By Woodrow Carroll
Jim Brown, one of the true greats of football, passed away last week at the age of 87. As is often the case, trying to determine how great Brown was is often tempered by factors not directly related to what Brown did on the playing field. Who Brown play? Did one grow up a fan of the Cleveland Browns, a team in which Brown played his nine-year National Football League (NFL) career? As one old enough to have seen Brown play football, I can claim to have seen Brown play his rookie season in 1957 with the Browns as well as his ninth and final year with Cleveland the 1965 NFL season.
Like so many, it was television where I first saw Brown play football!
As was the case with most bowl games in the 1950s and 1960s, the 1957 Cotton Bowl was played January 1. The foes for the game were Texas Christian University (TCU) and Brown’s Syracuse University. Right away, we have a side story.
TCU finished in second place in the Southwest Conference race behind Texas A&M in the 1956 season leading up to the New Year’s Day bowl games. Texas A&M edged TCU, 7-6, in the game that settled the Conference race, however, Texas A&M was not eligible for a bowl game due to various infractions. Who was the Texas A&M head coach at the time? Bear Bryant, in the third of his four years coaching Texas A&M. Imagine Brown and Bryant going at it.
The 1957 Cotton Bowl had the good and bad Jim Brown on display.
TCU edged Syracuse, 28-27, in the Dallas event. The Horned Frogs of TCU never stopped Brown who ended up scoring three touchdowns. Brown, however, had two crucial fumbles that were recovered by TCU. Brown, who kicked extra points for the Orangemen, had his point after kick blocked after his third score.
With the two-point conversion not in effect at the time, a late Syracuse touchdown and extra point still left the Orangemen one point behind, which ended with TCU a 28-27 victor.
In the 1957 NFL draft, the Green Bay Packers made Notre Dame’s Paul Hornung the No 1 pick. To this day, Hornung has the distinction of being the only Heisman Trophy recipient to play for a team with a losing record. The Fighting Irish ended up with a 2-8 record Hornung’s senior year in South Bend, Ind.
Jim Brown was the No. 6 pick in the 1957 draft. Brown was taken by the Cleveland Browns and it paid immediate dividends.
Long an NFL power since joining the League in 1950, the Browns had lost out to the New York Giants in the NFL’s Eastern Conference race in 1956. With Brown now in the lineup, Cleveland reclaimed the top spot in the Eastern Conference in 1957 only to be ambushed, 59-14, by the Detroit Lions in the NFL championship game.
It was in Brown’s rookie season with the Browns in 1957 that my father took me to see Cleveland play the Chicago Cardinals at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The game was largely devoid of memorable events with Cleveland a 17-7 victor.
The next time I saw Jim Brown live was the 1965 college all-star football game at Soldier Field in Chicago. Jim Brown and Cleveland had trounced the Baltimore Colts in the 1964 NFL championship game to earn their way into the August all-star game.
In that 1965 all-star game, the collegians with the likes of Dick Butkus in the lineup, made it close, however, talent and tactical sophistication were enough to give Cleveland a 24-16 victory.
The 1965 campaign was Brown’s last as a pro football player. Cleveland fell, 23-12, to the Green Bay Packers in the championship game. By then the acting bug had bitten Brown whose filmography ran from 1964 through 2019.