Jim Brown, the trailblazing football star who broke records in the 1950s and 1960s and also won many MVP awards, has died. He was 87. His wife Monique Brown confirmed the news.
“It is with profound sadness that I announce the passing of my husband, Jim Brown,” Monique shared on an Instagram post. “He passed peacefully last night at our L.A. home.”
Jim solely played for the Cleveland Browns in his NFL career and Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
The Cleveland Browns remembered Jim on their Twitter page.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame also shared their condolences.
Jim, the 1957 Rookie of the Year and MVP, led the NFL in rushing a record eight times in his nine seasons and rushed for a record 12,312 yards.
He went to nine Pro Bowls and was an NFL champion in 1964. In his final season, the running back rushed for a league-high 1,544 yards.
Earlier this year the NFL renamed its annual league rushing title award as the Jim Brown Award.
Jim is also considered one of the greatest lacrosse players in history, earning first-and second team All-America honors while scoring more than 70 goals in two seasons at Syracuse University.
He was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1983.
Before leaving the , Jim made his film debut in 1964 in the Western, “Rio Conchos.”
At the height of his career, he surprised sports fans two years later when he announced his retirement from football from the set of the World War II film, “The Dirty Dozen.”
Jim shared in an interview with Sports Illustrated back in 1966 that it was the right time to quit football. “You should get out at the top,” he said.
“I could have played longer. I wanted to play this year, but it was impossible,” he said in 1966, shared with SI. “We’re running behind schedule shooting (on the Dirty Dozen set), for one thing. I want more mental stimulation than I would have playing football. I want to have a hand in the struggle that is taking place in our country, and I have the opportunity to do that now. I might not a year from now.”
Jim appeared in more than 50 film and television projects in the years that followed, most recently “Draft Day” in 2014.
Jim was also a well-known activist.
He became a well-known spokesman for Black uplift. He founded an organization promoting Black economic mobility, which he saw as a more powerful way to make change than street protests. He started the Amer-I-Can Foundation, which helps people in gangs and in prisons straighten out their lives.
Jim leaves behind his wife Monique, children, extended family and friends. Sending condolences to them all.
R.I.P. Jim Brown.
