Out & About Kentucky Style: Jim Brown

Jim Brown died a couple of weeks ago. He was the Jim Brown many, even today, consider the greatest football player to ever play the game. He was 87.

Gary West is an author and News Journal columnist.

There was a day when he brushed against Warren County and Bowling Green.

There is no real sports fan from Corbin to Paducah and points in between, who don’t know the name. He has withstood all of the modern day players and their record setting performances. Some may consider NFL Tom Brady as the G.O.A.T. of football, but there are knowledgable football watchers who say, “Not so fast.” It was Brown.

In January 2020, Brown was named the greatest college football player of all time by ESPN. His nine year pro career was equally impressive.

He was always in the conversation of the greatest. At the age of 29, Brown was ready to conquer something else. With eight NFL rushing titles under his name, and at the top of his game, he walked away on his own terms while in good health.

Even after football, the former Cleveland Browns great managed to stay relevant as a movie star. He would go on to appear in 40 movies.

This intelligent, complex man, with a voice-over that would be suitable for any documentary, chose to take advantage of his name, popularity and looks. But movies weren’t the only thing. “I didn’t retire because I was broken down and slow,” he told Sports Illustrated in 2015. “I retired to do other things.”

Later in life Jim Brown became a social activist. When he spoke people listened.

He was not without his controversy, however.

Being arrested numerous times, usually for domestic violence, very few of the charges ever stuck. He was such a big star in the 70s, 80s and into the 90s, that anything he did, good or bad, was news.

In 1982, Brown’s trip to Bowling Green flew under the radar.

Ajay Martin who grew up in Peoria, Illinois worked a while at Cal State in Long Beach, California came back and purchased 152 acres of land in the Boyce-Claypool section of Warren County. It was land that years before had belonged to Martin’s family and his aim was to build a first class golf course owned 100% by African Americans.

Martin, in 1982, quickly named the project Warren Meadows, and set about to bring in investors, which meant bringing them to Bowling Green to look around.

Through acquaintances Martin had made, he connected with football great Brown. It seemed that sports figures at the time had money and were looking for investments, and golf courses were at the top of the list.

In late 1982, Martin, Bowling Green attorney Mike Reynolds, and a Kentucky banker outside of Warren County, hosted Brown for a visit to the area to see the site, and later that night dinner at the Iron Skillet. At the time the Iron Skillet was the number one show restaurant between Louisville and Nashville, and with the addition of their Green Room, it would be just the right place to meet with such a celebrity as Jim Brown in relative privacy.

The Green Room was a reservation only, with a separate menu from the Iron Skillet. Of course the prices were higher, even though it came from the same kitchen.

Mike, invited me to join them, and along with our wives spent almost two hours in conversation about lots of subjects including Martins’ project.

Lamar Lundy and Deacon Jones of Fearsome Foursome fame with the Los Angeles Rams had expressed an interest in becoming investors. The rumor mill included Bryant and Greg Gumbel, well-known sports broadcasters, and basketball star Elvin Hayes who might be coming to Warren County.

“I first met Jim Brown a few years earlier when he worked at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas,” offered Reynolds. “But, it was Ajay who got him to Bowling Green.”

Martin’s project included more than just a golf course. It included building lots in and around the course of which California golf course designer Bob Baldock had been selected to do the layout. His resume included more than 300 courses in fourteen states.

I had little to offer that night to the conversation other than keep the conversation moving with Brown who set next to me on the left. I do recall talking about Dale Lindsey, a teammate of his with the Cleveland Browns. Dale had been a Bowling Green High grad and All-American linebacker at Western. Brown also mentioned how he wished his lady friend could have been with us all.

It was an interesting night. I’ve always been appreciative that Mike included me.

Warren Meadows never achieved what had been anticipated. Later it became The Trace at Bays Fork, and although homes have been built there the golf course itself was later donated to Warren County in 2014.

“Congressman (Wm.) Natcher wanted to see what we were talking about,” Reynolds recalled. “So I took him out there. He said, ‘Mike, it’s ten miles, too far out and ten years ahead of its time.’”

Mike Reynolds has been an attorney for over 50 years and we have been friends for almost that long. Anyone who knows him knows he is a sports junkie. He doesn’t just talk about them, he actually attends some of the nation’s biggest events.

That same year in 1982 when Jim Brown visited Bowling Green, in March of that year Mike and I were among 62,000 fans in the New Orleans Superdome when freshman Michael Jordan hit the game winner for North Carolina over Georgetown. And then on October 20, 1982, the two of us drove from Bowling Green to St. Louis to see the Cardinals win the seventh game of the World Series over the Milwaukee Brewers. The more-than-four-hour drive each way on the same day was another story to tell on our resume.

So, 1982 was a good sports years for us.

Mike’s real passion is baseball.  This past year he latched on to an 11 game schedule of working with Randy Lee in broadcasting Western Kentucky University baseball.

There’s no excuse. Get up, get out, get going! Reach Gary West at westgarypdeb@gmail.com.