NFL legend Jim Brown to be honored in hometown

Bill San Antonio

NFL Hall of Famer and Manhasset native Jim Brown will be honored later this month during the re-opening of Manhasset Valley Park April 27 and at a ceremony at Manhasset High School.

The ceremony is part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Allstate’s Hometown Hall of Famers program, which honors the hometown roots of its members as part of the museum’s 50th anniversary on April 29.

“To be part of a program that brings the prestige and tradition of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to cities and towns across America is an honor for Allstate, our agents and employees,” said Lisa Cochrane, Allstate’s senior vice president of marketing, in the release. “Allstate is proud to partner with the Pro Football Hall of Fame to keep alive and protect the hometown legacies of some of the most iconic names in pro football history.”

One of the new athletic fields at Manhasset Valley Park will be dedicated to Brown, and his name will be emblazoned on a kiosk, according to a Town of North Hempstead release. 

At the high school’s event, Brown will present the Manhasset community with a plaque similar to the one that bears his name and likeness at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, as well as two commemorative Hometown Hall of Famer road signs for display, according to a Pro Football Hall of Fame release.

Brown is expected to speak at both events, and will be joined at the park by the son of Judge Kenneth Molloy, who served as his advisor during his career as a five-sport athlete at Manhasset High School, Syracuse University and in the NFL, during the park’s opening.

Brown earned 13 varsity letters while at Manhasset High School and is widely considered to be the greatest lacrosse player in Long Island history in addition to his football career.

Brown played nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns from 1957-1965, leading the league in rushing each year except 1962, in which he finished 478 yards behind Green Bay’s Jim Taylor. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry in his career.

A three-time NFL MVP, Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971 and named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time team in 1994. 

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