Jim Brown was born in 1936 on St. Simons Island, Georgia, raised by his grandmother and moved at eight to Manhasset on Long Island, where he earned 13 varsity letters and averaged over 38 points a game in basketball. He turned down a minor league contract from Casey Stengel’s Yankees after judging he would not be a top major leaguer. Syracuse would not honor a scholarship at first, so Manhasset lawyer Kenneth Molloy paid his freshman year, and coaches tried to move him off running back. As a senior in 1956 he scored 43 points against Colgate, with 197 rushing yards, six touchdowns and seven extra points, and his lacrosse play led to the rule that players keep their sticks in motion.
Drafted sixth by the Cleveland Browns in 1957, he became the first player past 10,000 rushing yards and averaged over 100 yards a game and 5.2 yards a carry for nine seasons. In 1966, filming The Dirty Dozen in London as the reigning MVP, he answered owner Art Modell’s threat of a $1,500 weekly fine by retiring. He became Hollywood’s first Black action hero and in 100 Rifles (1969) shared one of the first interracial love scenes in a major studio film with Raquel Welch. In 1967 he convened the Cleveland Summit of Black athletes to back Muhammad Ali’s draft refusal, and he founded the Black Economic Union to fund Black-owned businesses. The episode also covers decades of assault allegations against him. He died in 2023 at 87.
- He refused to drink water during games, believing thirst kept him hungry.
- As early as 1960 he told reporters he feared ending up punch-drunk like an old prizefighter.
- Federal agencies including the FBI and the Secret Service monitored him and the Black Economic Union.
- He endorsed Richard Nixon in 1968 because of Nixon’s call for Black capitalism.
- He helped mediate the 1992 Watts gang truce, hosting rival leaders at his Hollywood Hills home.
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