Youth

Brown was born in St. Simons Island, Georgia, to Swinton Brown, an expert boxer, and his spouse, Theresa, a homemaker.^{[citation needed]}

At Manhasset Secondary Faculty, Brown earned 13 letters enjoying soccer, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, and operating observe.^[6]

Mr. Brown credit his self-reliance to having grown up on Saint Simons Island, a neighborhood off the coast of Georgia the place he was raised by his grandmother and the place racism didn’t have an effect on him immediately. On the age of eight, he moved to Manhasset, New York, on Lengthy Island, the place his mom labored as a home. It was at Manhasset Excessive Faculty that he grew to become a soccer star and athletic legend.

— The New York Instances – movie evaluation, 2002.^[6]

He averaged a then-Lengthy Island file 38 factors per recreation for his basketball staff. That file was later damaged by future Boston Crimson Sox star Carl Yastrzemski of Bridgehampton.^[7]

School sports activities profession

As a sophomore at Syracuse College (1954), Brown was the second-leading rusher on the staff. As a junior, he rushed for 676 yards (5.2 per carry). In his senior yr in 1956, Brown was a consensus first-team All-American. He completed fifth within the Heisman Trophy voting and set faculty data for highest season rush common (6.2) and most speeding touchdowns in a single recreation (6). He ran for 986 yards—third-most within the nation regardless of Syracuse enjoying solely eight video games—and scored 14 touchdowns. Within the regular-season finale, a 61–7 rout of Colgate, he rushed for 197 yards, scored six touchdowns, and kicked seven additional factors for a school-record 43 factors. Then within the Cotton Bowl, he rushed for 132 yards, scored three touchdowns, and kicked three additional factors, however a blocked additional level after Syracuse’s third landing was the distinction as TCU gained 28–27.^[8]

Maybe extra spectacular was his success as a multisport athlete. Along with his soccer accomplishments, he excelled in basketball, observe, and particularly lacrosse. As a sophomore, he was the second-leading scorer for the basketball staff (15 ppg), and earned a letter on the observe staff. In 1955, he completed in fifth place within the Nation Championship decathlon.^[9] His junior yr, he averaged 11.3 factors in basketball, and was named a second-team All-American in lacrosse. His senior yr, he was named a first-team All-American in lacrosse (43 targets in 10 video games to rank second in scoring nationally). Brown was so dominant within the recreation, that lacrosse guidelines had been modified requiring a lacrosse participant to maintain their stick in fixed movement when carrying the ball (as a substitute of holding it near his physique).^[10][11] He’s within the Lacrosse Corridor of Fame.^[12] The Service Dome has an 800 square-foot tapestry depicting Brown in soccer and lacrosse uniforms with the phrases “Best Participant Ever”.^[13]

Whereas in faculty, Brown participated within the Reserve Officers’ Coaching Corps.^[14] After graduating he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.^[14] Throughout his time within the NFL, Brown continued his army dedication as a member of the US Military Reserve.^[14] He served for 4 years and was discharged with the rank of captain.^[14]

Skilled soccer profession

Brown on a 1959 Topps collectible card

Brown was taken within the first spherical of the 1957 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns, the sixth total choice.^[15] Within the ninth recreation of his rookie season, in opposition to the Los Angeles Rams he rushed for 237 yards,^[16] setting an NFL single-game file that stood unsurpassed for 14 years^[a] and a rookie file that remained for 40 years.

Brown broke the single-season speeding file in 1958, gaining 1,527 yards within the 12-game season, shattering the earlier NFL mark of 1,146 yards set by Steve Van Buren in 1949.^[18] On this MVP season, Brown led all gamers with a staggering 17 touchdowns scored, beating his nearest rival, Baltimore Colts extensive receiver Raymond Berry, by 8.^[18]

Brown in Cleveland

After 9 years within the NFL, he departed because the league’s file holder for each single-season (1,863 in 1963) and profession speeding (12,312 yards), in addition to the all-time chief in speeding touchdowns (106), whole touchdowns (126), and all-purpose yards (15,549). He was the primary participant to achieve the 100-rushing-touchdowns milestone, and only some others have executed so since, regardless of the league’s growth to a 16-game season in 1978 (Brown’s first 4 seasons had been solely 12 video games, and his final 5 had been 14 video games).

Brown’s file of scoring 100 touchdowns in solely 93 video games stood till LaDainian Tomlinson did it in 89 video games through the 2006 season. Brown holds the file for whole seasons main the NFL in all-purpose yards (5: 1958–1961, 1964), and is the one rusher in NFL historical past to common over 100 yards per recreation for a profession. Along with his speeding, Brown was an excellent receiver out of the backfield, catching 262 passes for two,499 yards and 20 touchdowns, whereas additionally including one other 628 yards returning kickoffs.

Brown in 1961

Each season he performed, Brown was voted into the Professional Bowl, and he left the league in type by scoring three touchdowns in his ultimate Professional Bowl recreation. He achieved these data regardless of not enjoying previous 29 years of age. Brown’s six video games with not less than 4 touchdowns stays an NFL file. Tomlinson and Marshall Faulk each have 5 video games with 4 touchdowns.

Brown led the league in speeding a file eight instances. He was additionally the primary NFL participant to hurry for over 10,000 yards.

He instructed me, ‘Ensure that when anybody tackles you he remembers how a lot it hurts.’ He lived by that philosophy and I all the time adopted that recommendation.

— John Mackey, 1999

Brown’s 1,863 speeding yards within the 1963 season stays a Cleveland franchise file. It’s at the moment the oldest franchise file for speeding yards out of all 32 NFL groups. His common of 133 yards per recreation that season is exceeded solely by O. J. Simpson’s 1973 season. Whereas others have compiled extra prodigious statistics, when viewing Brown’s standing within the recreation, his type of operating should be thought-about together with statistical measures. He was very troublesome to sort out (proven by his main 5.2 yards per carry), typically requiring multiple defender to convey him down.^[19]

Brown retired in July 1966,^[20][21] after 9 seasons, because the NFL’s all-time main rusher. He held the file of 12,312 yards till it was damaged by Walter Payton on October 7, 1984, throughout Payton’s tenth NFL season. Brown continues to be the Browns’ all-time main rusher.^[22] As of 2018 Brown is eleventh on the all-time speeding record.^[23]

Throughout Brown’s profession, Cleveland gained the NFL championship in 1964 and had been runners-up in 1957 and 1965, his rookie and ultimate season, respectively.

Appearing profession

Early movies

Brown and Janet MacLachlan in … tick … tick … tick … (1970)

Brown started his performing profession earlier than the 1964 season, enjoying a buffalo soldier in a Western motion movie known as Rio Conchos.^[24] The movie premiered at Cleveland’s Hippodrome theater on October 23, with Brown and lots of of his teammates in attendance. The response was lukewarm. Brown, one reviewer stated, was a serviceable actor, however the film’s overcooked plotting and implausibility amounted to “a vigorous melodrama for the unsqueamish.”^[25]

MGM

In early 1966, Brown was capturing his second movie in London.^[26] MGM’s The Soiled Dozen forged Brown as Robert Jefferson, one among 12 convicts despatched to France throughout World Warfare II to assassinate German officers assembly at a fortress close to Rennes in Brittany earlier than the D-Day invasion. Manufacturing delays attributable to dangerous climate meant he missed not less than the primary a part of coaching camp on the campus of Hiram School, which irritated Cleveland Browns proprietor Artwork Modell, who threatened to positive Brown $1,500 (equal to $12,000 in 2020) for each week of camp he missed.^[27] Brown, who had beforehand stated that 1966 can be his final season, the ultimate yr of a three-year contract,^[28] introduced his retirement, as a substitute.^[20][21][24]

Brown went on to play a villain in a 1967 episode of I Spy known as “Cops and Robbers”.

Soiled Dozen was an enormous hit and MGM signed him to a multi-film contract. His second movie for the studio was Darkish of the Solar (1968), an motion film set within the Congo the place he performed a mercenary who was Rod Taylor’s finest pal.

Ice Station Zebra (1968) was additionally for MGM, an costly journey film primarily based on a novel by Alistair MacLean the place Brown supported Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, and Ernest Borgnine.

Main man

MGM forged Brown in his first lead function in The Break up (1968), primarily based on a Parker novel by Donald E. Westlake. He was paid $125,000 for the function.^[29]

Brown adopted it with Riot (1969), a jail movie for MGM. Each it and The Break up had been strong hits on the field workplace. Biographer Mike Freeman credit Brown with turning into “the primary black motion star”, attributable to roles such because the Marine captain he portrayed within the hit 1968 movie Ice Station Zebra.^[30]

Brown went to twentieth Century Fox for 100 Rifles (1969). Brown was billed over co stars Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds and had a love scene with Welch, one of many first interracial love scenes.^[31] Raquel Welch mirrored on the scene in Spike Lee’s Jim Brown: All-American.

Brown had a change of tempo with Kenner (1969) at MGM, an journey movie partly set in India the place Brown performs a person who befriends a younger boy. For a similar studio, he starred as a sheriff in … tick … tick … tick … (1970) which was one other hit.

Brown appeared in The Grasshopper (1970), a drama for Nationwide Normal Photos the place he performed an ex-football participant who turns into the lover of Jacqueline Bisset. Extra typical was El Condor (1970), a Western shot in Spain by John Guillermin, additionally for Nationwide Normal.

Brown starred in a number of of the style: Slaughter (1972), an enormous hit for AIP; Black Gunn (1972) for Columbia; Slaughter’s Huge Rip-Off (1973); The Slams (1973), again at MGM; I Escaped from Satan’s Island (1973); and Three the Exhausting Approach (1974) with Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly.

He did a spaghetti Western with Williamson, Take a Exhausting Journey (1975). The recognition of blaxploitation ebbed within the mid-70s and Brown made fewer movies.

Late Nineteen Seventies by to current day

Brown appeared in Fingers (1978), the directorial debut of James Toback.

His Eighties appearances had been totally on tv. Brown appeared in some TV reveals together with Knight Rider within the season-three premiere episode “Knight of the Drones”. Brown appeared alongside fellow former soccer participant Joe Namath on The A-Group episode “Quarterback Sneak”.^[32] Brown additionally appeared on CHiPs, episodes one and two, in season three, as a pickpocket on curler skates.

He appeared reverse Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987’s The Operating Man, an adaptation of a Stephen King novel, as Fireball, and had a cameo within the spoof I am Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).

Brown appeared in Mars Assaults! (1996) and Sucker Free Metropolis (2004) and performed a defensive coach, Montezuma Monroe, in Any Given Sunday (1999).

Different post-football actions

Brown at an autograph signing in 2004

Brown posed within the nude for the September 1974 difficulty of Playgirl journal, and is without doubt one of the uncommon celebrities to permit full-frontal nude footage for use.^[33]
Brown additionally labored as a coloration analyst on NFL telecasts for CBS in 1978, teaming with Vin Scully and George Allen.^[34]

In 1983, 17 years after retiring from skilled soccer, Brown mused about popping out of retirement to play for the Los Angeles Raiders when it appeared that Pittsburgh Steelers operating again Franco Harris would break Brown’s all-time speeding file.^[35] Brown disliked Harris’ type of operating, criticizing the Steelers’ operating again’s tendency to expire of bounds, a marked distinction to Brown’s strategy of combating for each yard and taking over the approaching tackler.^{[citation needed]} Finally, Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears broke the file on October 7, 1984, with Brown having ended ideas of a comeback. Harris himself, who retired after the 1984 season after enjoying eight video games with the Seattle Seahawks, fell wanting Brown’s mark. Following Harris’s final season, in that January, a problem between Brown and Harris in a 40-yard sprint was nationally televised. Brown, at 48 years previous, was sure he may beat Harris, although Harris was solely 34 years previous and simply ending his elite profession. Harris clocked in at 5.16 seconds, and Brown in at 5.72 seconds, pulling up in later portion of race clutching his hamstring.^[36]

In 1965, Brown was the primary black televised boxing announcer when he introduced a televised boxing match in the US, for the Terrell–Chuvalo combat,^[37][38] and can be credited with then first suggesting a profession in boxing promotion to Bob Arum.^[39]

Brown’s autobiography, revealed in 1989 by Zebra Books, was titled Out of Bounds and was co-written with Steve Delsohn.^[40] He was a topic of the guide Jim: The Creator’s Self-Centered Memoir of the Nice Jim Brown, by James Toback.

In 1993, Brown was employed as a coloration commentator for the Final Combating Championship, a job he occupied for the primary six pay-per-view occasions.

In 1988, Brown based the Amer-I-Can Program. He at the moment works with juveniles caught up within the gang scene in Los Angeles and Cleveland by this Amer-I-Can program.^[41] It’s a life-management abilities group that operates in interior cities and prisons.

In 2002, movie director Spike Lee launched the movie Jim Brown: All-American, a retrospective on Brown’s skilled profession and private life.

In 2008, Brown initiated a lawsuit in opposition to Sony and EA Sports activities for utilizing his likeness within the Madden NFL online game collection. He claimed that he “by no means signed away any rights that might permit his likeness for use”.^[42]

As of 2008, Brown was serving as an government advisor to the Browns, helping to construct relationships with the staff’s gamers and to additional improve the NFL’s big selection of sponsored applications by the staff’s participant applications division.^[43]

On Could 29, 2013, Brown was named a particular advisor to the Browns.^[44]

Brown can be a part-owner of the New York Lizards of Main League Lacrosse, becoming a member of a gaggle of traders within the buy of the staff in 2012.^[45]

On October 11, 2018, Brown together with Kanye West met with president Donald Trump to debate the state of America amongst different matters.^[46]

Private life and authorized troubles

Brown married his first spouse Sue Brown (née Jones) in September 1959.^[47] She sued for divorce in 1968, charging him with “gross neglect.” Collectively that they had three youngsters, twins Kim and Kevin (b. 1960), and a son, James Jr. (b. 1962).^[48] Their divorce was finalized in 1972.^[49] Brown was ordered to pay $2,500 per thirty days in alimony and $100 per week for baby help.^[50]

In 1965, Brown was arrested in his resort room for assault and battery in opposition to an 18-year-old named Brenda Ayres; he was later acquitted of these costs.^[47] A yr later, he fought paternity allegations that he fathered Brenda Ayres’ baby.^[51]

In 1968, Brown was charged with assault with intent to commit homicide after mannequin Eva Bohn-Chin was discovered beneath the balcony of Brown’s second-floor residence.^[52] The fees had been later dismissed after Bohn-Chin refused to cooperate with the prosecutor’s workplace. Brown was additionally ordered to pay a $300 positive for putting a deputy sheriff concerned within the investigation through the incident. In Brown’s autobiography, he acknowledged that Bohn-Chin was indignant and jealous over an affair he had been having with Gloria Steinem, and this argument is what led to the “misunderstanding with the police”.^[53]

In 1970, Brown was discovered not responsible of assault and battery, the costs stemming from a road-rage incident that had occurred in 1969.^[54]

In December 1973, Brown proposed to 18-year-old Diane Stanley, a Clark School scholar he met in Acapulco, Mexico, in April of that yr.^[55][56] They broke off their engagement in 1974.^[57]

In 1975, Brown was convicted of misdemeanor battery for beating and choking his {golfing} accomplice, Frank Snow. He was sentenced to sooner or later in jail, two years’ probation, and a positive of $500.^[58][59]

In 1985, Brown was charged with raping a 33-year-old girl.^[60] The fees had been later dismissed.^[61]

In 1986, Brown was arrested for assaulting his fiancée Debra Clark.^[62] Clark refused to press costs, although, and Brown was launched.^[63]

Brown married his second spouse Monique Brown in 1997; they’ve two youngsters.^[64] In 1999, Brown was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats towards his spouse. Later that yr, he was discovered responsible of vandalism for smashing his spouse’s automobile with a shovel.^[65] He was sentenced to a few years’ probation, one yr of home violence counseling, and 400 hours of neighborhood service or 40 hours on a piece crew together with a $1,800 positive.^[66] Brown ignored the phrases of his sentence and in 2000 was sentenced to 6 months in jail, which he started serving in 2002 after refusing the court-ordered counseling and neighborhood service.^[67] He was launched after 3 months.^[68][69]

Sporting accolades

Helmet signed by Brown

Brown’s memorable skilled profession led to his induction into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame in 1971. His soccer accomplishments at Syracuse garnered him a berth within the School Soccer Corridor of Fame.

Jim Brown additionally earned a spot within the Lacrosse Corridor of Fame, giving him a uncommon triple crown of kinds.

In 118 profession video games, Brown averaged 104.3 yards per recreation and 5.2 yards per carry; solely Barry Sanders (99.8 yards per recreation and 5.0 yards per carry)^[70] comes shut to those totals. For instance, Corridor of Famer Walter Payton averaged solely 88 yards per recreation throughout his profession with a 4.4 yards-per-carry common. Emmitt Smith averaged solely 81.2 yards per recreation with a 4.2 yards-per-carry common.^[71] He held the yards-per-carry file by a operating again (minimal 750 carries) from his retirement in 1965 till Jamaal Charles broke the file in 2012, however he nonetheless stays in 2nd place all-time over 50 years after his final NFL recreation.

The one top-10 all-time rusher who even approaches Brown’s totals, Barry Sanders, posted a profession common of 99.8 yards per recreation and 5.0 yards per carry. Nonetheless, Barry Sanders’ father, William, was regularly quoted as saying that Jim Brown was “one of the best I’ve ever seen.”^[72]

Brown at the moment holds NFL data for:
– most video games with 24 or extra factors in a profession (6)
– highest profession touchdowns per recreation common (1.068)
– most profession video games with three or extra touchdowns (14)
– most video games with 4 or extra touchdowns in a profession (6)
– most seasons main the league in speeding makes an attempt (6)
– most seasons main the league in speeding yards (8)
– highest profession speeding yards-per-game common (104.3)
– most seasons main the league in touchdowns (5)
– most seasons main the league in yards from scrimmage (6)
– highest common yards from scrimmage per recreation in a profession (125.52)
– most seasons main the league in mixed internet yards (5)

In 2002, The Sporting Information chosen him as the best soccer participant of all time,^[2] as did the New York Each day Information in 2014.^[73] On November 4, 2010, Brown was chosen by NFL Community’s NFL Movies manufacturing The High 100: NFL’s Best Gamers because the second-greatest participant in NFL historical past, behind solely Jerry Rice. In November 2019, he was chosen as one of many twelve operating backs on the NFL a centesimal Anniversary All-Time Group.^[74]

On January 13, 2020, Brown was named the best faculty soccer participant of all time by ESPN, throughout a ceremony on the School Soccer Playoff Nationwide Championship Recreation celebrating the a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of faculty soccer.

Cultural depictions

Portrayals

Brown was portrayed by Darrin Henson within the 2008 movie The Specific, which is in regards to the lifetime of Ernie Davis, additionally a former Syracuse operating again.

Within the stage play One Night time in Miami, first carried out in 2013, Brown was portrayed by David Ajala. In its 2020 movie adaptation, he’s performed by Aldis Hodge.

NFL profession statistics

Common season

Filmography

See additionally

• Most consecutive begins by a fullback
• Listing of Nationwide Soccer League speeding yards leaders
• Listing of Nationwide Soccer League speeding champions
• Listing of NCAA main faculty yearly punt and kickoff return leaders

Notes

Additional studying

• Jim Brown; Myron Cope (1964). Off My Chest. Doubleday. (autobiography)
• Jim Brown; Steve Delsohn (1989). Out of Bounds. Zebra Books. p. 380. (autobiography)
• Freeman, Mike (2006). Jim Brown: The Fierce Lifetime of an American Hero. Harper Collins World.
• Toback, James (2009) [1971]. Jim: The Creator’s Self-Centered Memoir on the Nice Jim Brown. Doubleday and Firm, Inc. (1971) & Rat Press (March 3, 2009).
• Pluto, Terry (1997). Browns City 1964: Cleveland Browns and the 1964 Championship. Cleveland: Grey & Firm. ISBN 978-1-886228-72-6.