Background

Jim Brown was born on February 17, 1936 in Saint Simons Island, Georgia, United States. He is the only child of Swinton Brown, a professional boxer and itinerant worker, and Theresa Brown, a domestic worker. His father deserted the family soon after his birth, and his mother left him when he was two for a job as a housemaid on Long Island, in New York. He was raised by his great-grandmother, Nora Peterson, until he was eight years old.

Education

Brown's mother, Theresa, worked as a housekeeper in Long Island, New York. Eventually Brown joined her there, undergoing a sort of culture shock in his new surroundings. He studied at Manhasset Secondary School. There he found his way onto sports teams. He was a natural athlete who excelled at virtually every game, from baseball and football to lacrosse and track events. A policeman named Jack Peploe encouraged Brown to join the Manhasset Police Boys' Club and even gave Brown the keys to the high school gym so he could open it for Boys' Club games.

As early as his freshman year of high school, Brown was grabbing the attention of local coaches. Ed Walsh, who ran the Manhasset High School football program, recruited Brown and pushed him to work on his already formidable skills.

With Brown's talent and leadership, Manhasset High became a powerhouse in football, baseball, and lacrosse. The students at the school were so impressed with their star athlete that they elected him chief justice of the high school court. Even so, Brown admits that he did indulge in a bit of minor gang activity as a teenager, chiefly breaking in on rival parties and fighting occasionally. This mischief, however, did not impinge on his athletic career or his academic potential. During most of his high school years, he was a member of the honor society for scholastic achievement.

Brown was recruited by 45 colleges and universities. He chose New York's Syracuse University at the prompting of a friend, attorney Ken Molloy. Unbeknownst to Brown, Molloy had canvassed Manhasset businessmen for funds to pay Brown's tuition until the young man could earn a full athletic scholarship. That proved more difficult than anyone had anticipated when, as a freshman at Syracuse, Brown was passed over for less talented white players in basketball and football. As a sophomore, he was benched in football until a timely injury to another player opened a place for him on the offense. Once he found his way into a game, he plowed down the opposition so forcefully that the fans began to chant his name. He became a starter after that, ultimately earning ten varsity letters as a Syracuse Orangeman - three each in football and lacrosse and two each in basketball and track. With only a slight knowledge of the various events, he placed fifth nationally in the 1956 decathlon competition and qualified to attend the Olympic Games.

Brown did not go to the 1956 Olympics, however, choosing instead to concentrate on football. During his senior year at Syracuse, his team qualified for the prestigious Cotton Bowl, where they lost 28-27 to Texas Christian University. Brown, who scored 21 points in that game, was later named to the 1957 College All-Stars. When he graduated in the spring of 1957, he had gained 2,091 yards and scored 187 points - including 25 touchdowns - for the Orangemen.

Career

Brown was the first-round draft choice of the Cleveland Browns in 1957. With little fanfare, he joined the team's training camp for summer workouts. While most professional football players need several years to adjust to the level of play in the NFL, Brown starting at fullback made his presence known immediately. By his fifth game, he had surpassed the team record for most touchdowns scored in a single season. He played a key role in Cleveland's Eastern Division championship of 1957, and, with the first of his seven season-rushing records in hand, was the unanimous choice for rookie of the year. In 1958, he again won the rushing title with 1,527 yards, tying the single-season touchdown record with 18.

Year after year Brown continued his onslaught. If teams could contain his rushing on the ground - and few could - he would catch "hail Mary," or long "bomb" passes and streak into the end zone. He was voted onto every All-Pro team between 1958 and 1965, and he was named football back of the decade for 1950 to 1960. In Cleveland especially, he was hailed as a conquering hero, a superstar for a sports-obsessed city.

Still, by 1962 Brown was dissatisfied with his role with Cleveland. His response, more or less, was to lead a player revolt against the coaching of Paul Brown, who was fairly conservative in his play selection. In 1963, Jim Brown prospered again, this time under replacement coach Blanton Collier. Brown rewrote the record books by gaining 1,863 yards, catching 24 passes, and scoring 15 touchdowns in a single season. In December of that year he visited then-President Lyndon Johnson at the White House.

The era of product endorsements and athlete-actors was just dawning, and Brown was a pioneer in both respects. He signed a contract with Pepsi Cola and traveled in the off-season as an executive and spokesperson for the soft drink company. He also took a role in a feature film, Rio Conchos, about U.S. Cavalry troopers in the 19th century. The movie work opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for Brown. Although he was still at the top of his form as an athlete and the highest-paid football player of his day, he actively sought film roles as a means to move away from sports.

In 1966 Brown starred in the box office hit The Dirty Dozen, earning praise for his portrayal of a black man victimized but unbroken by the white world. Shooting for The Dirty Dozen was repeatedly delayed, and ultimately conflicted with football training camp in 1966. It was then that Brown abruptly announced his retirement from football. He was 30 years old and at the height of his game.

For some years after Brown retired from football he continued to win major film roles in works such as Dark of the Sun, Ice Station Zebra, and 100 Rifles. The latter featured an American cinematic first, when Brown did a love scene with costar Raquel Welch, a white actress.

When the film and television offers dried up, he founded his own production company, Ocean Productions, to encourage minority participation in movie-making. Though that venture has not seen great success, other Jim Brown projects have not only enhanced the athlete's image, but have also brought him substantial financial reward.

Jim Brown was also a ringside commentator for the first six events of the Ultimate Fighting Championships from 1993 through to 1996. He continues to remain busy in front of the camera with recent appearances in various sports shows & TV productions.

Achievements

• Jim Brown is known as one of the best football players ever. In just nine seasons in the National Football League, Brown collected eight rushing titles en route to setting new records for most yards in a season and most career rushing yards. A three-time Most Valuable Player, Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
  
  Brown's league rushing title earned him the Rookie of the Year Award. In 1963 Brown made history when he rushed for a league record 1883 yards.
  
  Jim became Hollywood's "first black man of action" by starring in several movies.
  
  In his day, Brown was one of the few athletes who could transcend the playing field and become part of the broader American culture. Even today, he is the standard by which all other NFL runners are measured.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Out of Bounds

    (In this outspoken and fearless autobiography, Jim Brown, ...)

    1989
  • Off My Chest

    (The story of the "amazing" Jimmy Brown, the quiet fullbac...)

    1964

• movie

  • Animal 2005
  • Sucker Free City 2004
  • She Hate Me 2004
  • Any Given Sunday 1999
  • He Got Game 1998

Religion

Jim Brown said: "I am not an Atheist. I am not Agnostic, I do believe there is a god."

Politics

Jim Brown came out in fulsome support of Donald Trump. He also bashed civil-rights legend Representative John Lewis for calling Trump "illegitimate."

Views

As early as his playing days in Cleveland, Brown founded the Black Economic Union (BEU), which used professional athletes as facilitators in the establishment of black-run enterprises, urban athletic clubs, and youth motivation programs. The BEU eventually folded, but Brown took his ideas to the Coors Golden Door program and Jobs Plus. In 1986, he founded a new endeavor, Vital Issues, aimed at teaching life management skills and personal growth techniques to inner-city gang members and prison inmates. By 1989, Vital Issues had evolved into Amer-I-Can.

Quotations: "There's a trend toward anti-heroes now, and I think it goes back to guys like Bogart and Cagney. They seemed to have no compassion, and they were always alone."

"When I'm on a picture, I have two bosses - the director and the producer. My co-star is not my boss."

"I'm a very sensitive person. I do like to be respected. I'm very loyal. I like it to be a two-way street."

"I'm not pro-owner or pro-player. I am pro-football. I want the game to go on. I want the game to be tough. I don't want the game to be a killer of our players."

"I think the National Football League needs a new union. The heavyweights of this union are not heavyweights enough."

"Nobody I ever broke bread with, and I see players all the time, talked about using their head running the football."

"I'm not interested in trying to work on people's perceptions. I am who I am, and if you don't take the time to learn about that, then your perception is going to be your problem."

"I was just a big guy running down with a big, deep pocket and little short stick putting it against my chest."

Personality

Jim Brown intimidated people on and off the football field. He has been described as brutal yet brilliant, narcissistic yet magnanimous, relentless yet unyielding.

Physical Characteristics: Standing 6.2 feet (1.88 metres) tall and weighing 232 pounds (105 kg), Brown was a bruising runner who possessed the speed to outrun opponents as well as the strength to run over them.

Quotes from others about the person

• John Mackey: "He told me, 'Make sure when anyone tackles you, he remembers how much it hurts.' He lived by that philosophy and I always followed that advice."
  
  Miami Herald: "Jimmy Brown made headlines recently for his off-the-wall talk of an NFL comeback at 47. That's a shame because people who never saw Jimmy Brown in his prime will think of him only as a dotty middle-aged man on a colossal ego trip."

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  lacrosse, basketball and running

Connections

In 1959 Brown married his first wife Sue Brown. Together they had three children - twins Kim and Kevin, and a son, James Jr. The couple divorced in 1972. In December 1973, Brown proposed to 18-year-old Diane Stanley, a Clark College student he met in Acapulco. In 1974 they broke off their engagement.

Jim married his second wife, Monique Brown, in 1997. They have two children.

Father:

Swinton Brown

Mother:

Theresa Brown

Spouse:

Monique Brown

Son:

James Brown Jr.

(born 1962)

Daughter:

Kim Brown

(born 1960)

ex-spouse:

Sue Brown

Son:

Kevin Brown

(born 1960)

Son:

Aris Brown

Daughter:

Karen Brown Ward

Friend:

Richard Pryor

(December 1, 1940 - December 10, 2005)

Richard Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time.

References

• Jim Brown: The Fierce Life of an American Hero In this moving book, Mike Freeman offers the first definitive portrait of Jim Brown. Based on interviews with Brown, his family, friends, and colleagues, Jim Brown is an honest, complete picture of the man and his turbulent times. Part biography, part cultural history, it is a quintessential American tale - a story of adversity, adulation, tenacity, inspiration, and pride.
  2006
• Jim: The Author's Self-Сentered Memoir on the Great Jim Brown A book by James Toback.
  1971
• Browns Town 1964: The Cleveland Browns and the 1964 Championship The inspiring story of Cleveland's last champions: The 1964 Cleveland Browns. A nostalgic look back at the remarkable story of the upstart AFC Cleveland Browns' surprise championship victory over the hugely favored Baltimore Colts in 1964. Sportswriter Terry Pluto profiles the colorful players who made that season so memorable. He takes his readers through the entire 1964 season from training camp at Hiram College to the championship game in Municipal Stadium.
  1997