, the classes are filled.

Brown pursues business outside the club. He is one of the founders of a commercial bank with proposed locations on Columbia’s Main Street and in Hilton Head. The name of the soon–to–open institution is Meridian Bank, butBrown can’t disclose the address on Main Street. Another Brown venture is the Big Red Box, those temporary red storage boxes parked in driveways. Residential real estate investments round out Brown’s financial attention. But his main concern is the Columbia Athletic Club and the welfare of its members.

Brown’s advice to the couch potatoes is get moving and get with it. Exercise is tough to start, but it can also be addictive. The rewards come soon enough.

W. Coley Brown