page_title: Syracuse Orange football
section_title: "The Greatest"
hierarchical_section_title: Syracuse Orange football / Traditions and Legacy / Legend of 44 / "The Greatest"
caption_attribution_description: Jim Brown
context_page_description: The Syracuse Orange represent Syracuse University in the sport of American football. The Orange compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
  Formed in 1889, the program has over 700 wins and has achieved 1 consensus Division I Football National Championship, winning the championship game over the Texas Longhorns in the 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic, for the 1959 season. Syracuse has had 2 undefeated seasons, 5 conference championships since 1991, and has produced a Heisman Trophy winner, over 60 first team All-Americans, 18 Academic All-Americans including Academic All-America Hall of Fame inductee Tim Green, and over 240 NFL players. Syracuse has had 18 members inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, 2nd-most in the ACC, including former players Ernie Davis, Tim Green, Don McPherson, Art Monk and former coaches Vic Hanson, Ben Schwartzwalder, and Dick MacPherson. The Orange boast 8 inductees in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame, tied for the 4th-most of any school, including Jim Brown, Marvin Harrison, Larry Csonka, and Floyd Little.
context_section_description: Jim Brown played at SU from 1954 to 1956. Brown earned numerous honors as Orange playing college football, basketball, track and field and lacrosse. In his senior year in 1956 Brown was a consensus first-team All-American and led the team to a Cotton Bowl. He finished 5th in the Heisman Trophy voting and set school records for highest season rush average (6.2), most rushing touchdowns in a single game (6), and an NCAA single-game record of 43 points. After his successful college career, Brown went on to become one of the greatest football players of all time.
  Jim Brown was an All Pro and a Pro Bowl invitee every season he was in the league, was recognized as the AP NFL Most Valuable Player three times, and won an NFL championship with the Browns in 1964. He led the league in rushing yards in eight out of his nine seasons, and by the time he retired, he had shattered most major rushing records. Brown's memorable professional career led to his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971. His football accomplishments at Syracuse garnered him a berth in the College Football Hall of Fame. Jim Brown also earned a spot in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, giving him a rare triple crown of sorts. Today, he is recognized as the greatest football player ever by most professional football writers.
  But Brown's legacy goes beyond sports. Brown was one of the NFL's earliest social issues activists along with a group of top African American athletes from different sporting disciplines such as Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. In the 1960s, Brown co-founded the Black Economic Union to support the growth of black-owned businesses. In the 1980s he also started the Amer-I-Can program which mentors youth in both inner cities and prisons.
caption: Jim Brown '57, Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame tailback
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