Jim Brown, More than a Lacrosse

Front row: Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Kareem Abdul Jabar. June 4, 1967 press conference given by the top African American athletes of that time in support of Ali’s opposition to the Vietnam War draft.

Growing up playing lacrosse in the 1970s and 1980s, I never saw Jim Brown play. What I knew about him was based on seeing him on myriads of NFL highlight films particularly as Walter Payton came ever closer to breaking Browns all time rushing records and from my Dad. “That Jim Brown is bad!” my dad would often say, impressed by Browns black cool style and black militancy as he destroyed one color barrier and stereo-type in American society after another. Brown refused to accept racist customs and submit to white privilege and my Dad admired Big Jim for that. He like Malcolm X, Bill Russell, Ali, Kareem, and the two brothers, Tommy Smith and John Carlos, who gave the black power salute during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Brown would not compromise his views for fear that it would hurt his career and pay check. I met Jim Brown in 1984 when we (Syracuse) played Hobart College the Div III national champions in 83 in Manhasset High School’s Lacrosse Day of Champions on the island, a great event. This coincided with Brown’s induction into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1983. More on this tomorrow.

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Jim Brown Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Brown

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Metro Lacrosse's Faceoff at Fenway Park

Metro Lacrosse, a Boston based NGO using lacrosse to teach life skills to boys and girls. To learn more, check out this video.

November 18, 2014 Faceoff at Fenway Tickets: http://faceoff.brownpapertickets.com/

Jim Brown Lacrosse Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Brown

Fred Opie's Story About the 1990s US Men's U. S. National Lacrosse Team Tryouts: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/04/integrated-us-national-team-tryout-in.html

Jim Brown and SU at Yale in 1957: http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/07/09/sports/doc4ffb616868e68179197528.txt

Iroquois National Team and Self Determination

Iroquois National team players including Syracuse alum on the first row left to right, Chief Oren Lyons (Lacrosse Hall of Fame) who was a goalie on the same undefeated SU team with Jim Brown (Lacrosse Hall of Fame) next to him Mark "Red Man" Burham 27 and Emmett Printup 4.

The Iroquois National team declined to travel to England on any other passport but Iroquois Federation passports to compete in the 2010 Lacrosse World Cup. I say kudos to them for taking a stand as a sovereign nation. I played on the 1990 US National team that faced off against the Iroquois in their first ever Lacrosse World Cup in Australia. I recall meeting with Oren Lyons, Traditional Chief of the Iroquois Confederacy, who like me is a Syracuse University Lacrosse alum, in his hotel room in Australia. He pulled out his Iroquois Federation pass port and proudly asked me with a smile on this face, if I understood what it was. He then went on to explain that competing in the Lacrosse World Cup meant more than fun and games for the Iroquois players (some of whom were my college teammates at SU), it represented the Federation’s declaration of the right to self determination and sovereignty within the borders of the United States and Canada (and my guess, possibly a bid for a sit in the United Nations). That was an eye opener for me as graduate student in history then and now as a professor of history and blogger.

Related Links:

 1990 World Games: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/07/iroquois-pay-back-at-1990-lacrosse.html

Traveling with Eli: http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/2009/10/traveling-with-eli-part-ii-and-native.html)

Jim Brown

Syracuse Lacrosse All American and Hall of Famer Jim Brown

Most folks know about Jim Brown and Kyle Harrison. But there are a lot of African Americans who played the game and who served as my role models in my youth. There are those from my generation who have been forgotten that I played with and against back when there were so few of us playing the great game of lacrosse, the fastest game on two feet. I am sure I will leave some folks out of the discussion but that’s because of accidental omission and not a comment on their contribution to the game or ability. “Lacrosse has long had a reputation as a ‘white sport,’ writes Dartmouth Professor of History Bruce Nelson. “At the D1 level, lacrosse has been, overwhelmingly, a ‘white sport.’ In the forty years from 1957 to 1996, only five African-American players were named first team All-American in D1 lacrosse. The first was the legendary Jim Brown, at Syracuse, in 1957. After Brown, there were no black All-Americans for the next twenty-three years. Tomorrow’s post will be on “Big Jim” as his college teammate and my college coach Roy Simmons Jr. called him.

Jim Brown Lacrosse Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Brown

Navy's Syd Abernethy Part 4

In high school I indentified with attackman like Mike O’Neil and, after a 1981 Army Navy NCAA lacrosse playoff game, Syd Abernethy. I also idolized Army’s great defensemen Bob Henry who covered Syd that game; Abernethy scored four goals on Henry to advance the midshipmen to semi-finals. Henry would go on to earn first team All-American that year and defensemen of the year honors; Abernethy earned first team All American honors too becoming the second African American to do so at the division 1 level since Jim Brown in 1957. Seeing Syd play that day made a big impression on me; it said to me that this was my game too as an African American. “In those days, lacrosse was still an exotic game and I saw very few blacks playing or black youth in the stands or after games asking for my autograph,” recalls Abernethy. I clearly remember that game in May of 1981 and the impact of seeing Syd play off the hook that day did a tremendous amount for my psyche as young black kid playing a white dominated sport. Navy would go on to lose to a tough Carolina team in Carolina in the semi-finals.

Syd Abernathy: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=syd

Guest Blogger Navy Coach Rick Sowell Part1: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/04/rick-sowell-on-how-he-started-playiing.html

Navy Head Coach Rick Sowell on How to “Really Play Part 2:  http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/04/rick-sowell-learning-how-to-really-play.html?spref=tw

Navy Coach Rick Sowell: http://www.navysports.com/sports/m-lacros/mtt/sowell_rick00.html

Wining Coach Sowell’s Way: http://www.americanathletemag.com/ArticleView/tabid/156/ArticleID/142/Winning-Beyond-the-Game.aspx

Interview with Coach Sowell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XimZNwcXWcg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqphHerSL8I

Traveling with Eli Part II

Chief Oren Lyons 

Eli, the Iroquois sage, who I wrote about yesterday, represented Simme’s way of staying spiritually connected with the game started by native people. Coach was like that, a Renaissance man interested in art, history and culture as much as the game of lacrosse. I maintain that this part of his persona came from growing up around the Onondaga Reservation, playing games there as a youth, and being teammates at SU with many of the best players from there. If one looks at the Syracuse University Lacrosse rosters over the years you will notice that most of them have at least one Native player on them. Our team included the very talented attackman, with a gun for a shot, Emmett Printup (Niagara Wheatfield) and midfielder and martial arts bad boy Mark Burnham (Henninger). By the way, Simmie played on the 1957 undefeated SU team that included All-Americans and Hall of Famers Jim Brown (Manhasset) and Oren Lyons (Lafayette), traditional Chief of the Onondaga Nation, Iroquois Confederacy. When I think of Native American culinary culture I think of corn, which historically represented their staple grain. They would steam, ground, roast, bake, soak, pound, and ferment it. Each of these methods changed the flavor, texture, and nutritional value of the corn. They also used it in one of my favorite ways, to bake bread.

Corn Series with Recipes:

http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Corn+Series 

Jim Brown Lacrosse Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Brown

Lacrosse and Native American Sovereignty: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/07/iroquois-lacrosse-more-than-fun-and.html

Review of The Lacrosse Feature Film Crooked Arrows: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2012/05/review-of-first-feature-film-about.html

Hall of Famers Jim Darcangelo, Mark Millen, and the Gait Brothers

Photo of Lax World's Baltimore Location

Jim Darcangelo (Towson, Maryland Lacrosse Club, 2x USA, Hall of Fame) was the first to leverage his time as rep (STX) to create Lax World, a lacrosse retailer first in Baltimore and now with stores in other locations and he has done well over the years. Recent Hall of Fame inductee Mark Millen (UMass 2x USA) had been been a savvy lacrosse entrepreneur with camps, clinics etc. Mark’s worth ethic as a player and entrepreneur reminds me of James Brown, the God father of soul who people called “the hardest working man in show business.” I heard Mark give his Hall of Fame acceptance speech and I noted when he said, “I make my entire income off of lacrosse.” That statement rang in my head. Like Roger Bannister, the first guy to run a sub-four minute mile, Gait, Darcangelo and Millen proved you could live by our game. In the 1990s, most understood how the great Gait brothers could, but they were considered superheroes of the game but particularly Millen and others after him have shown that with hard work one could earn money following their passion for lacrosse.

The Gait Brothers: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=paul+gait

Hall of Famer: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Hall+of+Fame

James Brown The Businessman: http://www.foodasalens.com/2011/02/black-history-month-for-foodies-series_25.html

Allan Hodish and Hempstead Lacrosse

Click this image to enlarge and read this 1980 article on Hempstead Youth Lacrosse. That's coach Allan Hodish  in the photo on the left. Guest blogger Aaron Jones reflects on what Hodish brought to Hempstead many years ago. Jones went on from Hempstead to play at Cornell in the late 1980s where he appeared in a National Championship game against John Hopkins.

[Guest blogger Aaron Jones] My relationship with this game started from unique circumstances. Let me give you a little insight into my background so you can understand what I mean by “unique circumstances.” Hempstead, Long Island in 1975 was not unlike most communities of its time, very homogeneous in its makeup. In Hempstead, there were people of similar backgrounds that lived together side by side to form a close nit community. Hempstead was almost entirely an African American community. It was a proud community of modest means but deep in its history of athletic prowess at every level. Year after year football, basketball, baseball and track teams from youth levels all the way up through high school varsity sports were successfully competing on their athletic playing fields throughout long island and beyond. The Salvation Army youth basketball team was famed around the world for its dominance. The varsity basketball team was a feature story in the local and regional news seemingly every year for its accomplishments on the court. The football team was as successful as the others, always fairing very well in league competition. I think you get the point, in Hempstead athletic excellence was the norm year in & year out! Around that time a new gentlemen came into the Hempstead community with an eye on bringing a new sport to the town. He was very different from the normal Hempstead coach, Jewish by faith, outspoken by nature, and caring to his core! Alan Hodish began touring the Hempstead streets with his Toyota Celica hatchback encouraging Hempstead youth to make their way to the local park. There Hodish demonstrated a new sport called lacrosse and influenced scores of boys to give the game a shot. I was one of those young kids picking up this foreign sport for the first time and through it I earned an opportunity to attend Cornell University where I played lacrosse in the 1980s.

Jim Brown Lacrosse All American: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Brown

Navy’s African American All American Syd Abernethy: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Abernethy

Hobart’s African American All American Ed Howard: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Ed+Howard

What I Found When I Returned to Lacrosse After Ten Years

Syracuse University Lacrosse All-American and Hall of Famer Jim Brown 

 Former Syracuse University Lacrosse Player Fred Opie

Jim Brown Lacrosse Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Brown

Navy’s African American All American Syd Abernethy: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Abernethy

Navy’s African American Head Coach Rick Sowell: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Rick+Sowell+

Integrating the U. S. National Team Tryouts in 89: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/04/integrated-us-national-team-tryout-in.html

My Earliest Exposure to Lacrosse: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=elliot

Review of the First Feature Film About Lacrosse, Crooked Arrows

Top row: Emmett Printup in the hat, state government official, Travis Solomon, Mark "Red Man" Burham with the stash, and Brad Kotz (Lacrosse Hall of Fame). Bottom row: Chief Oren Lyons (Lacrosse Hall of Fame) who was a goalie on the same undefeated SU team with Jim Brown(Lacrosse Hall of Fame) and my coach Roy Simmons Jr. (Lacrosse Hall of Fame). Everybody in the picture is a SU lacrosse alum, yes that's a baby faced Gary Gait (Lacrosse Hall of Fame) just two months after his senior year and another Syracuse lacrosse national championship.

Related Links Below

Movie Crooked Arrows: http://crookedarrows.com/


Lacrosse and Native American Sovereignty: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/07/iroquois-lacrosse-more-than-fun-and.html

Iroquois National Lacrosse and 1990 World Games: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/07/iroquois-pay-back-at-1990-lacrosse.html

http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/07/iroquois-pay-back-at-1990-lacrosse_03.html

It's Time to Play and Plant: http://www.foodasalens.com/2012/04/its-time-to-play-and-plant-lacrosse.html

Jim Brown Named The inaugural Tewaaraton Legend

Coach Roy Simmons Jr. once told me the story of how Manhasset native Jim Brown came to Syracuse. Judge Kenny Molloy, a Syracuse alum, served as one of Brown’s mentors in Manhasset and he’s the one that influenced Jim to go Syracuse. Molloy also raised the tuition to pay for Brown’s first year and solicited a promise of a future scholarship from the SU Athletic department if he proved to be the superstar that his Manhasset patrons claimed he would be. You see Syracuse Football Coach Ben Schwartzwalder did not want African Americans on his team and he never made it easy for them to play under him. What few know is that Schwartzwalder reluctantly gave Brown a football scholarship after he was a walk on (non-scholarship athlete) is freshmen year and still refused to play him until injuries forced him to do so. “The Superintendent of Manhasset High School flew up to Syracuse and told me not to quit the football team when I was down about not playing. I went from 5th string to All-American in two years,” recalls Brown. Lacrosse proved different for Brown at Syracuse. Roy Simmons Sr. who also coached football gave Brown a fair shot and Jim dominated the game for three years (freshmen) did not play varsity in those days. In lacrosse at Syracuse, Brown earned Second Team All-American selection in 1956 and First Team in 1957. He also finished second in the nation in scoring his senior year as a member of an undefeated Syracuse Lacrosse squad that included my coach Roy Simmons Jr. In that year’s senior all-star game Brown scored five goals in one-half.

Jim Brown Tewaaraton Legends Award Story: http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2011/05/31/jim-brown-receive-inaugural-tewaaraton-legends-award-june-2-washington-dc


Related Links: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Brown&updated-max=2010-02-04T06%3A26%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=20

Return to Syracuse University

Here's a really old photo me covering Hobart's Mark Moore who sent me this shot. Thanks Mark! This was a Lacrosse Day of Champions game at Jim Brown's Manhasset High School on the Island. SU vs Hobart in the early spring of 1984--it was freezing! Brown was inducted in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame this year and there was a short ceremony at half time. I got a chance to me him (see the story in the blog archive for Feb 20100)

Talking about the time in my life when I spent so much time and money playing lacrosse for free. I was indeed passionate about the game and it showed on my credit card bill. I didn’t need to play that well in the club championship I returned from Mexico to play in because opponents just didn’t take me on very often. I felt terrible that day and I am glad they did not try me. After the game, which we won, I returned from the Spanish Immersion program in Guadalajara that lasted three months. I didn’t gain fluency over those three months but I was on my way. I found that a combination of work habits developed while playing competitive lacrosse along with my knowledge of scripture helped greatly. Principles are parallel; for example, I learned that as an athlete I had to train at least 5 out of 7 days a week and be mentally tough. The same thing was true with learning Spanish. I also surrounded myself with the best players and coaches over my career and that made a difference. In Mexico I made a point of getting to know students who excelled at Spanish and asked them about what worked for them. In addition, I made a point of spending more time with Mexicans who did not speak English which forced me to speak Spanish. At the end of August I returned to Syracuse University to begin work on a doctorate degree in history. I returned with lots of sermons and praise music in Spanish on cassette which I listened to daily then and now. I also audited a Spanish class and made friends with graduate students who were native speakers of Spanish. This all worked to keep me immersed in a Spanish language environment that developed my Spanish language skills. Also, once again, I went in the closet as a lacrosse player even as I prepared for the 1993 National Team tryouts a year away.

Iroquois Pay Back at the 1990 Lacrosse World Cup, Part I

Top row: Emmett Printup in the hat, state government official, Travis Solomon, Mark "Red Man" Burham with the stash, and Brad Kotz (Lacrosse Hall of Fame). Bottom row: Chief Oren Lyons (Lacrosse Hall of Fame) who was a goalie on the same undefeated SU team with Jim Brown(Lacrosse Hall of Fame) and my coach Roy Simmons Jr. (Lacrosse Hall of Fame). Everybody in the picture is a SU lacrosse alum, yes that's a baby faced Gary Gait (Lacrosse Hall of Fame) just two months after his senior year and another Syracuse lacrosse national championship.  

During the 1990 Lacrosse World Cup I played in for the United States, each time was permitted to dress about 23 players each game. Our roster had 27 players I believe. With really bad tendinitis in my knees, (one of the reasons why I stopped players after 1993) I volunteered to sit out the game after we played and beat the Aussies. Little did I know what a savvy decision that one was; we played the Iroquois Nationals in the next game and they had a serious bone to pick with Team USA in their first appearance in a Lacrosse World Cup. My Syracuse teammates Emmett Printup and Mark Burnham played for the Iroquois along with Travis Solomon. They and their Iroquois teammates warmed up with serious game faces and a notable silence, something was up. The defensemen on the Iroquois team used the all wooden hand made traditional sticks. Those sticks are heavy and when you get hit buy one they make serious welts, they can break open your skin, and they can break bones. After the first faceoff and a lumber jack like check that made the crowd gasp when they heard the loud whack of traditional wooden stick, I could tell this was going to be a game unlike any my 26 white teammates and I had seen before. More tomorrow.

Stony Brook and US National Team Coach Rick Sowell

Guest Blogger Rick Sowell

Growing up, for the first 9 years of my life, I lived in a city named Elmira, NY.* Elmira is located about 2 hours south of Syracuse, 2 hours east of Rochester and about 4 hours northwest of New York City, also called the Southern Tier region of New York. Elmira was an area where many African Americans had settled over the years. I can still remember my father cutting hair every Saturday morning down in our basement because he was one of few who could cut hair. Our basement would be packed with fathers and sons, both getting haircuts. Living in Elmira I grew-up around many Afro-Americans. Elementary school was integrated and there was always someone to play with after school.

*Fred Opie: Elmira, New York was also the hometown of the late Ernie Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, and the person featured in the film The Express. This is a must see film along with Jim Brown All-American, a Spike Lee documentary. Jim Brown helped persuade Davis to go Syracuse when he had fifty scholarship offers. There are scenes in the movie The Express shot in Elmira’s 1950s and 1960s African American community. Jim Brown All American provides the only film footage to date that this historian has scene with big Jim playing lacrosse at Syracuse. The documentary shows Brown wining a face off and then going down to score. The film also includes interviews with Brown’s Syracuse teammates, Roy Simmons Jr. and Oren Lyons; and a scene with these three SU lacrosse alum and All Americans having a catch out on Coyne Field on the campus of Syracuse University. You can purchase a copy of both films on DVD on line. The films are a great way to introduce lacrosse to athletic directors and football coaches who are reluctant to support the start of a lacrosse program; especially high schools in the south and southwest with a spring football season. It’s also would work equally well in introducing African American communities to lacrosse. Here's a utube clip in which Jim Brown talks about Ernie Davis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWWkaH9PRCs

Jim Brown, Lacrosse, and Black Authenticity

Jim Brown is an alum of Manhasset High School, a hot bed of lacrosse for a very long time. “I grew up in Manhasset . . . and I had the best education you could get. I lived with some of the richest people in the country, but they were good people. I took advantage of that education and I used it to make myself stronger and make me more than just a big, strong athlete,” says Brown.In recognition of his induction into Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 83 event organizers had Manhasset native, All American Athlete, State Supreme Court Judge, and Jim Brown childhood mentor and patron Kenny Molloy (1919 – 1999) present the award to Brown at halftime (more on Molloy tomorrow). Brown won 13 varsity letters at Manhasset including one in lacrosse where he earned all star honors for three years. Coach Simmons introduced me to Brown in the elevator of the team hotel before the game. At age 48, Brown had being talking about returning to pro football and he looked like he was in playing shape to me. For me Jim Brown’s induction to the lacrosse of Fame gave me street creditability in black communities. When black folks questioned my black credentials and authenticity for playing “a white boys sport,” and they often did and still do, I would answer, “Hold up, Jim Brown played and loved this game too.” Thanks Big Jim for getting me out of a lot of heated conversations about playing our game.