NFL Legend Brown Speaking at Williams
  NFL Hall-of- Famer and film star Jim Brown will speak on his life and his work for social justice. |
The free public talk takes place at Chapin Hall at 7:30. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Brown is currently executive director of the Amer-I-Can Program, which he founded in 1988. On the Wednesday, he will travel to Capitol Hill to speak about the program's efforts to promote social justice and self-esteem for under-represented populations in America before heading to Williamstown.
Amer-I-Can is a 60-to-90-hour, 15-chapter life management skills curriculum "designed to empower individuals to take charge of their lives and achieve their full potential." According to the organization's Web site, the objective of the program is "to cause one to examine their past conditioned behavior patterns and to systematically apply proven methods to overcome behavior that negatively influenced their lives."
Brown believes the life-management skills training sessions at the program's core are key in making individuals responsible for their self-determination, which combined with increased self-esteem enables them to seek out and attain a meaningful life. He says the program transcends race, age, gender, religion and socio-economic status.
Prior to joining the NFL in 1957, Brown was a standout at Syracuse (N.Y.) University in football, basketball, lacrosse, and track and field, earning 10 varsity letters. He had not been awarded an athletic scholarship, but that soon changed when he proved what he was capable of on the football field. He earned All-America honors in both football and lacrosse and is a member of the Pro Football, College Football and College Lacrosse halls of fame
Three times in his nine-year career, he was named the league's Most Valuable Player. He started all 118 games in his career and averaged 103-yards rushing a game in an era when running the ball occurred more often than passing. Even though every defense was geared to stop Brown, he scored 106 touchdowns on the ground and 20 through the air for a total of 756 points. In his final season, he ran for his second-best yearly total (1,544 yards) and scored a personal best 126 points.
Brown retired from the NFL in 1965 at the age of 29, leaving many experts and football fans to wonder why he would walk away from a game he was dominating. He maintained then and now that he knew what he had done and what he wanted to do. He looked at acting and film as a salary increase and social activism as his way to help society.
His acting career has ranged from films such as "The Dirty Dozen" and "Any Given Sunday" to "Mars Attacks!" and numerous guest spots on television series. He achieved notoriety in social-justice circles when he negotiated a ceasefire between the rival Los Angeles gangs the Bloods and the Crips in 1989.
Brown will meet with the football and men's lacrosse teams and will hold an informal question-and-answer session with students in leadership studies and political science on social issues addressed by his Amer-I-Can Program.
His talk is sponsored by the Williams Athletic Department, the Griffin Society, Leadership Studies and the Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity.
