My dad was a hyper sports freak and especially football; college, pro, even HS. When he died, I found pro football players guides from 1961 that he kept. He thought that Jim Brown was the greatest athlete he ever saw, at least back in the '80s when he told me that. I remember that he said that JB was 50 years old and that he could go back and play in the NFL today, (when he said it).
My favorite quote in the NYT obit was from someone who once had the try to stop him:
“All you can do is grab, hold, hang on and wait for help,” Sam Huff, the Hall of Fame middle linebacker for the Giants and the Washington team now known as the Commanders, once told Time magazine. 