Jim Brown

A 33-year-old woman who claims she was beaten and raped by former professional football star Jim Brown told her graphic story Tuesday as the lead-off witness in Brown's preliminary hearing. Brown, now an actor, is accused of assaulting the woman--with whom he frequently played basketball and tennis--in his Hollywood Hills home last Feb. 19. The woman spoke calmly as Brown looked on solemnly.

It was just before midnight on Friday, and Jim Brown and Chris Webber, each of a distinct generation of African-Americans in pro sports, were on opposite sides of the stage at Howard University's Cramton Auditorium. A nationally televised "town meeting" on ESPN moderated by ABC's Ted Koppel that sought to measure racial progress in sports since Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier 50 years ago, with Webber and Brown among the nine participants, had just ended.

Over the last two weeks Jim Brown, the football icon, a proud, outspoken man who has been relentless with his efforts to make a difference to young men of color, who works hard with gang members to help them change their young lives for the better, a 66-year-old with the strong body of an athlete and the strong will of an educated man confident in his worth and his ideas, has become something of a media darling. In the last 10 days, Brown has been on ESPN with Bob Ley, on HBO with Bob Costas and interviewed for a column in the New York Times.

Jurors completed their first day of deliberations Thursday in the trial of NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown, who faces up to 18 months in jail if convicted of making terrorist threats against his wife. The eight men and four women will resume their discussions today in Hollywood Municipal Court. Brown, 63, is charged with threatening to kill his wife and smashing her car with a shovel during a quarrel at their Hollywood Hills home on June 15.

Professional football Hall of Famer Jim Brown, arrested last month in the alleged rape of a 33-year-old woman friend, denied Friday that he had raped the woman, and charged that police and district attorney's investigators already know that medical evidence shows "this young lady to be a liar." Brown, 49, the record-setting Cleveland Browns' fullback-turned-actor, and companion Carol Moses, 22, were arrested Feb.

When legendary running back Jim Brown stunned the Cleveland Browns in 1966 by retiring to pursue a movie career, he wrote a letter to head coach Blanton Collier. "I told Blanton he wouldn't miss me," Brown said last week in a conversation from his home in Los Angeles. "I said that we had a great runner to replace me in Leroy Kelly, and that I had no doubt about his ability to become one of the NFL's best backs." Brown's words proved prophetic.

Football legend Jim Brown hasn't eaten since beginning a jail term two weeks ago, but Ventura County officials said Thursday that he is fasting for "spiritual cleansing" and is not on a hunger strike. "Usually on a hunger strike, the person is protesting something--his treatment or the reason he's in jail," said sheriff's spokesman Eric Nishimoto. "I know Mr.

An infomercial is an infomercial, but it can be a fascinating infomercial. "Jim Brown: All-American" is that kind of film production because it is about one of the most compelling athletes of all time and one of the most debatable. As an athlete, Brown was much more than the greatest running back of all time. As an individual, his insights and efforts toward boosting the black community remain beyond the ambition of all but a few black athletes.