Jim Brown

Football Player

• Born: February 17, 1936
• Birthplace: St. Simons Island, Georgia
• Died: May 18, 2023
• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

Football player, actor, and activist

Brown was one of the greatest running backs in the history of the National Football League (NFL). A tough, physical runner who never shied away from contact, he set records for yards and touchdowns. At the age of twenty-nine Brown suddenly left football to pursue a career as a film actor. Later, his philanthropic work with gangs and prisoners as well as business advocacy made him one of the most socially significant athletes since Jackie Robinson.

Areas of achievement: Film: acting; Philanthropy; Social issues; Sports: football

Early Life

James Nathaniel Brown was born on February 17, 1936, on St. Simons Island, Georgia, to Theresa and Swinton "Sweet Sue" Brown. Two weeks after Brown's birth, his father left. When he was two his mother left to find work in Long Island, New York. Initially, she did not take her son with her; he lived with his grandmother and great-grandmother on St. Simons. When he was eight, Brown rejoined his mother in an apartment adjacent to where she worked as a live-in maid to a White family.

The reunion proved contentious. Brown did not like his mother dating. He fought frequently and acquired a reputation as a bully. He associated with a rough crowd in a poorer area of Long Island known as the Valley. The boys in the Valley without fathers formed a gang called the Gaylords. Brown's troubled path was interrupted by sports and Manhasset High School football coach Ed Walsh. In a 2008 interview, Brown credited Walsh with saving his life. Walsh was a quiet, kind educator who taught Brown to channel his anger into sports such as football and lacrosse. He became a multisport star.

As Brown neared the end of high school, forty-five colleges and universities offered him football scholarships; however, he chose a university that did not. Syracuse University did not even want Brown on its football team. He made the team in his first year as a walk-on and was the only black player on the freshman team. One coach told Brown that he would never make a good running back and should learn to play lineman. He did not start a game until the end of his sophomore season. Brown ran for 151 yards and started every game after that, quickly becoming a standout player. During his years at Syracuse, he played football, basketball, lacrosse, and track. In his senior year, he was named most valuable player of the Cotton Bowl and the lacrosse All-Star Game.

Life’s Work

The Cleveland Browns selected Brown sixth overall in the 1957 National Football League (NFL) draft. By the first game of the preseason, Brown had won the starting halfback job. At a time when the average NFL defensive tackle weighed 250 pounds, Brown weighed 230 pounds and was six feet, two inches tall. He had excellent speed, agility, durability, and field vision. He possessed huge hands for gripping the football. Brown never ran out of bounds to avoid a hit. When cornered, he deployed a powerful stiff-arm move on defenders.

Another component of Brown's success was his recognition of the psychological aspects of football. Whether he was hit hard or not, Brown would slowly rise and hobble back to the huddle. His reasoning was, "If I always acted hurt after a tackle, the defense would never know when I was really hurt." Brown also never allowed his teammates to see him actually hurt. He would arrive at the team’s training facility early on Mondays so no one would see him receive treatment. Brown never wore much padding and never took a drink of water during a game. He rarely complained to officials even when suffering cheap shots. The rival New York Giants called him "Superman."

For all of his success, Brown came to believe that his talent was not being properly used. Under legendary coach Paul Brown, the team ran a conservative offense. The coach liked to script his offensive plays before every game, leaving little room for improvisation; this strategy made for predictable game plans that other teams could easily counter. Brown was so frustrated with his coach’s offense that at the end of the 1961 season, he threatened to leave the team unless a coaching change was made.

In 1961, the Browns were purchased by thirty-six-year-old Art Modell. Modell was intimidated by Coach Brown and wanted to get rid of him so he could run the team. He enticed the star running back into his plan by making him a senior partner. In turn, Brown vented to Modell things he could not tell his coach. Brown told Modell that he was tired of running inside between the tackles. He wanted to run outside sweeps and catch passes. The 1962 season was especially difficult for Brown. He failed to gain one thousand yards for only the second time in his career, marking his only season not leading the league in rushing yards, and the Browns finished 7–6–1.

On January 9, 1963, Modell fired Coach Brown and replaced him with backfield coach Blanton Collier. Collier employed a new offensive scheme he called "Run to Daylight," which prominently featured the off-tackle run and the power sweep. For the Browns, this meant getting the ball in Brown’s hands and letting him make plays all over the field. Brown responded with his two best professional seasons: He rushed for 1,446 yards in 1964 and 1,554 yards in 1965. In the 1964 season the Browns upset the Baltimore Colts 27–0 to win the NFL championship.

Brown was at the height of his power and popularity and began to explore opportunities in various media. He had his own radio show in Cleveland and wrote his first autobiography, Off My Chest, in 1964. However, it was films that began to attract more and more of Brown’s attention. In 1964, Brown played a Buffalo Soldier trying to prevent the sale of stolen rifles to the Apaches in Rio Conchos. In 1966, Brown began filming the World War II thriller The Dirty Dozen (1967). Production ran longer than expected, and Brown missed the beginning of training camp. Modell publicly pressured him to return. Angered by Modell’s threats and desiring to pursue other activities outside of sports, Brown announced his retirement from the NFL from the set of The Dirty Dozen in London on July 14, 1966. At the time he held numerous NFL records, including average yards per carry, career rushing yards, rushing yards per season, and rushing yards per game.

Many in the football world were shocked that Brown quit the game at a relatively young age and seemingly in his prime. Rumors that he would make a comeback persisted for years, but ultimately proved unfounded. Brown would go on to act in numerous films, including Ice Station Zebra (1968), 100 Rifles (1969), Kenner (1969), . . .tick. . .tick. . .tick (1970), and the Western Take a Hard Ride (1975). Though he had few lead roles after the 1970s he continued to appear in supporting parts in films such as the blaxploitation spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), Mars Attacks! (1996), and Any Given Sunday (1999). He also worked as a color commentator on various sports broadcasts.

In the first decades of the twenty-first century, he remained connected to football by first serving as an executive advisor to the Browns beginning around the mid-2000s before leaving that role in 2010 and taking on the position of special advisor for the team in 2013.

Brown’s entry into the entertainment industry paralleled his embroilment in violence and scandal. He had been married since 1959 and had three children, but he and other players regularly hosted orgies. On June 21, 1965, an eighteen-year-old girl accused Brown of striking her before having sex. He was later acquitted. On June 8, 1968, police found German model Eva Marie Bohn-Chin lying on the ground below the second-story balcony of Brown’s Beverly Hills home. She claimed Brown had thrown her off the balcony after a fight. Six days later, she withdrew the complaint, saying she had fallen. In 1971, charges that he battered two other women were dropped after they refused to testify against him.

Brown became a regular visitor to the Playboy Mansion. He even posed nude for an unusual Playgirl magazine spread in 1974. In 1985, Margot Tiff accused Brown of raping and assaulting her. Again, however, the charges were dismissed. In August 1986 Brown was held on suspicion of beating his fiancé, Debra Clark; she dropped the charges in September. In 1999 he destroyed second wife Monique’s car with a shovel. Monique admitted to the emergency operator that Brown had hit her in the past. Brown was convicted and sentenced to four hundred hours of community service and anger-management counseling; he refused to perform either. On March 12, 2002, Brown entered Ventura County Jail to serve a 180-day sentence for vandalism.

Significance

Widely considered the best running back of all time and one of the greatest football players in general, Brown accomplished much in a short playing career. As an NFL icon he provided inspiration to countless athletes following in his footsteps. Included on the NFL 100 All-Time Team roster announced in 2019, he had also been on the list for the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team as well as the NFL 50th Anniversary All-Time Team. In 2020, he was ranked in the number-one position on ESPN's list of the 150 best players in the history of collegiate football. However, his influence extends beyond sports, as he dedicated much of his post-playing life to Black American empowerment programs and other social causes. While Brown supported the civil rights movement, he also urged Black Americans to make their own way in America economically. To that end, Brown founded his own production company, Ocean Productions, to encourage minority participation in filmmaking. In 1965 he founded the Negro Industrial Economic Union, which used professional athletes as facilitators in the establishment of Black-run enterprises, urban athletic clubs, and youth motivation programs.

Brown’s most socially significant work was with gang members. Owing to his previous membership in a gang, Brown had immediate street credibility with Los Angeles gangs. In 1986 he founded Vital Issues, an organization aimed at teaching life management skills and personal growth techniques to inner-city gang members. In 1989 Vital Issues became Amer-I-Can. Brown conducted sessions of Amer-I-Can from his home in Los Angeles. He also urged later Black sports stars to serve as positive role models for young Black Americans.

Bibliography

Brown, Jim, and Myron Cope. Off My Chest. New York: Doubleday, 1964. Print.

Brown, Jim, and Steve Delsohn. Out of Bounds. New York: Zebra Books, 1989. Print.

Freeman, Mike. Jim Brown: The Fierce Life of an American Hero. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Print.

"Jim Brown." Pro Football Hall of Fame. Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

"Jim Brown Fast Facts." CNN, 4 Feb. 2021, www.cnn.com/2014/01/15/us/jim-brown-fast-facts/index.html. Accessed 21 July 2021.

Layden, Tim. "Why Jim Brown Matters." MMQB. Time, 6 Oct. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

Pluto, Terry. When All the World Was Brown’s Town. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Print.