Three of a Kind

THEY CAME IN various shapes, sizes and colors. They came from the near North Shore and the far East End, from city playgrounds and country ballfields, from single parents and extended families. What they shared was a drive to succeed.

In the history of Nassau and Suffolk counties, three have succeeded as professional athletes beyond all others. They became national figures, symbols of their sports, Hall of Famers. And it all began here, in Manhasset, in Bridgehampton, in Hempstead and Roosevelt.

Jim Brown, Carl Yastrzemski and Julius Erving set standards for Long Island and all American athletes to aspire to. These are their stories:

Jim Brown

On a tip from the athletic director and basketball coach, Ed Walsh left Manhasset High School one day to scout a pair of twins at Manhasset Valley Grade School. The football coach was new in the area and his colleagues wanted the man's impression of the youngsters they considered among the finest athletes to enroll in the district. Walsh reported to the gym where some intramural basketball games were underway. ``The next day they asked me what I thought of those twins,'' Walsh said from his retirement home in Cooperstown. ''And I said, `Sorry, I didn't look at them. But I did see this pudgy guy gliding around the floor and I think he's going to be great.'''

The coach identified a fifth-grader named Jim Brown. Born on St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia, the youngster had come north to live with his mother, a domestic, first in Great Neck and then in a ground-floor flat on Lee Avenue in Manhasset. Almost from the moment of his introduction to Long Island, he demonstrated an uncommon aptitude for sports.

``He was just a natural at everything he tried,'' said the Rev. Ed Corley, a friend and classmate who is now the minister of the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, just down the street from the former elementary school. ``He almost lived out the myth of being a born athlete. There was no sport he could not master.''

That soon became apparent at Plandome Road Junior High, where Brown's speed made him a standout. As he grew bigger and stronger in high school, he began to dominate. ``His best sport was lacrosse, no question,'' Walsh said. ``He was excellent in basketball, excellent in football. He had ability but he also had more desire than anybody I'd ever seen.''

Walsh, whom Brown still identifies as ``the finest football coach'' he experienced at any level, recalled that he'd have his secretary post the details of the practice session on a bulletin board at the beginning of the day and that Brown would spend most of his lunch period working on drills by himself. After practice, he'd often go home and work out some more in his backyard.

By the time he was a senior, his athletic prowess was such that the Yankees offered him a minor-league contract. Brown switched from lacrosse to baseball in the spring to test himself in the sport. After pitching and playing first base with some success, he decided his skills wouldn't get him to the major leagues so he sent his regrets to Casey Stengel.

In all, he won 13 varsity letters at Manhasset. He averaged 14.9 yard per carry as a running back in leading the Indians to their first undefeated season in 29 years, and averaged 38 points per game in basketball. Almost as a lark, at the suggestion of friend and advisor Ken Molloy, he entered the national decathlon championship in Atlantic City.

With a limited amount of practice using a discus and a heavier shot put borrowed from the Merchant Marine Academy, wearing a pair of track shoes donated by Hofstra coach Howdy Myers after his own had been stolen, competing in a few events for the first time, the high school graduate finished 10th. In a subsequent trip while in college, he earned All-American status by claiming fifth place.

``One day I asked him, `Jim, what do you want to do when you grow up?''' Walsh recalled. ``He said, `I want to play football.' When I asked him why, he said, `Because everything I've tried in my life, I've done my best and developed to a certain point and then run into a racial barrier. But that never happened in football.' It took a lot of wisdom to realize that.''

To Corley, who played alongside him in the backfield, football offered support and the kind of reinforcement he couldn't get at home. ``It was very popular,'' the minister said. ``It got a response from people. It fulfilled more needs than the other sports.''

Molloy, a Manhasset attorney and later a State Supreme Court judge in Nassau County, steered Brown to his alma mater, Syracuse University. But the coaching staffs were cool to the idea of a black athlete in the early 1950s and did not offer a scholarship. Molloy rounded up enough money from the town's business community to pay for the youngster's first-year expenses and extracted a promise from the school that it would put Brown on scholarship if he was as good as advertised.

Despite some rough moments, Brown emerged as the greatest athlete in Syracuse history. As a senior, Brown scored 43 points in a football game against Colgate, was a unanimous All-American at running back and was voted the MVP of the Cotton Bowl. He also earned All-American honors in lacrosse in leading the Orangemen to their first unbeaten season in 33 years.

On the final day of the lacrosse season, Brown won the discus and shot for the track team in a dual meet against Colgate before dressing for the game against Army. He had just put on his pads when a student manager raced in with the announcement that the meet was close and that he was needed for the javelin. Brown changed back into his track suit, tossed the javelin far enough on his first try to clinch the meet and then suited up for his final lacrosse victory.

Brown was selected fifth in the NFL draft by Cleveland, where he earned rookie of the year honors and set a single-game rookie rushing record of 237 yards that wasn't eclipsed until the 1997 season. During his nine professional seasons, all with the Browns, the 6-2, 228-pound Brown led the NFL in rushing eight times. His career mark of 5.2 yards per carry is unchallenged.

He was just 30 when he abruptly retired from football in the summer of 1966 while filming a motion picture in England. Even after opting for the California lifestyle, he remained loyal to those in Manhasset who took an interest in his future, primarily Walsh and Molloy.

``These were high-style people,'' Brown has said. ``I felt like I had gone to another planet in terms of my previous life experiences and what they did was take me from a position of insecurity to one of the best situations I could ever be in. There was no snobbery there, even though it was a really rich community and my family didn't have much.''