Against All Odds, 'Mayor Of Bricktown' Successfully Transformed Area

While the Thunder now face long odds of winning the NBA Championship, a man once known as "The Mayor of Bricktown" overcame long odds himself decades ago.

Jim Brewer was a successful Oklahoma City nightclub owner and businessman who bought several buildings in the area that would become known as "Bricktown" in 1985. 

Brewer's son Brent says his dad struggled to make the area successful, opening a haunted house, and assisted the owners spaghetti warehouse restaurant in opening, as well as a smattering of other Bricktown businesses in the late 1980's. 

Brent Brewer says Bricktown gained momentum when his father promoted a huge 4^th of July event in 1990, that attracted 60,000 people to the area.

Brewer says city leaders took notice, and asked his father to join in the original MAPS Project, which over the past 20 years has transformed Bricktown into the major success it is today.  However, Brent Brewer says his father feared the terrorist bombing in April 1995 would ruin their efforts.

"Unfortunately, we had to go through that experience, but I think it made the community come together even stronger.  And you can see it today with the Thunder.  Our fans, our community, it's like our child, and we want to see our child succeed," said Brent Drewer.

Jim Brewer died in November 2008, just days before the Oklahoma City Thunder played their first regular season game.