By Denise Gideon (SoCoSports.com)

Ben Browder is best known for his television roles as John Cricthon in Farscape and Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG1, but 25-years ago, he was known as a line-backer for the Furman football team.  He was a member of three Southern Conference Championship teams and carries memories of the Paladin’s knocking off teams such as Georgia Tech and NC State in his four year career (1981-84).

Memories, and the aches and pains he carries with him from his playing days at Furman, stay with Browder, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and raised in Charlotte, N.C. However, some memories are more indelible then others. Two years ago, and was glad to see his beloved Paladin’s prevail after losing to the Catamounts his last two years at Furman.    “I walked into the stadium in Cullowhee and said I have been here before,” Browder said with a chuckle. “This is where they drug me off on a stretcher. We had difficulties with Western Carolina. In fact we had lost to Western Carolina by one point (20-19 – 1984) at Furman, my senior year, essentially knocking us out of the playoffs.”

Browder may have found himself taking on the role of actor after leaving Furman, but his time spent as a Paladin player for the Southern Conference, taught him many lessons he has carried with him the rest of his life. He admits there are a couple of lessons that jump out at him as a former student-athlete.   “Number one is the friendships I created while playing football at Furman,” Browder said. “Even before the advent of things like Facebook or Twitter I was in contact with the gentlemen I played football with. Playing a college sport requires sacrifice and commitment and it teaches you a set of skills that allows you to deal with adversity. I don’t know where else you would learn that in life, besides the military.”

Learning that regiment, and his athletic prowess, served Browder well in the years after stepping off the gridiron. Acting wasn’t his career goal while at Furman, although he did act in at least one play in each of his four years at Furman.

“When I finished playing football, after my senior year, the drama department needed guys for an acting class and some girl talked me into taking the class,” Browder said. “Part of the course was spending a week with actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company and I got to do scene work with members of the company.”

Studying with the Royal Shakespeare Company gave Browder the acting bug and it snowballed from there. He studied acting at a drama school in England before leaving to pursue acting.

“I left the drama school in England and thought I was going to spend the rest of my life doing Shakespeare,” Browder said. “But I found myself doing the equivalent of that in outer space.”

What Browder found was the role of John Crichton in the Sci-Fi series Farscape, which aired from 1999-2002. He played a US astronaut that was flung through a wormhole while testing his experimental ship, and taken to a distant universe. The series was a creation of The Jim Henson Company, incorporating animatronics characters into the storyline. Browder spent four years in Australia filming the series.

Farscape is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year, 2009, and Browder will be part of the celebration Comic-Con, in San Diego, California, as part of the Farscape panel. He will be re-united with Brian Henson, who runs The Jim Henson Company, show creator Rockne S. O’Bannon and co-star Claudia Black.

“I am excited to to see all of them again,” Browder said. “I am not sure what we are going to talk about on the panel. I am sure Brian and Rockne will talk about the 10-year anniversary of Farscape, the release of the show on a DVD box set and also the Farscape comics.”

Perhaps the Farscape comics are the most surreal for Browder. His likeness is used in the Farscape installments and admits it is strange to see him self in such an incarnation.

“It is interesting in the sort of bizarre way these things exist,” Browder said. “You look at it and say that sort of looks like me. What is that doing there? It is a little disconcerting some times.”

Browder’s entrance into the sci-fi genre has also put him on the convention circuit. Both Farscape and Stargate have hosted conventions, in which fans attend to meet the actors of the shows and get their photos with them.

Browder recalls his first experience at a Farscape convention to be kind of daunting. He admits going to a convention is like being an oracle.

“You go to these conventions, they ask you questions and you answer cryptically,” Browder said. “Honestly it is a lot of fun but it is strange. My first experience, I walk into a room and several thousand people are out there, flashbulbs are going off, they are screaming and it is absolutely insane. It is really like an “E” ticket ride, something you would pay to ride on at Disneyland.”   Browder will be making various appearances this year at conventions, admitting he is a veteran now, including Comic-Con, DragonCon and the official Farscape Convention in November. He is also working on various projects, not necessarily in acting, and auditioning for new roles.

“I am working on writing a couple of projects,” Browder said. “And I have heard there will be another Stargate movie this year and I am also auditioning for roles.”

Browder is continuing to hone his craft and work in the job he loves. But more importantly he is continuing to live by lessons he learned as a student-athlete.

“As a student-athlete you learn to deal with disappointment and you learn to persevere and those are two things that are valuable to have in your life,” Browder said. “Playing college football prepared me for all of the known intangibles in life, and certainly the business I am in now.”