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Post by hchoops on Sept 16, 2018 7:05:59 GMT -5
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 16, 2018 7:37:59 GMT -5
I'm surprised that Jimmy Brown did not also get all-county honors in basketball as he went on to play for Syracuse and averaged 13 PPG.
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Post by hchoops on Sept 16, 2018 7:44:12 GMT -5
And scored 50+ in back to back games
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Sept 16, 2018 9:28:23 GMT -5
The source was Fr. Reidy, who I guess was chaplain of the lacrosse team back in the day, but he is said to have remarked that Brown was a better lacrosse player at Syracuse than he was a football player! Or perhaps, he meant that the combination of strength, size, and speed made him nearly unstoppable on the lacrosse field.
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 16, 2018 9:33:10 GMT -5
I have heard similar things from people who know lacrosse and who had the chance to see him play. He was (as you said) nearly unstoppable.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 16, 2018 10:06:24 GMT -5
Go back to the HS basketball and contemplate what it must have been like trying to stop him under the boards
Some younger observers may not be aware that he was the size of the defensive linemen of his day at 6-2 230 as I recall. Can you imagine today a running back at 6-5 300 and being the fastest player on the field?
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Post by hchoops on Sept 16, 2018 11:12:02 GMT -5
The source was Fr. Reidy, who I guess was chaplain of the lacrosse team back in the day, but he is said to have remarked that Brown was a better lacrosse player at Syracuse than he was a football player! Or perhaps, he meant that the combination of strength, size, and speed made him nearly unstoppable on the lacrosse field. Some long time hs coaches on LI also said he was a better lax man
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Post by hchoops on Sept 16, 2018 11:17:51 GMT -5
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 16, 2018 13:46:31 GMT -5
True. Long Island was big on LAX in the good old days and while I went to a Catholic school that didn't have a team, my local public high school was considered very good and Brown was a legend in LAX there among those who knew about that stuff.
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Post by moose1970 on Sept 18, 2018 2:20:18 GMT -5
while playing for the cleveland browns jb was always the target of the opponent's defense. he took some brutal beatings. after one game the nyc sports writers had a problem. jb had swelling and brusing under one of his eyes. for white players it would be described as a "black eye" they could not very well say that jb had a "black eye" so it was reported in the newspapers that jb had a "mouse under his eye" (huh)
after another game a defensive player complained that jb played dirty and bite him on his hand in a pile up. when asked about it jb said "did you ask him what his hand was doing inside my face mask during the pile up?"
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Post by hcpride on Sept 18, 2018 5:54:53 GMT -5
A few years ago Newsday was researching the best athlete in the History of Long Island and they wrote he could have been 1, 2, and 3 on their list. And that was a list that included Carl Yastrzemski (Notre Dame on a basketball scholarship and a pretty fair baseball player), John Mackey (fantastic high school athlete BTW), Julius Erving, Craig Biggio (better in football than baseball in high school), and a few other professional Hall of Famers.
How good was Jim in high school sports? He was a superstar in three high school sports the same SEASON (not just the same year). So he dominated in Football in the Fall, Dominated in Basketball in the winter, and dominated in Lacrosse, Baseball, and Track and Field in the spring. I was friendly with his former track coach who loved telling stories of Jim running over to the track just after a baseball or lacrosse game (or in some cases, he claimed, during a baseball game) to win the long jump and shot put and anchor a relay) . Coaches bent over backwards (and violated a few rules I know we have now) to get Jim on the field to help their teams win.
We all know he continued this multi-sport excellence at Syracuse (not withstanding the prejudices of the time, www.orangehoops.org/jbrown.htm).
Many Long Islanders consider his best sport to have been lacrosse. His track coach told me he was the best track athlete he ever saw in 50 years of coaching (With very little training JB took 5th in the US AAU Championships [Decathalon, 1955 or '54] ).
Perhaps the greatest US Athlete ever.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 18, 2018 8:26:16 GMT -5
Years ago football players did not have listed times for the 40 (don't know when that started) but we'd hear about times for 100 yards. As I recall Jimmy Brown ran it in 9.3 seconds when the world record was probably 9.1......
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 18, 2018 9:31:04 GMT -5
Brown was very fast, but not quite that fast (the world record at that time was 9.2). I can't locate his100 yard time, but would say it was about 9.5).
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Post by hcpride on Sept 18, 2018 9:41:14 GMT -5
I don't recall any claims that he was a world class sprinter. Of course, he was essentially the fastest player on the football and lacrosse fields in high school and in college (and essentially the strongest too).
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Post by DiMarz on Sept 21, 2018 20:17:35 GMT -5
Jimmy Brown was my idol growing up, before the Patriots showed up...I can remember him slowly getting up after a run, a sweep or screen pass...His battles against Sam Huff were always great to watch...Those were the days when one NFL game was on Sunday afternoon...The Browns and Giants were on a lot in Massachusetts..
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Post by sader1970 on Sept 21, 2018 20:40:04 GMT -5
For a second there I thought you were about to say that Brown got up late after every play. Supposedly said he did that in order to mask when he might have gotten hurt on a play, no one would know.
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Post by hchoops on Sept 24, 2018 14:18:16 GMT -5
The only player in NFL history to average 100+ yds rushing for a career
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 24, 2018 15:25:32 GMT -5
The only player in NFL history to average 100+ yds rushing for a career I think Jimmy Brown was the greatest football player in NFL history and perhaps the greatest athlete in US history. He'd be my first choice if I were drafting an NFL team and he'd be in my backfield with Barry Sanders or maybe Gale Sayers (at his best, pre-injury) with Steve Young as my QB. Jim retired at age 29 at the top of his game with 1,500+ yards rushing at 5.3 yards/carry and 17 rushing TD's plus another 4 receiving TD's. He showed no signs of slowing down.
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 24, 2018 15:29:37 GMT -5
He knew when to step aside...while at the top of his game with, as was said, nothing left to "prove" in football. How many have had enough courage to make such a decision?
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Sept 24, 2018 15:33:27 GMT -5
He knew when to step aside...while at the top of his game with, as was said, nothing left to "prove" in football. How many have had enough courage to make such a decision? Come to think of it, Barry Sanders did the same thing after the season when he was 30 years old
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Post by alum on Sept 25, 2018 7:35:49 GMT -5
Jim Brown was certainly one of the greatest all-around American male athletes of all time. On the issue of his speed, see this thread from a forum on the Track and Field News (self proclaimed Bible of the Sport ) trackandfieldnews.com/discussion/showthread.php?138619-Jim-Brown/page2that has his 100 meter time being 11.4 in a decathlon. There does not seem to be a lot of primary source material on this topic.
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Post by moose1970 on Sept 25, 2018 12:42:17 GMT -5
He knew when to step aside...while at the top of his game with, as was said, nothing left to "prove" in football. How many have had enough courage to make such a decision? Joe DiMaggio?
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 25, 2018 12:43:30 GMT -5
Just my opinion, but Joe may have been a bit past his prime when he decided to retire.
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Post by rgs318 on Sept 25, 2018 12:48:23 GMT -5
Jim Brown was certainly one of the greatest all-around American male athletes of all time. On the issue of his speed, see this thread from a forum on the Track and Field News (self proclaimed Bible of the Sport ) trackandfieldnews.com/discussion/showthread.php?138619-Jim-Brown/page2that has his 100 meter time being 11.4 in a decathlon. There does not seem to be a lot of primary source material on this topic. Well 10.5 in the 100 meters would equal 9.6 in the 100 yard dash. I know he was faster than that.
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Post by hchoops on Sept 25, 2018 12:51:23 GMT -5
He knew when to step aside...while at the top of his game with, as was said, nothing left to "prove" in football. How many have had enough courage to make such a decision? Sandy Koufax, best pitcher of the last 70 years, at least as well as a very good basketball player—scholarship to Cincinnati
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