Jim Brown Biography - The Early Days, Brown And The Browns, Hollywood And Retirement, Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments
football running field success
1936-
American football player
Jim Brown
Hall-of-Fame running back, Jim Brown, was recognized during his football career for his dominance on the playing field. In the years following his early retirement, that same strength and determination led to success in Hollywood and social activism. With the Cleveland Browns from 1957 through 1966, Brown rewrote the record books and then left the game to pursue avenues that would challenge him more than his gridiron contemporaries ever could. He was one of the first professional football players to parlay his fame into success off the field and in doing so he not only set a precedent for all the running backs that followed but for every athlete that had aspirations beyond athletics.
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Born James Nathaniel Brown in 1936 on St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia, he was raised primarily by his great-grandmother after his father, a professional boxer, left the family. His mother moved North in search of work and eventually would send for her son. It was after moving north to be with his mother that Brown first encountered the barriers he would so easily break throughout his li…
He was drafted in the first round of the 1957 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns. Starting at fullback, Brown was immediately effective in his role with the team. After only the fifth game of the season, he had already set a team record for touchdowns in a single season. The team would eventually win the Eastern Division championship and Brown was unanimously voted Rookie of the Year. The following…
In 1966, he accepted a role in the hit movie The Dirty Dozen. The scheduling conflict between the film and the beginning of football training camp led to Brown's abrupt retirement from football. At thirty-years-old and still in his prime, he left football and never looked back. Brown told Sports Illustrated, "I quit with regret but not sorrow. I've been able to do all the thin…
His first step was to start his own production company, Ocean Productions, an attempt to provide minorities with a greater role in cinema. Not an overwhelming success, it was the first step in what would be the third phase of his life and career. As the founder of the Black Economic Union during his football days, Brown had the ambition and intelligence to use his influence to help those less fort…
Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale, 1996. "Arrested. Jim Brown." Time (March 4, 1985): 80. "As Time Passes, Public Perceptions of Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson Change." New York Daily News (February 9, 1995). "Call Him to Canton." Sports Illustrated (February 26, 1990): 14. "Excellence by the yard; Franco Harris and Walter Payton: Doing …
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User Comments
about 2 years ago
Roddy White
He was a great player