Brett Barry:
Mike Tirico has covered a diverse array of what the sports world offers, from Opens in both golf and tennis, soccer’s World Cup, NCAA and NBA basketball, to Monday Night Football. And he’s covered them as well as anyone, receiving National Sportscaster of the Year honors in 2010. Here the versatile broadcaster expounds on perhaps the most well-rounded athlete in Syracuse University history.
Mike Tirico:
If we didn’t have such concretely-documented proof of Jim Brown’s athletic prowess you might think it the stuff of legend. Put aside his dominant football career, one that extended into the NFL and its Hall of Fame. He also lettered in track, basketball and lacrosse, and was considered one of the greatest to ever play that sport. His statistics remain nearly-incomprehensible, such as the NCAA record 43 points he scored in a single football game…but the number he’s most known for among Syracuse fans is, of course, 44. He wasn’t the first to wear it, but he made it the mantel, carried later by such greats as Ernie Davis and Floyd Little.
You’ve been listening to the SU fight song, Down the Field, by the University Band and Robert Chenoweth, an RCA record from 1951.
Read about Brown’s sparring session with one of boxing’s greats right here.