I'm gonna say this here and not the obits thread:
it annoys me that ESPN 150 ranked Jim Brown #1 college RB ever. Jim Brown wasn't JIM BROWN in 1956. Sorry, that's revisionist history.
2 different OU backs had better seasons than him. It's not like he finished 2nd to Hornung for the Heisman, he finished 5th.
And even look at the draft that year: he was the 6th pick and the 3rd RB taken.
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He was obviously physically gifted, but you could rank him #1 if he:
a - had especially better statistical season(s) than anybody else
b - was thought of as the best in the context of a season
c - maybe lacked volume, but was the surefire #1 pick (or something like that)
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He didn't do any of those.
Here's the thing: you could kind of maybe argue him being the best player in 1956, but it would require some arguing.
That being said, there's no argument that he was the best COLLEGE RB of all-time, sorry.
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RIP, Mr. Brown.