New Jim Brown 'NFL Icons' documentary showcases legend's affinity for hometown Manhasset

There is a lot of Jim Brown to fit into a 52-minute documentary, given his multifaceted life as a football and lacrosse star, actor and civil rights activist.

But even so, one thread of that life comes through loud and clear in the episode of “NFL Icons” about him that was set to premiere on MGM+ on Saturday night: the part that growing up in Manhasset played in his story.

Brown, who died at 87 on May 18, moved there from St. Simons Island in Georgia when he was 8, at risk of being a fish out of water as a young Black boy from the South in a predominantly white community on Long Island.

Instead, Manhasset embraced him, and vice versa, as the film documents through old interviews and photos.

“You might say, Oh, here’s a kid in the late ’40s, early ’50s, moving from the deep South to Long Island; well, he must have encountered all kinds of static, ” said Paul Camarata, who produces “Icons” for NFL Films on MGM+, a premium television and streaming service formerly known as Epix.

“Not only was it not true when he arrived, but that community rallied around him as a grade- schooler, as a high-schooler. You could cynically say, well, of course. He was a great athlete. But it went beyond that.”

Brown says in an interview in the film: “They were so kind. Very rich neighborhood in Manhasset. And I became tenacious about doing the right thing and being successful.”

Had Brown stayed in Georgia, he likely never would have taken up lacrosse, which many regarded as his best sport and which in part propelled him to Syracuse University.

“Like anyone’s life, I guess things happen that you can’t predict but then really enrich what his journey becomes,” Camarata said.

Brown’s feelings for his hometown were a consistent theme in his life.

At a 2013 event at Manhasset High School, he said: “Even though Manhasset was a very rich community, a very affluent community, at no time did I worry about racism or prejudice or see any of that. It was an example of how people should be treated.’’

There is a clip in the “Icons” episode of his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971 when he thanks Manhasset, especially mentors who steered him toward Syracuse and later encouraged him to stay when he felt disrespected by the football staff. (He describes a better experience in the lacrosse program.)

“Regardless of what you’ve heard about me — my being outspoken, saying what I want to say, doing things that I wanted to do — you probably never heard the great story about the people in Manhasset,” Brown said in Canton, Ohio, that day.

“I want to publicly give them my thanks, because they came into my life at a time where I could have gone in many, many directions.”

Brown eventually did go in many, many directions.

With the Browns, he was a three-time NFL MVP and the undisputed greatest back in NFL history when he retired after the 1965 season, having rushed for 12,312 yards and 106 touchdowns in nine seasons.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.