His name was James Nathaniel Brown, born February 17, 1936, and we lost him Thursday May 18, 2023, at the age of 87. We knew him as Jimmy Brown, not just arguably the greatest footballer of all time, he was the greatest football player of all time.
Jim Brown was many things, athlete, actor, and activist, but to me he was a football player. He first came to the attention of the national sports world during his final season at Syracuse University. He was a member of the track team, basketball team, and All American on the lacrosse team and the football team. His final regular season college game opened the eyes of the football world, he set the major college single game scoring record with 43 points in a 67-6 rout of Colgate. Jim scored six touchdowns and kicked 7 extra points. From there he was the first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 1957 draft, selected with the sixth overall pick. For the record Paul Hornung, Jon Arnett, John Brodie, Ron Kramer, and Len Dawson were selected before him.
As a rookie for the Browns, he set the single game NFL rushing record with 237 yards against the Rams in his ninth pro game. He led the Browns to the Eastern Conference title. In 1958 he set the single season rushing record with 1,527 yards, when he scored 17 touchdowns and averaged 5.9 yards a carry. It’s important to note that the NFL only played twelve games a season back then. This performance would earn Jim the first of his three league MVP’s.
Brown would go on to lead the league in rushing every season he played from 1957-1965 except for 1962. He kept the Browns in contention each year; he won his second MVP in 1963, breaking his own season rushing record with 1,863 yards. While the Browns contended, they never won the title, until 1964. Jim had another great season gaining more than 1,400 rushing yards and averaging 5.2 yards a carry. More importantly for Jim and the city of Cleveland was that they finally crossed the finish line, winning the NFL title by beating our Colts 27-0.
At about this time, Jim had begun to sample the waters of Hollywood and pursue an acting career. This did not stop him though from winning his third league MVP in 1965, with more than 1,700 rushing yards, scoring 17 touchdowns, and averaging 5.3 yards carry. He led the Browns to the Eastern Conference title.
While filming the war movie, The Dirty Dozen in England in the summer of 1966, Jim asked for permission from Browns owner Art Modell if he could miss some of training camp, when Modell threatened Jim with fines, he retired in July at the age of 30.
Jim retired with several NFL records, 12,312 yards gained rushing, 126 touchdowns scored, most rushing yards in a season with 1,863, and most rushing yards in a game with 237 (which he did twice), most yards per carry with 5.2, most 100-yard games with 60, and most 200-yard games with 4. These records were all eventually broken, but one official record has not been broken! Jim is the only running back in NFL history to average more than 100 yards per game for every game he played in. Along with that, he never missed a game from September 1957 to January 1, 1966.
The player, broadcaster and fan testimonials Jim has received during his life are too great to mention, but I always thought the observation Joe Horrigan, the Executive Director of Pro Football Hall of Fame made was the most telling:
“When the members of the Hall get together privately for an event, only one member gets a standing ovation from the other Hall members every time he is introduced, and that was Jim Brown.”
