Historical Spotlight: Jim Brown
Black Americans have participated in and made numerous contributions to sports throughout history. Oftentimes, athletic progress and achievement for Black Americans has come from “breaking the color barrier” in professional leagues to force widespread cultural change. However, there’s a long history of racism, segregation, and discrimination that most Black athletes have had to endure. Join me as we shine a historical spotlight on one of the greatest running backs of all time, James Nathaniel Brown.
James, also known as Jim, was born on February 17, 1936 on St. Simons Island, Georgia to his parents Swinton and Theresa. His grandmother was very influential on his upbringing and he was able to avoid experiencing a lot of racism at an early age. The family relocated to Manhasset, New York on Long Island when he was eight.
In middle school, he excelled in football, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, and track and field. He continued as a multi-sport athlete right into high school, where he averaged a Long Island record of 38 points per game for his basketball team. This is also when he became a football star and athletic legend.
He attended college at Syracuse University with the help of Kenneth Molloy, former Syracuse alumni and Varsity Lacrosse coach. Initially, the coaching staff refused to offer a scholarship to Jim because, according to Kenneth, "[Syracuse] did not want black athletes." Kenneth was able to raise enough money to pay for Jim’s first year of school along with a promise of a scholarship to come.
Jim was the only Black American player on the football team as a freshman in 1953. He battled past racist taunts and being treated differently from teammates. He was placed in a non-athlete dorm, threatened to not date any white women, and was constantly belittled by the coaching staff attempting to get him to play other positions like punter, lineman, and wide receiver.
Despite this, he still went on to be the second-leading rusher on the team during his sophomore year and worked his way up to being a first-team All-American by his senior year. He set school records for the highest season rush average (6.2) and the most rushing touchdowns in a single game (6).
He continued playing basketball, track, and lacrosse throughout his college years and earned honorable achievements in each. As a sophomore, he was the second-leading scorer for the basketball team with 15 points per game. The following year, he finished in fifth place in the National Championship decathlon while also being named a second-team All-American in lacrosse. During his last year, he was named a first-team All-American in lacrosse and was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1983.
Unfortunately, the racism he experienced early on at Syracuse followed him throughout his tenure. He was so good at lacrosse that rules were unfairly changed to take away his athletic dominance. Since then, the rules have been changed back to how they were originally.
While in college, Jim participated in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and was commissioned as a second lieutenant after graduating. Throughout his NFL career, he was an active member of the US Army Reserve. He served for four years and was discharged with the rank of captain.
Jim was drafted as the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 1957 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns. In the ninth game of his rookie season, he set an NFL single-game record that wasn’t broken for 14 years and a rookie record that wasn’t broken for 40 years by rushing for 237 yards against the Los Angeles Rams. He had an MVP season in 1958 when he broke the single-season rushing record with 1,527 yards, 17 total touchdowns scored, and the most rushing yards per game in a season with 127.3.
He was one of the few athletes to speak out on racial issues in the 1950s as the civil rights movement gained traction. He was a member of the 1967 Cleveland Summit, which included other notable members like Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Carl Stokes to support Muhammad Ali in his fight for civil rights. The summit was later called "a significant turning point for the role of the athlete in society" and "one of the most important civil rights acts in sports history".
In 1966, Jim founded the Negro Industrial Economic Union, later known as the Black Economic Union (BEU), to help promote economic opportunities for Black owned businesses. It was a tangible way to bring about real change and build a sustainable economic base for Black Americans. Jim thought economic independence was the way to fight against racism and oppression and the organization secured loans and grants to support community initiatives related to food, medicine, farming, and economic ventures.
Unfortunately, because of his strong activism for strengthening the Black community, the FBI perceived him as a threat and monitored him and his organizations. There were even files declassified in 2003 that showed that the FBI, United States Secret Service, and several police departments attempted to paint the Black Economic Union as a source of Communism and radical Muslim extremism and collected information to damage Jim’s reputation.
He spent only nine years in the NFL and broke many records that solidified him as one of the greatest players to have ever played the game. At the time, he was the record holder for both single-season (1,863 in 1963) and career rushing (12,312), as well as the all-time leader in rushing touchdowns (106), total touchdowns (126), and all-purpose yards (15,549). He was also the first player to score 100 rushing touchdowns and accomplished it in only 93 games.
Jim is the only rusher in NFL history to average over 100 yards per game for a career and was voted into the Pro Bowl in every season he played. During his final Pro Bowl game, he scored three touchdowns in typical Jim fashion. He won one NFL championship in 1964 and went for 151 yards total, 114 of which came from the ground.
He was famous for his stiff arm and combined speed, power, and relentless endurance as a rusher. After winning his third league MVP award in 1965, Jim retired in July 1966 at 30 while still in top form. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995.
Jim died of natural causes at the age of 87 on May 18, 2023. While he is gone, he is surely not forgotten. He used his platform to speak out against the injustices experienced by Black Americans and created organizations to help his community. He broke barriers, set records, and strove for greatness in hopes of changing the system for the better.
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Signed,
Jessica Marie
