You Don’t Know Jim Brown; You Just Think You Do!

Abstract

You Don’t Know Jim Brown; You Just Think You Do! Judson L. Jeffries Inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame in 1995 (why that took so long is anybody’s guess) and the National Football League’s Hall of Fame in 1971, his first year of eligibility, many sports enthusiasts are familiar with Jim Brown’s gridiron exploits, but little else. When asked about The Sporting News naming him the greatest professional football player ever in 2002, he scoffed at the suggestion, replying humbly, “well, I know I didn’t play any defense for the Browns.” When Brown entered the NFL in 1957, after graduating from Syracuse University, baseball was America’s most popular sport, and although it took decades for the NFL to overtake the MLB, Brown played a big part in that, as the game’s leading ball carrier and one of its first superstars following World War II. No one had ever seen a player like Brown. In 1964, the Cleveland Browns fullback, not halfback, contrary to revisionist history, led his team to an NFL championship (later known as the Super Bowl). When he retired in 1965, he did so as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher. It took nearly 20 years before that record was broken. By that time the NFL had expanded its schedule from 14 to 16 games. Brown was a unique player, meaning someone who doesn’t remind you of anyone else. When Brown was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, he joined the club as a second lieutenant via Syracuse’s Army ROTC program and continued his military training at Fort Benning, GA. Years later Brown was honorably discharged at the rank of captain. In 2016, Brown was inducted into the U.S. Army ROTC National Hall of Fame. Not only was Brown one of the best college football players in the country he was also a two-time All-American in lacrosse. In 1983 he was the first African American inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Considered one of the sport’s all-time greats, the Premier Lacrosse League MVP Award is named in [End Page 117] Brown’s honor. Brown was an all-around athlete. In the summer of 1955, Brown placed fifth in the men’s national collegiate decathlon in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Few athletes enjoyed the level of fame and reverence as Jim Brown. But he was more than just an athlete. Back in the early 1990s, a mutual friend gave me Brown’s home phone number and encouraged me to call, as I was interested in volunteering for his Amer-I-Can program. Big Daddy Kane answered the phone, but that’s another story. Around that same time, I had the occasion to meet Governor L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, the country’s first Black elected governor. During one of my visits back to the East Coast to see my parents, I mentioned to my father that I had a scheduled meeting with the governor, that I would be traveling to Richmond, Virginia, in a few days for the appointment. My father was nonplussed. When he asked what else was going on, I told him that I had spoken to Jim Brown, that I would be meeting with him once I returned to Los Angeles. Suddenly, my father came alive and asked, “you mean Jimmy Brown of the Cleveland Browns?” I responded in the affirmative at which point he proceeded to pepper me with questions. “How do you know him?” “What are you going to be doing with him?” He was more impressed with my meeting Jim Brown than he was with my appointment with the country’s first elected Black governor. My father said, “I have a lot of respect for ole’ Brown.” I also remember my father saying something like he didn’t sell out . . . he never caved in . . . he didn’t go along to get along . . . always stood tall. Brown was one of few athletes whose activities off the field were just as important if not more than his successes on the field. For decades, Brown worked with Los Angeles’s gangs in ways that no one had before. Brown...