Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1958 • Football Clip • Paul Brown interviewed on Radio

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1958 • Football Clip • Paul Brown interviewed on Radio · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  This is Retro Sports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:07
  This is Paul Brown, coach of the Cleveland Browns. In a few moments I'll tell you about my greatest sports thrill.
• 0:14
  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.
• 0:39
  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.
• 0:49
  In a thrilling ninth inning rally, it may be difficult to pick out the most important baseball player on the field.
• 0:55
  However, in the expanding age of space, there's no question about who the most important men will be.
• 1:02
  The most important men in this new era will be Air Force trained specialists, or the space age will be run by technicians.
• 1:11
  Right now, today, you still have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
• 1:16
  If you join the Air Force and are qualified for training, you'll be instructed by the finest technical experts available.
• 1:23
  Perhaps your field will be electronics, jet mechanics, guided missile systems, or radar.
• 1:30
  In any case, Air Force training will stick with you and make you a valuable man anywhere.
• 1:36
  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.
• 1:47
  Now, back to Harry Wismer.
• 1:49
  The most remarkably successful football machine in the history of the sport, college or professional, has been the Cleveland Browns,
• 1:56
  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.
• 2:05
  In the 13 years the Browns have been in business, they have failed to qualify for the National Championship only twice,
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  and they have won seven title games, four in the AAC and three in the NFL.
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  Credit for this unprecedented run of success in pro football goes to one man before all others.
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  His name is Paul Brown, the slender balding coach and general manager of the Cleveland Browns.
• 2:29
  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.
• 2:39
  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,
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  and with wartime teams at Ohio State and Great Lakes.
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  His unmatched success testifies to the soundness of his methods.
• 2:59
  Paul Brown's teams won every championship in the old All-America Conference 1946 through 1949, and since entering the NFL in 1950,
• 3:09
  they have had only one losing season, a 5-7 record in 1956.
• 3:15
  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.
• 3:30
  But it was nine years at his old hometown of Maslin, Ohio that Brown learned his trade and made his mark.
• 3:37
  There his teams won 80, lost only eight, and tied two.
• 3:42
  Quite a record.
• 3:45
  In 1940, Ohio State was casting him out for the football coach after releasing Francis Schmidt of Razzle Dazzle fame.
• 3:53
  Alumni groups in the State High School Coaches Association kept pointing to Paul Brown.
• 3:58
  Eventually, the athletic director at Ohio State yielded to the pressure and hired him.
• 4:04
  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.
• 4:15
  As the youngest head coach in the Tough Western Conference, Paul Brown went on to gain six victories against one tie and one loss.
• 4:23
  The following season, Ohio State won the National Championship and Big Nine Conference title.
• 4:29
  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.
• 4:38
  Paul Brown went into the service in 1944 and took over the Great Lakes Training Station football team.
• 4:45
  As always, he did a fine job.
• 4:48
  One of the 1945 victories was a 39-7 win over Notre Dame, the upset of the year.
• 4:55
  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.
• 5:06
  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.
• 5:16
  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.
• 5:27
  In Cleveland's first season, the Browns won 12 and lost only two.
• 5:32
  They won the Western Championship and in the playoff against the Eastern Winners, defeated the New York Yankees 14-9.
• 5:39
  All told in four years in the All-America Conference, the Browns won 51, lost four and tied two.
• 5:46
  They won the championship four times and even went through the 1948 campaign undefeated with the 14-0 mark.
• 5:55
  In 1950, bogged down with staggering financial losses, the AAC threw in the sponge.
• 6:02
  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.
• 6:14
  The Browns suffered just two defeats in their first season in the NFL, both by Steve Owens, New York Giants.
• 6:20
  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.
• 6:29
  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,
• 6:38
  who booted a field goal in the last 28 seconds giving the Browns their first National Football League title.
• 6:45
  Paul Brown had proved to everyone he belonged, regardless of the league.
• 6:51
  The continued success of the Cleveland Browns since then points to his remaining up on top for many years to come.
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  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,
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  here is a message to all young men with an eye on the future.
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  Psychologists tell us that young people don't like to be left out of events in which their friends take part.
• 7:19
  This is true of adults too, and why not? When exciting things take place, everyone just naturally wants to be part of them.
• 7:26
  Consider the dramatic advances now occurring in the space age.
• 7:30
  Consider too the important role the Air Force is playing in this new age and will continue to play.
• 7:36
  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.
• 7:44
  This means that for top space age training, the Air Force is way ahead.
• 7:49
  And that's why so many forward thinking young men are joining this great outfit.
• 7:54
  They want the finest technical training, 30 day annual paid vacations, plus a full social life.
• 8:00
  If you're interested in valuable training and a promising future, see your local Air Force recruiter.
• 8:06
  He'll tell you all about the many Air Force opportunities now available.
• 8:11
  And now back to Harry Wismer.
• 8:14
  Paul Brown, what was your greatest sports thrill?
• 8:17
  My greatest sports thrill took place in 1950.
• 8:21
  Our team had been in the All-America Conference, which had gone defunct.
• 8:27
  And we were in the process of entering into the National Football League, along with a couple of other teams from the defunct league.
• 8:35
  And to say the thing rather generously, I don't think we were being accepted very well.
• 8:42
  The National League had its champions, the Philadelphia Eagles.
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  We were the champions, as I said, of the All-America Conference, and we played them in the opening game of the 1950 season.
• 8:53
  We won the game, I think the score was 35 to 10.
• 8:57
  And of course that didn't increase our popularity one bit.
• 9:01
  In the meantime, the Cleveland Rams had moved to Los Angeles and were known as the Los Angeles Rams.
• 9:08
  And there was a feeling on the part of some Clevelanders because they left our city,
• 9:13
  and of course on the part of the Ram administration because they felt that they were glad to get out of Cleveland.
• 9:19
  At any rate, there was a feeling between the two teams and the two towns.
• 9:24
  And to make a long story short, we met in the championship game of that particular year.
• 9:30
  In the course of the game, the Rams got ahead of us.
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  They had a great quarterback named Bob Waterfield.
• 9:37
  Glenn Davis was a halfback. He caught a flare pass, I think, in the first play of the game.
• 9:41
  It went about 60 yards to put him ahead 7-0.
• 9:44
  As the game rocked along though, we came into the final moments,
• 9:48
  and we were one point behind them with a minute and 52 seconds to play.
• 9:53
  At that stage, they had to punt it to us, and from the 20-some yard line,
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  we moved it straight down the field from where Lou Gross had kicked a field goal with 12 seconds to play,
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  and our stadium literally exploded.
• 10:06
  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.
• 10:15
  How long does it take to develop a good college player into a recognized professional?
• 10:20
  It depends upon the position.
• 10:22
  A quarterback, I think, takes a period of years.
• 10:27
  A lineman, an internal lineman, can graduate from the college ranks into pro football,
• 10:34
  sometimes make the transition within a year or two in fine fashion.
• 10:39
  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.
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  A great player his first year led the league in ground gaining,
• 10:49
  yet the second year he has been better because he learns how we operate from the ground up at our camp.
• 10:55
  And I think that it all depends on the position, but they all grow with years of experience.
• 11:02
  Paul, who is the best all-around football player you ever saw?
• 11:06
  Well, that's a big order, but when you say best all-around, I presume you mean a man who can do many things.
• 11:13
  And the first fellow that enters my mind when you say that is the very fellow we talked about here, Bob Waterfield.
• 11:20
  I think that Bob Waterfield not only was a great passer and a great quarterback and ball handler and whatnot,
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  but he was also the leading place kicker in the National League, the finest punter in the league.
• 11:34
  He embodied the best of all of these specialties,
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  and I think I would have to say that he was probably the best all-around player I've seen.
• 11:44
  Paul, your son quarterbacked the Dartmouth team in college.
• 11:48
  What were your feelings when you saw him play?
• 11:51
  Well, I never saw him play in college. My wife would go up to see Dartmouth play,
• 11:56
  but because of my travels with my own football team, I never had the pleasure of seeing my Mike play.
• 12:02
  I did see him play all of his high school games. I was like any other parent.
• 12:07
  I was doing a bit of up and down and dying and whatnot right with them.
• 12:14
  I can't take credit for being unusual or analytical or any such thing.
• 12:19
  I used to talk about the way he handled himself on the field after he'd get home after the game,
• 12:25
  but prior to a game I never entered into it. It was the responsibility of the coach, and he was totally in his hands.
• 12:32
  Paul, what was the most unusual play you ever saw on a football field?
• 12:37
  Well, the most unusual play we ever took on on a football field took place when I was at Massillon High School.
• 12:44
  I had a great punter there named Horace Gillum.
• 12:46
  He afterwards kicked for us from Cleveland, and a great running back named Tommy James, who also played for us from Cleveland.
• 12:52
  One time we were playing a high school team known as Cathedral Latin from Cleveland.
• 12:57
  It was our opening game, and we did a thing that was a little sneaky.
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  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.
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  They were about 10 yards in Cathedral Latin secondary before Gillum kicked the ball.
• 13:16
  Well, the Cathedral Latins insist then, of course, it was their choice, the foul had been committed, that we kick it again.
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  And, of course, then the second time why Gillum handed it behind is back to James on a fake kick,
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  and James went 60 or 80-some yards, I think, for a touchdown, and I always got a bit of a chuckle about it.
• 13:37
  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.
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  They didn't do it on purpose there, but we did, and it worked out very well.
• 13:50
  Thank you very much, Paul Brown, of the Cleveland Browns, one of pro football's outstanding coaches.