Brown
After moving to Long Island in New York at the age of eight (where his mother finds work as a domestic), the legend of Brown begins at Manhasset Secondary School, where he earns thirteen Varsity letters for the Indians in the sports of football, lacrosse, baseball (he will throw two no-hitters and be scouted by the Yankees), basketball (he averaged a then record 38 points per game), and track.
Baseball
Recruited to become an Orangeman for the University of Syracuse, Brown plays running back with the Varsity for three years (freshmen are not eligible to play back then) in a college career that has him being a second-team selection to the All-America team as a junior, becoming a consensus first team All-American in his senior year as he leads his team in rushing and scoring in only an eight game season as he averages 6.2 yards a carry, and sets a school record in his last regular season game against Colgate by rushing for 197 yards and scoring 43 points on six touchdowns and seven extra points), gets 132 yards in a one-point Cotton Bowl defeat (on a blocked extra point) to TCU (28-27) in which he gets three touchdowns and three extra points, has his #44 retired, and comes in fifth in the 1956 Heisman Award balloting (behind quarterback Paul Hornung of Notre Dame, running back Johnny Majors of Tennessee, running back Tommy McDonald of Oklahoma, and offensive lineman Jerry Tubbs of Oklahoma), and eventually is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (in 1995).
Brown
But football isn't the only sport he letters in at Syracuse, excelling again in basketball, track, and lacrosse (though he never goes out for the sport, the school's boxing coach, Roy Simmons Jr., believes he could have become the heavyweight champion if he'd pursued becoming a pugilist). As a sophomore, he is the second highest scoring player (averaging 15 points a game ... picked by some to have a shot at the national championship in his senior year, Brown skips playing for the team in his final year at Syracuse, protesting the college's then rule that only three blacks can start for the team), in 1955 he finishes fifth in the national decathlon championship, as a junior he is named to the second team of the All-American team in lacrosse, and as a senior is a first-team member of the team after scoring 43 goals in ten games (and coming in second in scoring nationally) ... in 1983 he will be inducted into the lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Basketball
Lacrosse
In the 1957 NFL draft, Brown is the sixth pick of the first round (behind Paul Hornung of the Green Bay Packers, Jon Arnett of the Los Angeles Rams, John Brodie of the San Francisco 49ers, Ron Kramer of the Green Bay Packers, and Len Dawson of the Pittsburgh Steelers), the selection of legendary Coach Paul Brown and the Cleveland Browns. His domination of the running back position from his spot at fullback is immediate and overwhelming. In the ninth game of his rookie season, in a game against the Los Angles Rams, Brown rushes for 237 yards, setting an NFL game record that will stand for 14 years, and a rookie record that will last for 40 years (and he of course wins the NFL's Rookie of the Year for 1957). In his second season, Brown breaks the record for rushing in a 12-game season (1,527 yards) that had been set by Steve Van Buren in 1949, wins the MVP award (he will win the award twice more), and leads the league in touchdowns with 17 (besting second place Raymond Beery's 8 tallies).
Brown
Brown plays in the NFL for nine years before retiring and trying his hand at being an actor (his first seasons the league has each team play 12 games, in his final five seasons the yearly total is upped to 14). When #32 leaves Cleveland, he has the record for single season (1,863 yards in 1963) and career rushing (12,312 yards), rushing touchdowns (106), total touchdowns (126), and all-purpose yards (15,549), the record for leading the league in all-purpose yards for five different seasons, is the only rusher in NFL history to average 100 yards or more a game, is voted to the Pro Bowl team every year he is in the league, sets the record for most games scoring four touchdowns (6, still the record), leads the league in rushing in eight times, becomes the first player in league history to rush for 10,000 yards, averages 5.2 yards per carry (still the record), is first-team All-Pro eight times (the only year he misses, he is on the second team), and wins a NFL championship in 1964 (and is on two squads that come in second). The measuring stick for running backs, Brown is consequently a member of the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team, the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, has his #32 retired by Cleveland, is selected as the second best player in NFL history (behind Jerry Rice), and is among the twelve players picked at the running back spot for the NFL's most recent 100 All-Time Players. The greatest running back to play football, then and since ... 6'2" and 232 pounds of muscle, speed, agility, and aggressiveness ... the greatest!
Happy Birthday Mr. Brown!
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