Jim Brown Quits Football for the Movies



LONDON (AP)-Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns, of the National Football League, the leading ground-gainer in pro football history, will announce his retirement today. The 30- year-old fullback will make the announcement at a news conference here, where he is making a motion picture. Although Brown still has one year to go on a two-year contract at a salary reported to be $60,000-plus a year, he has decided to step out at the top of his career.



The 228-pounder, who was the league's most valuable player in 1965, has gained almost seven miles in his N.F.L. career. In nine years of pro ball, he won the rushing championship eight times. Art Modell, the owner of the Browns, had told Brown he expected him to be in camp at Hiram, Ohio, when the experienced players report to Coach Blanton Collier. However, the movie in which Brown is working will not be completed until late September. The Browns, the defending Eastern Conference champions, will open their regular season on Sept. 11 at Washington and will have played three games before the end of September.



In his pro career, the former all- America fullback from Syracuse carried the ball 2,359 times and gained 12,312 yards for an average of 5.2 yards a carry. He scored 126 touchdowns. In 1965, Brown won the ground-gaining title with 1,544 yards, averaging 5.3 yards a carry. He scored 21 touchdowns. The loss of Brown will be a blow to Cleveland, which has won the Eastern title the last two years. Behind Brown, Cleveland has Charlie Scales, a 5-foot-11-inch 215- pounder, who carried the ball only 19 times for 72 yards last year, and Jamie Caleb, who spent most of last season on the reserve squad.



Although Brown had hinted that he might not play this season and had said positively he would not continue in 1967, the news of his decision to quit came as a surprise. In mid-June, Modell had warned Brown that his pay would be suspended if he failed to report to camp. Modell said it would be unfair to coaches, fans and other clubs not to clarify Brown's position.



Brown won the rushing title as a rookie in 1957 and retained the crown five straight years, through 1961. He finished behind Jim Taylor of Green Bay in 1962 and led again in 1963, 1964 and 1965.



Associated Press Jim Brown turning the corner against the Packers in his last game, for the N.F.L. championship in January 1966. Green Bay beat Cleveland, 23-12, and suddenly the movies beckoned.

Runners Up



1996: Cigar (see March 27) swept to his 16th straight victory, winning the Citation Challenge at Arlington Park outside Chicago and matching the record modernera winning streak set by Citation from 1946 to '48. Cigar's streak was halted in August by the 39-to-1 long shot Dare and Go in the Pacific Classic, and he was retired in November.



1985: Breaking his own world record, 22-year-old Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union (see Aug. 5) became the first pole-vaulter to clear 6 meters, or 19 feet 81/4 inches, long considered unattainable, when he soared past that height in the Paris International Track and Field Meet.



1934: Babe Ruth of the Yankees became the first player to hit 700 home runs when he connected against right-hander Tommy Bridges of the Detroit Tigers at Navin Field in Detroit. Only Ruth and Henry Aaron of the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves have reached the 700 mark.