Jim Brown

Brown never played organized soccer in Scotland as a youth. When he arrived in the United States, he joined the Plainfield Soccer Club scoring 4 goals in one game and then a 5th goal in the next match. He then played with Bayonne Rovers, a local amateur team in the spring of 1928. They were a top team in the Northern New Jersey League and had playing for them, Henry Carroll, known as "Razzo", the 16 year old U.S. Olympic Team striker, who had participated in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Brown, known in the local Bayonne Courier newspaper as "Red" or "Ginger", was the fiery thatched youngster who scored a goal in every match he played with Bayonne. In September 1928, he signed with the Newark Skeeters of the American Soccer League. However, the league suspended the Skeeters in September 1928 as part of the "Soccer War". Newark then joined two other suspended ASL teams and several others from the Southern New York Soccer Association to form the Eastern Professional Soccer League. Brown played 42 games and scored 12 goals with Newark in the ASL and the EPSL, or ESL as it was better known. In the middle of the season, James was listed as the 18th leading goalscorer, out of 18 players in the league. However, at the end of the season, he returned to the ASL when he signed with the New York Nationals, but only played one game and scored no goals.

United States

In 1930, Brown became a professional with the New York Giants, scoring 13 goals in 26 appearances. Soon after, he was called up to the U.S. national team for the 1930 World Cup. On his return from Uruguay, he rejoined his team that was renamed the New York Soccer Club, where he scored 6 goals in 25 appearances. He then moved to the Brooklyn Wanderers for the 1931 spring season with his old teammate, Razzo Carroll, where James scored 10 goals in 31 appearances. Brown moved to the Newark Americans in the fall 1931 season, but by this time the ASL was collapsing, and he played 13 games and scored 7 goals. Because of the decline in U.S. soccer, he decided to return to the UK in August 1932.

England

Based on his success in the U.S. both professionally and with the national team, several teams from both England and Scotland expressed an interest in signing Brown. In August 1932, as the Caledonia Cruise liner neared the dock, representatives from these teams awaited him. However, Scott Duncan, manager of Manchester United, took a tugboat out to the liner and signed Brown on board. Brown played from 1932 to 1934 with United, scoring 17 goals in 40 games, the second highest on the team. Notably, he scored directly from a corner kick in his first game against Grimsby Town within 90 seconds. While Brown scored regularly with United, he alienated the team management with his outspoken support for a players' union. On May 6, 1934, before United transferred…

In late 1948, he returned to the United States where he became the head coach of the Greenwich High School soccer team. In September 1949, James played one match in an attempted come-back with powerhouse Hispano, alongside a young goalie tending the sticks by the name of Gene Olaff. Two years later, James joined several other men in forming the Connecticut State Amateur League as well as Greenport United. When his son, George began playing for Greenport, Brown joined him for two seasons as a player-coach. He then coached the Brunswick School soccer team for twenty-two years and the Elizabeth Falcons of the American Soccer League from 1956 to 1958. Brown was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1986, the Connecticut State Hall of Fame, and New England Hall of Fame. His son George was inducted in 1995.

Having retired from playing professionally in 1941, Brown resumed his trade as a riveter in the Troon Shipyard and then moved back to the U.S. to coach Varsity soccer and Riflery.