Redemption in ’64: The Champion Cleveland Browns by John M. Harris

Abstract

Reviewed by: Redemption in ’64: The Champion Cleveland Browns by John M. Harris Jack Patrick Redemption in ’64: The Champion Cleveland Browns. By John M. Harris. (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2018. 237 pp. Paper $20.95, ISBN 978-1-60635-343-1.) From a quick glance at the title, readers might assume that this book is merely [End Page 124] a nostalgic look at a successful season that serves to reacquaint Cleveland Browns fans with their proud past. In Redemption in ’64: The Champion Cleveland Browns, John M. Harris offers that and so much more. Harris provides insight into the formation of football’s dominant franchise in the decade following World War II, suggests reasons for its decline by the early 1960s, and explains the unlikely series of events that propelled the Browns back to the top of the football world. Having lost an NFL team when the Rams relocated to Los Angeles following the 1945 season, Cleveland was awarded a franchise for 1946 in the newly formed All-American Football Conference. In the most interesting section of this book, Harris describes how Paul Brown forged the franchise that bore his name. Already a legend from his success as coach at a Massillon, Ohio, high school and at Ohio State University, Brown built his squad primarily with Ohio and midwestern players. He assembled a coaching staff of men he had previously known in Ohio or at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center outside Chicago, where Brown had served as the football coach during the war. An accomplished organizer and innovator, Brown led the team to heights unprecedented in professional football over the next decade: four titles in the All-American Conference followed by three additional championships in the NFL, after the Browns were absorbed into the established league in 1950. Brown treated his players as a disciplined workforce who were expected to follow his instructions without complaint. Accordingly, he called all the plays during a game and ignored any input from the players. He also expected conformity off the field and released players who did not follow his rigid rules. The first generation of Browns players, nearly all war veterans, had accepted that restrictive work environment. But by the late 1950s and early 1960s, a fresh generation of players rebelled at Brown’s restrictions. Compounding the discontent was the failure to capture a conference championship after 1957 and the players’ feeling that Brown’s football schemes had become obsolete, predictable, and easily countered by their opponents. In 1961, a New York advertising executive, Arthur Modell, purchased the Browns and began a strained relationship with the legendary founder. Paul Brown disliked Modell’s appearances at practices and his tendency to associate with the players. Modell was sympathetic to the complaints of disgruntled Browns players, including star running back Jim Brown. After a frustrating 1962 season, Modell fired Paul Brown and replaced him with Blanton Collier. Harris portrays Collier as the driving force that orchestrated a renaissance for the troubled franchise. Collier had been Paul Brown’s key assistant from [End Page 125] the formation of the Browns until the conclusion of the 1954 season, when he had left to become the head coach at the University of Kentucky. He returned to the Browns as an assistant in 1962. During his first season as head coach in 1963, he quickly earned the respect of his players. He incorporated their suggestions into the game plans. He changed the offensive blocking schemes to conform to the talents of Jim Brown. Most significantly, he made Frank Ryan the starting quarterback. A journeyman who combined an NFL career with his pursuit of a doctorate in mathematics from Rice University, Ryan—under Collier’s stewardship—developed into a capable passer and gave the team a viable aerial attack to combine with Jim Brown’s rushing expertise. On December 27, 1964, a cold, windy day in the old stadium along the Lake Erie shore, the Browns defeated the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, 27–0, to earn their first league championship in nine years. Harris suggests that the championship season of 1964 provided “redemption” for four members of the Browns organization. Modell was vindicated for his controversial...