1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:14,000 This is Paul Brown, coach of the Cleveland Browns. In a few moments I'll tell you about my greatest sports thrill. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:39,000 This is Harry Wismer. What you're about to hear is a transcribed story of one of Pro Football's outstanding coaches and an event our special guest Paul Brown considers his greatest sports thrill. 4 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:49,000 And Paul himself is here to tell us all about it. But first, here is Bill Reddick with a message of interest from your United States Air Force. 5 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:55,000 In a thrilling ninth inning rally, it may be difficult to pick out the most important baseball player on the field. 6 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:02,000 However, in the expanding age of space, there's no question about who the most important men will be. 7 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:11,000 The most important men in this new era will be Air Force trained specialists, or the space age will be run by technicians. 8 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:16,000 Right now, today, you still have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor. 9 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:23,000 If you join the Air Force and are qualified for training, you'll be instructed by the finest technical experts available. 10 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:30,000 Perhaps your field will be electronics, jet mechanics, guided missile systems, or radar. 11 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,000 In any case, Air Force training will stick with you and make you a valuable man anywhere. 12 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:47,000 So see your local recruiter now for the full story on your future in the United States Air Force, where the age of space is reality. 13 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,000 Now, back to Harry Wismer. 14 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:56,000 The most remarkably successful football machine in the history of the sport, college or professional, has been the Cleveland Browns, 15 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:05,000 former terror of the All-American Conference, and for the past nine years, the most respected and most feared team in the National Football League. 16 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:11,000 In the 13 years the Browns have been in business, they have failed to qualify for the National Championship only twice, 17 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:17,000 and they have won seven title games, four in the AAC and three in the NFL. 18 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:23,000 Credit for this unprecedented run of success in pro football goes to one man before all others. 19 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:29,000 His name is Paul Brown, the slender balding coach and general manager of the Cleveland Browns. 20 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:39,000 The victories on the field and the size of the crowds in the stands reflect the superb job of organization, teaching and recruiting he has done year after year. 21 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Paul Brown's record with the Cleveland Browns is no less remarkable than those he left behind him in schoolboy competition at Severin Prep in Maryland and Maslin, Ohio, 22 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,000 and with wartime teams at Ohio State and Great Lakes. 23 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,000 His unmatched success testifies to the soundness of his methods. 24 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:09,000 Paul Brown's teams won every championship in the old All-America Conference 1946 through 1949, and since entering the NFL in 1950, 25 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:15,000 they have had only one losing season, a 5-7 record in 1956. 26 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:30,000 Paul Brown had a 15-5-2 record in two years at the Great Lakes Training Center and won Coach of the Year honors with the Big Ten Champions at Ohio State in 1942, the second of his three years at Columbus. 27 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:37,000 But it was nine years at his old hometown of Maslin, Ohio that Brown learned his trade and made his mark. 28 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000 There his teams won 80, lost only eight, and tied two. 29 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,000 Quite a record. 30 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:53,000 In 1940, Ohio State was casting him out for the football coach after releasing Francis Schmidt of Razzle Dazzle fame. 31 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Alumni groups in the State High School Coaches Association kept pointing to Paul Brown. 32 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:04,000 Eventually, the athletic director at Ohio State yielded to the pressure and hired him. 33 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:15,000 In 1941, Paul Brown's first season at Ohio State, he took a team of demoralized youngsters and whipped them into his type, lean, hungry, and well-conditioned. 34 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:23,000 As the youngest head coach in the Tough Western Conference, Paul Brown went on to gain six victories against one tie and one loss. 35 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:29,000 The following season, Ohio State won the National Championship and Big Nine Conference title. 36 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:38,000 But in the war year of 1943, Brown's team was riddled and the best he could do was win half his games with a group of 17-year-olds. 37 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:45,000 Paul Brown went into the service in 1944 and took over the Great Lakes Training Station football team. 38 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,000 As always, he did a fine job. 39 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:55,000 One of the 1945 victories was a 39-7 win over Notre Dame, the upset of the year. 40 00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:06,000 In 1946, Paul Brown came out of the service and like almost every other ex-serviceman, he had to pick up the threads of civilian life and with them some tough decisions. 41 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:16,000 The big question in his case was whether to take a fabulous offer to enter the professional ranks or to return to the comparative security of collegiate football at Ohio State. 42 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:27,000 Brown decided to accept the offer of owner Mickey McBride to be general manager and head coach of the Cleveland Browns of the brand new All-American Football Conference. 43 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:32,000 In Cleveland's first season, the Browns won 12 and lost only two. 44 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:39,000 They won the Western Championship and in the playoff against the Eastern Winners, defeated the New York Yankees 14-9. 45 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:46,000 All told in four years in the All-America Conference, the Browns won 51, lost four and tied two. 46 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:55,000 They won the championship four times and even went through the 1948 campaign undefeated with the 14-0 mark. 47 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:02,000 In 1950, bogged down with staggering financial losses, the AAC threw in the sponge. 48 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:14,000 Cleveland, Baltimore and San Francisco were absorbed by the National Football League whose teams drooled in anticipation of the chance to show up Paul Brown and the Cleveland Browns. 49 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:20,000 The Browns suffered just two defeats in their first season in the NFL, both by Steve Owens, New York Giants. 50 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:29,000 Those two defeats created a tie with the Giants and in the playoffs, the Browns won 8-3 on two field goals by Lou Groza. 51 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:38,000 In the championship game, the Los Angeles Rams led by Bob Waterfield came into Cleveland's municipal stadium and were beaten by the reliable tall Lou Groza, 52 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:45,000 who booted a field goal in the last 28 seconds giving the Browns their first National Football League title. 53 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:51,000 Paul Brown had proved to everyone he belonged, regardless of the league. 54 00:06:51,000 --> 00:07:00,000 The continued success of the Cleveland Browns since then points to his remaining up on top for many years to come. 55 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:08,000 Now before you meet our special guest Paul Brown in person in an interview from municipal stadium in Cleveland and hear about his greatest sports thrill, 56 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:14,000 here is a message to all young men with an eye on the future. 57 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:19,000 Psychologists tell us that young people don't like to be left out of events in which their friends take part. 58 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:26,000 This is true of adults too, and why not? When exciting things take place, everyone just naturally wants to be part of them. 59 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:30,000 Consider the dramatic advances now occurring in the space age. 60 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:36,000 Consider too the important role the Air Force is playing in this new age and will continue to play. 61 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:44,000 The fact is, the Air Force is the only service that has most of its men working on aircraft, missiles and rockets, or in allied fields. 62 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:49,000 This means that for top space age training, the Air Force is way ahead. 63 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:54,000 And that's why so many forward thinking young men are joining this great outfit. 64 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:00,000 They want the finest technical training, 30 day annual paid vacations, plus a full social life. 65 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:06,000 If you're interested in valuable training and a promising future, see your local Air Force recruiter. 66 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:11,000 He'll tell you all about the many Air Force opportunities now available. 67 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,000 And now back to Harry Wismer. 68 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,000 Paul Brown, what was your greatest sports thrill? 69 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:21,000 My greatest sports thrill took place in 1950. 70 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:27,000 Our team had been in the All-America Conference, which had gone defunct. 71 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:35,000 And we were in the process of entering into the National Football League, along with a couple of other teams from the defunct league. 72 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:42,000 And to say the thing rather generously, I don't think we were being accepted very well. 73 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:46,000 The National League had its champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. 74 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:53,000 We were the champions, as I said, of the All-America Conference, and we played them in the opening game of the 1950 season. 75 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:57,000 We won the game, I think the score was 35 to 10. 76 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:01,000 And of course that didn't increase our popularity one bit. 77 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:08,000 In the meantime, the Cleveland Rams had moved to Los Angeles and were known as the Los Angeles Rams. 78 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:13,000 And there was a feeling on the part of some Clevelanders because they left our city, 79 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:19,000 and of course on the part of the Ram administration because they felt that they were glad to get out of Cleveland. 80 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:24,000 At any rate, there was a feeling between the two teams and the two towns. 81 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:30,000 And to make a long story short, we met in the championship game of that particular year. 82 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,000 In the course of the game, the Rams got ahead of us. 83 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:37,000 They had a great quarterback named Bob Waterfield. 84 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:41,000 Glenn Davis was a halfback. He caught a flare pass, I think, in the first play of the game. 85 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:44,000 It went about 60 yards to put him ahead 7-0. 86 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:48,000 As the game rocked along though, we came into the final moments, 87 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:53,000 and we were one point behind them with a minute and 52 seconds to play. 88 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:58,000 At that stage, they had to punt it to us, and from the 20-some yard line, 89 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:03,000 we moved it straight down the field from where Lou Gross had kicked a field goal with 12 seconds to play, 90 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:06,000 and our stadium literally exploded. 91 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:15,000 And to this day, I believe it's the thing I remember most that has happened to me in the football career that I've had. 92 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:20,000 How long does it take to develop a good college player into a recognized professional? 93 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,000 It depends upon the position. 94 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:27,000 A quarterback, I think, takes a period of years. 95 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:34,000 A lineman, an internal lineman, can graduate from the college ranks into pro football, 96 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:39,000 sometimes make the transition within a year or two in fine fashion. 97 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:46,000 There's one thing about it, even if he's a good man his first year, like Jim Brown was for us, the Syracuse boy. 98 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:49,000 A great player his first year led the league in ground gaining, 99 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:55,000 yet the second year he has been better because he learns how we operate from the ground up at our camp. 100 00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:02,000 And I think that it all depends on the position, but they all grow with years of experience. 101 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:06,000 Paul, who is the best all-around football player you ever saw? 102 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:13,000 Well, that's a big order, but when you say best all-around, I presume you mean a man who can do many things. 103 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:20,000 And the first fellow that enters my mind when you say that is the very fellow we talked about here, Bob Waterfield. 104 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:27,000 I think that Bob Waterfield not only was a great passer and a great quarterback and ball handler and whatnot, 105 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:34,000 but he was also the leading place kicker in the National League, the finest punter in the league. 106 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:39,000 He embodied the best of all of these specialties, 107 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:44,000 and I think I would have to say that he was probably the best all-around player I've seen. 108 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:48,000 Paul, your son quarterbacked the Dartmouth team in college. 109 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:51,000 What were your feelings when you saw him play? 110 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:56,000 Well, I never saw him play in college. My wife would go up to see Dartmouth play, 111 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:02,000 but because of my travels with my own football team, I never had the pleasure of seeing my Mike play. 112 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:07,000 I did see him play all of his high school games. I was like any other parent. 113 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:14,000 I was doing a bit of up and down and dying and whatnot right with them. 114 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:19,000 I can't take credit for being unusual or analytical or any such thing. 115 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:25,000 I used to talk about the way he handled himself on the field after he'd get home after the game, 116 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:32,000 but prior to a game I never entered into it. It was the responsibility of the coach, and he was totally in his hands. 117 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:37,000 Paul, what was the most unusual play you ever saw on a football field? 118 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:44,000 Well, the most unusual play we ever took on on a football field took place when I was at Massillon High School. 119 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:46,000 I had a great punter there named Horace Gillum. 120 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:52,000 He afterwards kicked for us from Cleveland, and a great running back named Tommy James, who also played for us from Cleveland. 121 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:57,000 One time we were playing a high school team known as Cathedral Latin from Cleveland. 122 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:01,000 It was our opening game, and we did a thing that was a little sneaky. 123 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:12,000 We went to punt the first time we had to from about our 25-yard line, and in so doing we had our two offensive ends break offside purposely. 124 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:16,000 They were about 10 yards in Cathedral Latin secondary before Gillum kicked the ball. 125 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:23,000 Well, the Cathedral Latins insist then, of course, it was their choice, the foul had been committed, that we kick it again. 126 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:30,000 And, of course, then the second time why Gillum handed it behind is back to James on a fake kick, 127 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:37,000 and James went 60 or 80-some yards, I think, for a touchdown, and I always got a bit of a chuckle about it. 128 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:45,000 And really, I got the idea and the thing from having seen Buck Shaw's Santa Clara team playing the Sugar Bowl one time against LSU. 129 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:50,000 They didn't do it on purpose there, but we did, and it worked out very well. 130 00:13:50,000 --> 00:14:10,000 Thank you very much, Paul Brown, of the Cleveland Browns, one of pro football's outstanding coaches.