I was lucky to see Jim Brown play college football in my birth city, Syracuse, NY. I followed his pro career with great interest, and my attention didn’t wane in the following years. It’s not hyperbolic to conclude that Jim Brown was one of a kind.
Cleveland, Ohio, is one of America’s great sports towns. But long before LeBron James was born and played basketball in the Cleveland area, Jim Brown played professional football there for the Cleveland Browns.
James is arguably the best pro basketball player ever and is certainly the best player of today’s era. But I’ve never seen a player like Jim Brown—in any sport—not before, during, or since he played. Even when Brown was well into his 80s, you could still see the body, the mind, and the grit that made him the most respected athlete of his time and perhaps of all time.
Courtesy sportige.com
Brown excelled. In a 9-year career with the Cleveland Browns (1957-65), Browns rushed for nearly 12,500 yards and scored over 100 touchdowns. He was NFL Rookie of the Year, an eight-time first-team NFL All-Pro, a nine-time NFL Pro Bowler, and a three-time Pro Bowl MVP. In addition, he was named NFL Player of the Year four times and led the league in rushing eight times.
Those numbers are why he is in the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame.
More importantly for Cleveland, Brown helped bring that city the 1964 NFL championship. Cleveland shut out the Baltimore Colts and legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas, 27-0. The Browns returned to the Championship Game the following year, but Packers’ Coach Vince Lombardi had a plan: crafty linebacker Ray Nitschke shadowed Brown all game long. Green Bay won going away, 23-12, blanking Cleveland in the second half.
That was Jim Brown’s last game. He walked away at age 29. But, he had his championship—something Cleveland didn’t experience again until LaBron James, Northeast Ohio’s recalcitrant son, returned home from Miami to win the 2016 NBA championship.
Brown at Syracuse (photo, fanbase.com)
I first saw Brown play at Syracuse University, where I was born. He was a running back for the Orangemen, a school that (amazingly) didn’t want him, even though Brown had averaged 15 yards-a-carry at Manhasset (Long Island) High and scored nearly 40 points per game in basketball one season. Finally, Ken Malloy, a SU alum and a Manhasset attorney, intervened on Brown’s behalf. When SU didn’t make a scholarship offer, Malloy dipped into his own pocket and paid for Brown’s freshman year (The New York Times 4/30/13).
More coxing was needed, though. Ben Schwartzwalder, SU’s head coach, wanted Brown at defensive end because of his size, 6’2” and 235 lbs. Thank goodness that didn’t last, but it took an injury at halfback to get Brown on the field. It was Syracuse’s lucky day.
Brown ran with breathtaking power, amazing acceleration, and (most notably) phenomenal grace. He averaged over five yards a carry after breaking into the starting line-up and gained almost 6.5 yards a carry during his senior year (1956). The Orange finished the regular season 7-1 that year and played in The Cotton Bowl.
Brown’s athleticism at Syracuse was utterly unbelievable—not just because he was so good in football—but because he excelled in multiple varsity sports. Brown started on the Orange basketball team for two years, finishing 2nd in scoring as a sophomore and 4th in scoring as a junior.
Then, during his senior year, Brown supplemented an All-America football season by achieving All-America status as a member of SU’s undefeated lacrosse team. Brown was an offensive juggernaut, finishing #2 nationally in scoring.
How good was he in lacrosse? Consider this: Jim Brown was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame twelve years before he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame. To this day, a number of analysts believe Jim Brown was the all-time best college lacrosse player.
Jim Brown wasn’t just gifted athletically; he excelled mentally. Brown knew how to prepare for competition—body and mind—and he “played smart,” often psyching out the opposition. Neither flamboyant nor talkative, Brown let his game speak for itself. As an NFL pro, he’d say little to defenders besides offering sporadic affirmatives like “Good tackle.” “Nice play.” Brown would get up gingerly after each run and slowly return to the huddle. Was he hurt? Tired? Neither. It was Jim’s schtick.
“He had the perfect body, shaped just like a V,” Deacon Jones (Rams) recalled. “And he used it. You couldn’t stop him.” Chuck Bednarick (Eagles) scowled: “He’d come at you again, and again, and again!” “How much more can he take?” “He was in another league,” Sam Huff (Giants) just shrugged. (Jim Brown: Player of the Millennium. NFL Films, 2005).
But Brown was more than a world-class athlete—much more. His immediate focus after football was acting. From 1964-2014 Brown appeared in over 40 films and television productions, including over fifteen lead roles. Many notable appearances came early: Rio Conchos (1964), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Ice Station Zebra (1968), 100 Rifles (1969), Kenner (1969), and El Condor (1970).
Gathering for social justice and change (photo, The Guardian)
Brown was a social activist, too, an ethic he shared with other black athletes of the time, including Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, Lou Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Mohammad Ali, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, and Curt Flood. They all spoke out against social injustice, and Brown was among the most vocal of the group. If he didn’t like what he saw, he’d let the public know what and why.
That approach continued for the rest of his life. Consider what Brown had to say a few years ago about the NCAA. “The NCAA is probably the most reprehensible organization God ever created…. I’m totally for change and total change... I wanted to say it as harshly as I can because I want them to come at me—in any way they want to—because it’s a sham.” (ESPN.go.com, 5/4/14)
Jim Brown did more than talk. He engaged. In 1988 he created a program called the Amer-I-Can Foundation for Social Change, a national leadership development effort (still operating today) designed to help young people gain critical life skills. Many enrollees are African American youth living in America’s most challenging neighborhoods.
What can you say about Jim Brown? Perhaps the late Steve Sabol of NFL Films said it best: “Whether he was carrying a football for the Cleveland Browns or a message of hope in modern-day America, few people have done it with the power of Jim Brown.” (italics added)
We’ll probably never see the likes of Jim Brown again.
