Cleveland Browns Origin

The journey through the All-America Football Conference continues and this time we have the premier team from the League, the Cleveland Browns. Historian George Bozeka tells us about the origin of the Browns and their brilliant owner and his head coach in this episode.

The All-American Football Conference lasted only four seasons, but its impact on professional football was enormous. One big reason is the success of the league's top team, the Cleveland Browns. Pro football historian George Bozeka sat down with us in the Pigpen recently to tell us about the fascinating origin and history of the Browns in this era. George is the Executive Director of the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA). If you want to join the PFRA, sign up online at ProFootballResearchers.org. We would love to have you!

Arch Ward, the Chicago Tribune editor and the mastermind behind the AAFC, spotted a golden opportunity in Cleveland for a professional football franchise. This opportunity arose after the Cleveland Rams, the NFL Title winners in 1945, shockingly departed for the West Coast. This move was not only historic but also controversial, as no other NFL franchise was within a couple of thousand miles at the time. The Rams also became the first American major league sports franchise on the Pacific Coast. George Bozeka enlightens us on the reasons behind Rams owner Dan Reeves' decision to move, which included football opportunities and other business ventures.  

Ward contacted Arthur "Mickey" McBride, an Eastern Ohio businessman with his hands in everything from real estate to a taxi company in Cleveland. McBride also ventured into a wire service that provided horse racing results to people who needed to know the results, such as bookies. McBride's involvement in this side hustle placed him in the public eye even before he bought the Cleveland franchise. This interest made a part of McBride's persona shady as it put him in the company of organized crime figures who did not continuously operate within the fine lines of the law. But despite this, McBride had a passion for North East Ohio, had the finances to cover the costs, and had a strong desire to win at football. He also knew he needed people with good football knowledge and organization to run his franchise. 

Mickey McBride officially joined the All-American Football Conference owners in 1944 by buying the rights to the new Cleveland franchise. Yes, he needed a coach to organize his team and wanted a good one to start things off right. Author Andy Piascik, in his book, The Best Show in Football: The 1946–1955 Cleveland Browns, says that McBride and Leahy even had a handshake deal made for the Fightling Irish coach to leave his very successful program to be the sideline boss of the Cleveland franchise. When Notre Dame officials got wind of the deal, they took action. They appealed to McBride and his loyalty to the school, as McBride's son was an alumnus. Soon, they persuaded Leahy to stay and McBride to make another choice as a coach for his new team.

The website BrownsNation.com says this:

"McBride originally tabbed then Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy as his coach and general manager.

However, Notre Dame threw a fit at the idea and McBride backed away from the deal. Denied his plan A, McBride asked a local writer to suggest a new name.

The writer thought Brown, who was in the Navy at the time and coaching at Great Lakes Naval Station, (and who formerly coached at Ohio State) would be a good choice."

It is probably the best choice McBride could have ever made to hire the legendary Paul Brown as coach. 

Paul Brown first coached at the Naval Academy's preparatory school in Maryland. In 1932, he returned to Ohio, where he coached at his high school alma mater. In the Massillon vs. McKinley episode of the Pigskin Dispatch Podcast with George Bozeka , we learned that Brown led the Tigers during his nine-year tenure at Massillon, to a coaching record of 80-8-2. That first season provided half of his coaching losses and half of his tied games. He figured out how to win right after that inaugural year.

The great coach was so successful at Massillon that his peers urged him to receive the head coaching job at Ohio State University, and in fact he accepted the role just prior to World War II. Brown coached the Buckeyes from 1941 through the 1945 seasons and sported an OSU record of 18-8-1 and in 1942 led the Ohio State program to its first National Championship.

Brown brought all of his experience from the high school, college and miliatary levels to build not just a team and a football program but to give a great gridiron experience for the fans of Cleveland. He brought in marching bands and other things for build fanfare, says Bozeka. But the Coach also called upon his former players and opponents to assemble a star studded cast for the new Cleveland roster. Marion Motley was his uber talented running back that Brown coached back at Massillon. Quarterback Otto Graham, gave Brown's OSU teams fit from his halfback position at Northwestern. Lou Groza who played for the Buckeyes was an outstanding center and a kicker, and Dante Lavelli another former player in Columbus headlined a list of many Brown recruited. In fact the coach brought in so many good players his roster limits were over capacity. Not wanting to lose them, Paul Brown worked out a deal with Arthur McBride that these "extra" players could hang around town by getting paid to be cabbies at Mickey McBride's Yellow Cab company in Cleveland. Thus the name taxi squad was coined. A term still used to this day in football for players beyond the ones dressing for games.

The Browns dominated the AAFC, compiling a 47–4–3 record in the league's four seasons and winning its championship in each one. At one point they wone 29 straight games, had an undefeated championship season (move over 1972 Dolphins), and then moved in the NFL where they rung up more titles.  Yes spoiler, the Browns of course were one of three teams along with the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Colts to merge into the NFL in 1950. They appears in 7 championshiop games in their first ten seasons of existence in both the AAFC and NFL.

Darin Hayes 
Hello, my football friends. This is Darin Hais at pigskin -dispatch .com. Welcome once again to the Pigpen, your portal to positive football history. And we are continuing our journey into the teams of the All -America Football Conference. And we have about three of them left here. We've talked quite a bit about the Western teams, and there's one that we really haven't talked about, and we're gonna discuss some tonight. And actually, these are the cream of the crop of the whole AAFC, the Cleveland Browns. And we're bringing in our expert historian from that area, George Bozica. Welcome back to the Pigpen. 

George Bozeka 
Thanks, Darin. Always enjoy talking to you here in the pig pen. 

Darin Hayes 
We really enjoy you. We get a lot of great response, George, when you come on. We appreciate your expert opinions. We've had a lot of experts talking about the AFC, and it's very appreciative, and talking about this very interesting league that was so important to football, to pro football. And we're talking about the kingpins of that league in your Cleveland Browns, and we're excited to hear about the origin story of the Browns and their trek through the AFC. So I will let you start us off here wherever you'd like to begin. 

George Bozeka 
Well, I'm sure some of this stuff may have already been sort of discussed in some of the previous ones, but obviously the the All -America Football Conference was formed in 1944 by Arch Ward, who was a reporter and editor with the Chicago Tribune. He also was responsible for starting the baseball all -star game and the college all -star game, which doesn't exist anymore, but was a big thing back in the day in Chicago. And he envisioned sort of a world series of football. American versus national. So with the National Football League, that's why he sort of got the idea to start, you know, the All -America, you know, Football Conference. And of course, the Cleveland franchise was was basically secured by Arthur Mickey McBride. And Mickey McBride was the first owner of the Browns. And to say the least, he was a colorful character. Mickey McBride was actually born in Chicago. And he knew he knew Ward, Arch Ward, from his days in the newspaper business because he he was born in 1888, but he started as a newsboy. And, you know, when we think of newsboy, we see sort of the the movie version of these, you know, kids that would be, you know, selling newspapers. But it was actually it was actually a rough and tumble business back then. You had to be a bit of a tough guy back then to be a good newsboy because, you know, newspapers were competing with each other for circulation and things like that. And Mickey McBride made a name for himself actually working for the Chicago Evening American, which was William Randolph Hearst's paper in Chicago. And I'm sure everybody has heard of William Randolph Hearst, obviously the Hearst newspaper chain and you know, one of the more powerful newspaper men and, you know, in American history. And he worked for Hearst newspaper, worked his way up through the circulation department there and ended up then moving to Cleveland and becoming circulation manager at the Cleveland News in 1913. He actually just I'm interested in Sino's because I just think he's a fascinating guy. You could probably do a show just on Mickey McBride. He he at one time was accused of selling illegal street car transfers and he was defended by Clarence Darrow. And I think everybody's heard of Clarence Darrow, you know, obviously scopes monkey trial and a variety of things. He was one of the more renowned defense consoles of that era and and Clarence Darrow being Clarence Darrow got him off on that charge. So, you know, he had this this rather I should say colorful background. And it put him in contact, even though I want to emphasize that, you know, he was never actually found guilty of anything or anything like that, but he did have some ties to some organized crime figures. A couple of famous organized crime figures in the Cleveland area actually worked for him as news boys. At the time, one of them Morris mushy Wexler went on to own a really famous nightclub in Cleveland called the theatrical grill was which was on a street in Cleveland. Called short Vincent and it was called short Vincent because it was basically like a half a street, but it had this famous nightclub that was actually Sort of a Mecca for anybody that was a who's who in the entertainment industry. Back in that day. I mean, people like Milton burrow Jimmy Duranny Perry como Dean Martin Frank Sinatra Joe DiMaggio. We're seeing at the theatrical Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, her then husband the famous playwright. You know, it's unbelievable. If you see the list of everybody that was there one time. It's an amazing list and the person that owned that was one of Mickey McBride's, as I said, news boys when he was in Cleveland worked for him under the circulation department and Actually, art model when he made the deal to buy the Browns. He closed the deal at the theatrical This is really sort of a famous, you know place and McBride actually made his money, not just from the newspapers, but he invested in real estate. And then he also invested in what was called back then the wire service and what the wire service was was it was a mechanism that was used to basically supply information to bookmakers Race results and things like that. If you've ever seen the movie The Sting 

Darin Hayes 
Mmhmm. 

George Bozeka 
uh the the the sting or the the con that's in the sting basically made uh an illegal use of the wire service and then what they did in the sting is they got the information ahead of time so then they they knew what the result was going to be so that they could then take the bets and that way make money off the con but when it was run just as a normal business it was basically basically an information business and they would supply the information to bookies or supply the information to pool halls or wherever people were making bets back then and he was involved in in in in that kind of uh situation too but where he really made his money was that he owned cab service uh in cleveland he owned the zone cab and the yellow cab in cleveland so he was known basically as a taxicab magnet uh and actually the term taxi squad in football comes from arthur mcbride because the browns basically would sign players and if they couldn't use the players they worked for mickey mcbride as at the taxi cab company really that's how the taxi squad term came into being wow 

Darin Hayes 
that's pretty cool. 

George Bozeka 
Yeah, yeah. So that that's where that actually came from. As I said, he was never found guilty of any wrongdoing. He just had, he just had ties to, you know, some interesting people actually, when they had the keef offer hearings during the 50s, the organized crime hearings in Congress, actually, he was questioned by the keef offer committee. And that was in 1951. And just a couple years after that, he did the best himself with the Browns and sell the Browns. You know, some say, well, it was maybe because of that. But he said, no, he was basically, you know, ready to get out of the business at that time. The funny thing about him was is that he really wasn't a football fan to start with. He was a big baseball fan and a big boxing fan. But his son went to Notre Dame, and he would go, you know, attend games there. And he was just taken with all the, you know, sort of, you know, pageantry around the game and the excitement. And that's when he started to become hooked on football. So when the opportunity arose to get, you know, an ownership, you know, he was awarded the ownership, as I said, he had the tie with Arch Ward, new Arch Ward. So he then became the owner of the Browns. Now, fortuitously, this obviously, the round, obviously first season in the AAFC was in 1946. 1945, there was already a team in Cleveland, the Cleveland Rams. And that was owned by Dan Reeves. And I think we possibly talked about this on another show on the Sports History Network, because the book that's going to be coming out here soon, that the Pro Football Researchers Association in our great team series is going to be on the 51 Rams. Well, Dan Reeves, and that's Los Angeles Rams. Dan Reeves was the owner of the Cleveland Rams. He had always wanted to own a football team. His story is in some ways is very similar to Mickey McBride in that, you know, he came from a money background, his family owned grocery stores. So he came from that background, always wanted to own a football team, because he was hooked when he went out to Los Angeles, and saw the college football games out there. And he became hooked. And eventually he bought the Cleveland Rams, not because he wanted to own a team in Cleveland, because Mickey McBride, obviously had ties to Cleveland, he just wanted to own a football team. And he always wanted to take that team and move it out West. That was his goal from the time almost that he bought that team, he wanted to move them out West. On 45, they won the NFL championship, they beat the Redskins in Cleveland. And not soon after that, he got league approval to move the team out to Los Angeles. So as he was moving out, the Browns were moving in, and Mickey McBride was the owner. So it was sort of a fortuitous thing for the Browns to do that, because the Rams really hadn't had a lot of success in Cleveland at the ticket office. Some people blamed Reeves for that. But the point is, it never seemed to click for them at the ticket office in Cleveland. I think a lot of people in Cleveland now, when they hear about the Rams being in Cleveland, a lot of people in Cleveland don't even know that history. Every once in a while you'll see a story on the local news or in the newspaper. Well, did you know, and a lot of people didn't know that the Rams existed in Cleveland, they always think of it as a West Coast team, but that's where it started. So at any rate, actually, Mickey McBride wanted to buy the Rams from Reeves, but he was turned down. So when he had the opportunity to basically get into the AAFC, he jumped at it. And that was true of some of the other owners too, when we were talking about, for example, the Dons. Don Ameche was one of the owners of the Dons, and he had wanted a team previously. So Adam was hoping to get a team in the NFL. And a lot of the owners in the AAFC, I'm sure, as you've discussed in some of the other shows, were men of means. A lot of these guys did have that kind of background and did bring money to the league. So he got the team, he got the franchise, he needed to get a coach. Initially, he wanted Frank Leahy. At that time, Frank Leahy was one of the more famous college coaches in the country at Notre Dame. Notre Dame objected, so McBride had to back off. He put out some feelers as to who would be a good person to hire, and the name Paul Brown came up. And I don't think you can talk about the Cleveland Browns without talking about Paul Brown, because I think, at least in that iteration of the Browns, that early iteration, Paul Brown was the Browns. It was he that was the architect for the success that the Browns had. I know we've discussed in the show that we did about the Maslin McKinley series that Paul Brown, he started at a prep school, but he really made a name for himself when he came to Maslin High School. And he won six state championships there. He won 80 games against eight losses and two ties. And he was basically dominating Ohio High School football at the time. And this was from during the decade of the 30s, from 1932 to 1940, he was the Maslin head coach. Just to show you how dominating he was and what kind of coach he was, the 1940 team, which was sort of considered his masterpiece, they actually just did an article about this in the paper about a week ago here locally. They played Kent State's college football team in a scrimmage that year and beat them 47 to nothing. They were supposed to also scrimmage Akron University and Akron backed out after they beat Kent State so bad. 

Darin Hayes 
No, no one's situation for the college. 

George Bozeka 
Yeah and it was interesting because that was one of the things the article went into was that, you know, the press at the time was really critical of Kent State for doing that because, you know, it was a no -win situation but that's how good they were, you know, and that's how good a team that, you know, he had, he had built up. So he went for Massa and then he was at Ohio State, won a national championship at Ohio State, and then during the war he was at Great Lakes, where he coached at Great Lakes. When he was signed by the Browns, it was the richest contract that any coach had signed at that time. I've seen different sources that place the contract at anywhere between $17 ,500 to $25 ,000 a year. Not much money in today's standards, but it just goes to show you, you know, the difference in the time. You know, this was mid -40s right after the war. The war was coming to a close. So, you know, that was a lot of money back then. You know, I often talk to my dad who passed last year about the value of money back then and, you know, just what you could do with, you know, with a couple cents in your pocket. So that was a lot of money back then. He signed while he was still in the Navy, and he got an ownership interest in addition to the salary. Plus, and this is something that he wanted, because it was Paul Brown. That was his way. He wanted complete control over football operations. So he didn't have a meddling owner. He was the football operation. So McBride just sat back and supported him in any way he needed to be supported. But Paul Brown ran the team. He coached at Great Lakes in 1945, knowing that obviously the very next year, he was going to be the Browns coach because he had already, you know, made the commitment. Ohio State was not happy. They felt that Paul Brown was going to be their coach for a while. So, you know, he ruffled quite a few feathers amongst the, you know, powers that be at Ohio State. So obviously we had this Cleveland franchise, and I keep referring to them at the Browns, but they weren't named the Browns yet. The Cleveland plane dealer in May of 1945 had a contest to name the team. And they cautioned people not to pick the name Browns because Paul Brown didn't want the team to be named the Browns, I think for obvious reasons. So the name that came up was the Cleveland Panthers. But when that name came up, Paul Brown rejected it, because there had been a 1920s semi -prone team named the Panthers, but they weren't very successful. And he said, I'm not going to be associated with failure. So they went back to the drawing board. And for a while, there was a story that was bounced around that they were named after Joe Louis, because Joe Louis was known as the Brown Bomber. But truth be told, the name Browns became the name. It was the most popular, and it was because of Paul Brown. So that was how the Browns, you know, got their name, even though there's stories out there that it was, you know, Brown Bomber and all this, it was that. That's basically what it was. 

Darin Hayes 
So, so there was no connection to like the baseball team. That was the St. Louis Browns playing, but no connection. 

George Bozeka 
There was this contest and actually the most popular choice was the Browns, even though people were told not to choose the Browns, but then they went with the Panthers and Paul Brown wasn't happy with that. So, in a roundabout way, they became the Cleveland Browns. So, he then said about organizing his coaching staff. And in Michael McCambridge's great book America's Game, he refers to Paul Brown as the organization man. And I think that's probably the key thing that I think Paul Brown did better than anybody else at that time was he was an organized guy, you know, he was very organized from top to bottom in the way he was going to run his football team and he went about hiring his coaching staff. He hired people like Blanton Collier, who was out of Kentucky and he had also been in the Navy and also was at Great Lakes. As some of your listeners may know, Blanton Collier went on to be a great head coach in the NFL for the Browns after Paul Brown was fired by Art Modell. And, you know, he had a great record won one NFL title in 1964, beating a pretty highly favored Colts team with John Unitas 27 to nothing. Gary Collins got three touchdown passes in that game. And then they made it to the championship game the next year against Lombardi Packers, when the Packers still had Paul Horning and Jim Taylor and that whole group and they lost to them 23 to 12 and sort of a quagmire. But they made the playoffs almost every year, not quite every year, Blanton Collier was there, but he had a very successful turn as a head coach. He also hired Fritz Heisler, who he knew from Maslin and Miami of Ohio, because Paul Brown had matriculated in Miami of Ohio, so he knew him. He hired John Brickels, who was from Newark, Ohio, and he actually had coached at New Philadelphia High School in Ohio and he was actually succeeded at New Philly by Woody Hayes, of all people. Woody Hayes was a high school coach at one time. And he actually sort of acted as Paul Brown's recruiter, so to speak. He also hired Creighton Miller, who famous at Notre Dame, and he later became an attorney and later became Brown's legal counsel, and he was one of the people that was really key in forming the NFLPA. Bob Voight was another man on the coaching staff. He was basically also at Great Lakes, and Red Conklight, if I say that right, he had played in the NFL and actually was with the 45 Rams, believe it or not. So there's another tie in with the Rams. So he put together his coaching staff and one of the things that Paul Brown had done is he sort of made notations and almost dossiers, it was described in one source that I read, of players that he was familiar with through the years, whether it was his years at Maslin, or whether it was his years at Great Lakes, or his years at Ohio State, not only players that he coached, but players that he coached against. So he sort of had an idea of what the best talent was out there for different positions. 

Darin Hayes 
He had a massive Rolodex is what you're saying. 

George Bozeka 
he did. And he used that to his advantage in terms of, you know, putting together his squad. And he had great attention to detail. He was very old school. You know, he wasn't always liked by everybody. But I think when you win, sometimes you aren't liked by everybody. I think, you know, the modern example of that is Bill Belichick, you know, people, you know, I think Bill Belichick, in a lot of ways, from what I've read about Paul Brown, is very much a modern day Paul Brown and his approach and his analytical approach to the game. You know, I sort of see a lot of similarities there between the two. And I know from what I've heard, Belichick had great respect for Paul Brown. You know, he he was old school in the sense of, you know, the way he treated and disciplined his team, but he also he would give up drinking, he would give up playing cards, he would give up golf during the whole football season, he didn't want any distractions. You know, he, he loved the opportunity to be able to operate and build the team from the bottom up. That's what he enjoyed. And some said that he brought, you know, intelligence to the game, because he looked at it at it also as a, a chance to teach. And he was very much approached the game as a teacher, to teach the athletes to play in a certain way and to play a certain style of football. He wanted high class people. And you know, that's what he went after. There's a story of a certain player that he had, that he basically got rid of late in one season, because he was, he was partying. And it came to the attention of Paul Brown that he didn't want that he wanted his players to be high class people, he expected him to dress a certain way, and look a certain way. Shirt, tie, suit, you know, they, they had to act, you know, the part, he wanted them to act that way. You know, which I think is sort of refreshing because, you know, he, he wanted his players to carry themselves a certain way with respect. And, you know, he brought that. So he knew early on that they were going to be a T formation team. And he knew that the guy that he wanted to be his quarterback was Otto Graham. And he had actually played against Otto Graham, because Otto Graham came out of Northwestern. And he'd actually been a tailback in the single wing of Northwestern. But Northwestern at the time had upset Brown's OSU team in 41. And he never forgot that. So he felt that based on the skills that Otto Graham showed, that he would be a good T formation quarterback. So he was going to build around Otto Graham. And he picked a lot of players that still had some college eligibility left. But another common thread and the players that he picked for the Browns was a number of them were military or war bets. So they came after the war. And even though some of them still had some college eligibility left, they were more mature because of their experience in the war. So he brought in people like Lou Groza, and Lynn Houston, and Dante Lavelle, who had all been at Ohio State. And even though they had some eligibility left, he was able to, to pluck them and they wanted to go into pro football. Now, as I said, that didn't sit right in Columbus, because he was taking some good talent away, but he knew what he wanted. He picked up Max Speedy, who just recently was inducted into the Hall of Fame. And obviously, Lou Groza and Dante Lavelle are in the Hall of Fame. Max Speedy came out of Utah. Frank Gatsky, his great center, who was also in the Hall of Fame. Some of the other athletes that he picked up in 47, he added Horace Gillum, who was a great punter, had a lifetime average of 43 .1 yards. He had been a Maslin and OSU with Paul Brown. And so he remembered Horace Gillum from those years, Lynn Houston, who I mentioned earlier had been at Maslin also. So he remembered him. In 48, he brought in Tommy James, who had been at Maslin, and also at OSU. And he was a defensive back. He brought in also Dub Jones that year, who was a halfback. And people may remember Dub Jones, by association, he's Bert Jones' father, who was a great quarterback with the Colts during the 70s. Actually, Dub Jones has another claim to fame. He scored six touchdowns in one game, which is the NFL record that he shares with Ernie Nevers, Gail Sayers, and just recently, Alvin Kamara. Eric Parsejian played for him in 1948. And we all know, Eric went on to be a great coach at Notre Dame. Lou Saban. played for Paul Brown at Cleveland. And he went on to obviously be the Buffalo Bills coach during the OJ Simpson years and also during their AFL championship years. One of the more interesting players, he's not as famous as some of the ones I've mentioned, but I just love his nickname, Lenny Meatball Simonetti. Meatball Simonetti actually played in New Philly High School. He was familiar with John Brickles who I mentioned earlier and he was a tackle for the Browns back then. I mean, I think they made greater nicknames back then. 

Darin Hayes 
Oh yeah, I think, uh, guys sitting around the bars or having a few viewers had some great nicknames that we don't, we don't get to appreciate today as much. That's for sure. 

George Bozeka 
I got some good nicknames too, but I just think the nicknames were just fantastic back then. 

Darin Hayes 
Yeah, definitely were, you know, I just want to, I'm still pondering this. You know, when you said, you know, how he Brown picked and he knew he wanted auto Graham, just take a look at that and think about that for a second. There wasn't a lot of video tape on, on teams. So really his only experience of seeing auto Graham is when Northwestern played OSU, so he only had, you know, what 50, 60 plays where he got to see him play as a, as a tailback, you said. 

George Bozeka 
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so no, that's a knife for talent. That's pretty good. Yeah, it was a completely different world back then. I know one of the things that we went into in the Rams book was is that the Rams had one of the first really sophisticated, you know, scouting systems because of Eddie Cattell, who was their sort of chief scout. And he did things that our teams weren't doing. And I think Paul Brown was in a way doing some of the same things, you know, by, you know, as you said, you know, realizing who these players were that he had seen and he had played against or for or played for him. And, you know, he kept this in his mind and, you know, and said, Well, this guy's going to be good in this position, this guy's going to be good in that position. So, you know, he was, he was sort of doing the same thing, you know, and I think that's why it's interesting to me. I think that's why, obviously, the Browns, you know, as we know, won, won the 10 championship games in 10 years, and won seven of them, you know, from 46 to 55. AAFC and then in the NFL, the Rams were in championship games, you know, in 49 and 50 and 51. And then again, and, you know, later in the decade in the 50s and 55. Now, two of those times they lost to the Browns, but one of those times they beat the Browns. And they were both very talented teams because of the fact that they were able to get the best talent, because I think of the systems that they were using. Another thing that is common to both teams is they were the two teams that basically reintegrated pro football. The Rams initially, in 46, signed, you know, Kenny Washington and then Woody Strode. Soon thereafter, Paul Brown, in the AAFC, brought in Bill Willis and then Marion Motley. And Bill Willis and Marion Motley both ended up, obviously, being Hall of Famers. And Brown knew Bill Willis from Ohio State. He knew Marion Motley because Marion Motley had played at Great Lakes, but Marion Motley also played at Canton McKinley against Paul Brown when they were in high school and when Paul Brown was a high school coach. And Marion Motley, I think this is one of the most impressive high school statistics I know of. Marion Motley averaged 17.2 yards per carry when he was in high school. Not 7 .2, or not four or five yards a carry, 17 .2 yards per carry. And Paul Brown never forgot that. And, you know, so, you know, we can argue, I think, about, you know, why the NFL and then the AAFC were, you know, reintegrated, why the NFL was reintegrated. You know, obviously, the African-American press in Los Angeles put pressure on Reeves since he wanted to use the Coliseum, which was publicly owned, that he had to have, you know, African-American athletes. I think Paul Brown then also realized that they were some of the best athletes, and for Paul Brown, he wanted the best athletes, regardless of the color of their skin. And he had two great ones that he brought in with Bill Willis and Marion Motley. And these players that I've mentioned proved to be, you know, the nucleus that he was able to use. You know, I think it's been well sort of told over the years that, you know, Paul Brown was a great innovator in that, you know, he was one of the first to use, you know, intelligence tests and also to test players. He was one of the first to have a playbook, psychological testing, and, you know, just a number of things that he brought to the game. I've seen a book that says that he was the father of modern football. I don't know if that's maybe a bit of a stretch, but, you know, obviously, you know, he, as I said, he brought this sort of, I guess, cerebral quality, you know, to the game. And I think that was the reason that the Browns, as you said when we started here, it's a reason that the Browns were the upper echelon of the league and won all four championships in four years and basically dominated, you know, the All -America Football Conference. There were some other teams in the conference that were good, but the Browns were basically in a class by themselves. They had their first training camp at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. their first pre-season game and it was their only pre-season game that year, was on August 30 at the Rubber Bowl in Akron. And that, it was interesting as I was doing my research, they played at least one exhibition game every season at the Rubber Bowl. That was a thing that they did back then. And the Rubber Bowl was actually about a little over 35 ,000 seat stadium, I think almost 40 ,000 seats. It no longer exists now. Sadly, it was the football stadium for the University of Akron for a number of years, but they built a new stadium on campus. And when that, the Rubber Bowl was sort of left to go. And when you go by it now, it's sort of a sad sort of relic of that time, sort of dilapidated and everything. But as a local person, there's a lot of great football games and other things that happened at the Rubber Bowl. So I was already sad to see that go, but they met the Brooklyn Dodgers there, the Brooklyn Dodgers, football Dodgers. And I know you said you've already done a show, I believe on, or you have a show coming up. 

Darin Hayes 
It's going to be coming in a couple of weeks here after this one, so. 

George Bozeka 
They, they were down 13 to nothing in that game before approximately 36 ,000 and came back for a 35 to 20 victory in their preseason game. They then played their first regular season game on September 6 of 46 at Cleveland Stadium, had over 60 ,000 and beat the woeful Miami Seahawks 44 to nothing. The Seahawks were probably the bottom dweller of the AAFC only lasted I think the one season went three and 11 and just were not a very good operation. One of the other things that that and this is sort of aside from football, but one of the other things that Paul Brown brought is that, you know, he felt that football should have some entertainment involved too. And when he was at Maslin, his band director was pretty well renowned in Ohio and basically a person that others have sort of emulated over the years was George Red Bird. And he started the was instrumental in in making the Tiger Swing Band, which is a mass and tiger marching band to this day, one of the great show bands in the country. I mean, they've actually performed all over the country and he came from Maslin and he became Paul Brown's director of entertainment for the Browns. And you know, he had a payroll to use because, you know, Paul Brown believed that you should have the whole experience and he did that even in Maslin. So you know, he brought these things up through the years that he did. It's sort of interesting because believe it or not, the mass entire swing band, they have an opening routine they do at halftime at every game. And it's they will announce it at the game that since 1938, they've done the same opening routine and it was something that was back to the Red Bird days. And it's the same routine. They do it at every game. Sometimes they'll do it twice because the fans love it so much that they'll say we've had requests to do it a second time and they'll do it a second time. So it just amazing. And it all started with Red Bird. So at any rate, as I said, from 46 to 49, the four years of the AFC, the Browns dominated. They won 51 games, lost four games and tied three. They won all four championships. At one time, they had a 29 game unbeaten streak. Think about that. And their masterpiece season was 1948, undefeated with the championship 15 -0. They also led all of pro football in home attendance from 47 to 49 and in 46, they were second. So they not only won, they drew well, but when you win, you draw well. In their first AAFC championship title game with the New York football Yankees in 46 at Cleveland, they won 14 to 9. Now, the Yankees were coached by a Hall of Fame coach themselves, Ray Flaherty. And he didn't respect the Browns. He called him a bunch of pole dunks coached by a high school coach. But Paul Brown got the last laugh. I think a common thread of the Browns, and we'll get into this as we finish up here, a common thread was that the Browns were dominating this league, but the Browns and Paul Brown were not necessarily respected. And I'll get into that a little bit more as we continue. He, as I said earlier, you know, Paul Brown did everything first class. 1947, they met Flaherty in the Yankees again, this time at Yankee Stadium. Won 14 to 3 that time. These are both low scoring games because the one thing that the Yankees did have was the Yankees had a great defense. But the one person that they couldn't stop in either game was Marion Motley. He gained big yards in both games. And that was a common thread in these championship victories is Motley always seemed to come up big in the championship games. In 48, they destroyed Buffalo 49 to 7 Motley ran for 133 yards and three touchdowns that day. And they just destroyed that team on their way to their 15 or no season. And I think one of the interesting things that happened during that 48 season was that in one week from November 21 and November 28th Thanksgiving week, the Browns played three games that week and won all three games. If you can imagine playing three games, you know, in one week, a lot of times now when teams play on. Sunday, and then they play on Thanksgiving. They don't play until the following Sunday. Sunday, Thanksgiving, and then Sunday. And they beat the Yankees in New York on the 21st, 34 to 21. They beat the Dons in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day, 31 to 14 on the 25th. And then on the 28th, still out on the West Coast, they beat the Niners in San Francisco, 31 to 28. Jesus. I've been playing three games back to back to back that way. 

Darin Hayes 
Hm. 

George Bozeka 
and winning them all.

Darin Hayes 
George, if I can ask a question, you're talking about Marion Motley. Now, what kind of a back was he? Was he like a big bruiser? Or was he like a speed demon? Does he have a combination of both? What made him so good? 

George Bozeka 
It was a combination of both. I mean, if you see Mary and Molly in pictures, he's a big guy to begin with, but he was a big guy who also had speed. So I think it was just that combination. It was sort of a devastating combination in that he not only was big and a banger, but he also, you know, he also was quick on his feet. So he was a complete back. I think it's always interesting to me that Paul Zimmerman, the great football writer in his thinking man's guide to pro football, he has a chapter of who he considers the greatest pro football player of all time. And it's Mary and Molly. Uh, so, you know, and I mean, the thing about Mary and Molly too, is statistically, he really had his greatest statistics when he was in the AAFC, he was still had some great years in the NFL, but I mean, he probably had his greatest years in the AAFC, but I mean, he was just, you know, a great back. And I think the thing that's interesting to me was how he always came up big and big games, uh, there's a famous NFL films, click of him, you know, breaking like numerous tackles on the way to a long touchdown run where eventually his helmet comes off and everything. And it just, it just, it's, if I've probably seen that film a hundred times and it's amazing to me every time I see it. And if you ever click it, it's probably somewhere on, on the online somewhere. It's, it's worth seeing that, that, that, that Motley touchdown run where he just breaks so many tackles, either running over people or breaking tackles. He was just, uh, you know, he was just amazed. I can hear 

Darin Hayes 
mouse is clicking all over the place here around the country here as you're saying this. 

George Bozeka 
And, you know, you see, you pair that up with the fact that, you know, the Browns had other good backs at the time. Plus they had this great passing attack with, you know, Otto Graham, who was a super accurate passer. You know, he was throwing the ball to either Dante Lavelle, Glue Fingers was his nickname. We talk about the great, you know, nicknames. And then he also had Max Beatty. He had Dub Jones, who we mentioned earlier. You know, he just had, you know, great players. And the other thing that Paul Brown had too was great role players. You know, I mean, not only did he have the names that ended up in the Hall of Fame, because, you know, you got Otto Graham in the Hall of Fame. You got Lou Grosz in the Hall of Fame. You got, you know, Lavelle and Speedy now in the Hall of Fame. You have Willis in the Hall of Fame. I mean, you know, all these Hall of Famers that were the nucleus of his team, but he also had great role players that complimented the Hall of Famers, you know, from top to bottom. He just had a great team and a great sense, as you said, a great eye for talent. And putting the talent, not only having the talent, but it putting the talent together. I guess it's a bold statement, but the AAFC, the Cleveland Browns are the AAFC. I mean, that's coming from somebody who lives in the Cleveland area. But I mean, you know, four championships, four years. In 49, the year we didn't cover, they beat the Niners, you know, 21 to 7 in Cleveland. You know, the Niners could claim that, you know, they were probably arguably the second best team, you know, in the AAFC, and they still couldn't get over the hurdle of beating the Browns. You know, at least when they counted. So it was just a great run that they had. But even with that great run, and then, you know, when the league came to a close in 49 and the Browns were luckily one of the teams that made it into the NFL, the NFL didn't respect the Browns. You know, they just thought that they were coming from a second rate league. They didn't respect Paul Brown. They didn't respect the players. And I think that was just fodder for Paul Brown and the players to go out and then, you know, dominate the NFL that first season. You know, and that I think was their sort of, you know, incentive to go out and do what they did. The league obviously set up the first game, regular season game was against the Eagles in 1950 because the Eagles were the two time defending NFL champion versus the four time defending AAFC champion. And the Eagles at that time were coached by Earl Greasy Neal, another great nickname. And, you know, Neal did not respect the Browns. He likened them to a basketball team because all they did, he said, was throw the ball and keep the ball up in the air. So he had no respect for the Browns. And the Browns went out and in that first game, they dismantled the Eagles 35 to 10, showing the, you know, superiority. And after that, there was no questioning the Browns after that. You know, they proved that they belong. They proved that they were a superior team by beating the defending, you know, champion of the last two years. And then they went on to win the NFL championship that year. And one of the, excuse me, great NFL championship games of all time, beating the Rams 30 to 28 on a lose grows a field goal in the last minute of the game. And I think one thing that's sort of impressive is, and, you know, it's one of those things that maybe become a bit of an urban legend, but the Browns played the Eagles a second time that year later in the year and beat them 13 to seven. And it was a rainy, bad weather day, December 3 in Cleveland. And the Browns won that day without throwing a single pass. Now Paul Brown at the time, you know, I think was trying to prove a point. What some people argue is, was he trying to prove the point that he could win after greasy Neil said what he did, or was it simply that they didn't need to pass the ball because the weather was so bad. But nonetheless, he proved his point. 

Darin Hayes 
You know, you're you're making a comment that you said your comparison, which I think is a great comparison to Belichick. And it's making me flash back the last season with the Patriots against the Bills in a game where they didn't throw a pass and they ran the ball the whole time. 

George Bozeka 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think there's, you know, there's a good example of that, because I think that there's a lot of, you know, similarities between the two. You know, and I think they had some of the great players of their era, you know, that went in, you know, as I said, you know, you know, the first one of the when I used to visit the Hall of Fame, you know, when I was a kid, and they used to have the the charts up to show like the top 20, you know, quarterbacks of all time, the top 20 rushers of all time, the top 20 scores and all this, and receivers, and the name was always at the top when I was a kid was Otto Graham, you know, because he was the, you know, he statistically, efficiency wise, and everything else, the way they graded was always the number one quarterback for years. And, you know, and you would look at it, and he would say, well, those numbers don't look that impressive, but it just the numbers were different. I that's a huge pet peeve of mine is is that, you know, people want to compare, you know, players of the 50s and 60s, compare them to today's numbers. And it just, it's not a fair comparison, because the numbers are different, because the game's different. And it just, I think, sometimes the modern or younger fan doesn't realize that, you know, it was a different game back then in terms of statistically, because of the way the defenses were, and, you know, much, you know, everything else that, you know, I mean, the Browns had a very sophisticated passing attack, obviously, for their time. And that was another reason for their success, was that they were able to mix all that together. But, you know, they were, they were just an amazing team for that 10 year period. And I, I feel that you can make a solid argument that, you know, out of Graham, I know we've heard the arguments about Tom Brady, I think you can make a solid argument that, you know, out of Graham should be considered an a discussion of who the quarterback goat is. 

Darin Hayes 
So that's a good point. 

George Bozeka 
You know, and I think you can do the same with Miriam Motley at the running back position. Even though the Browns have always had a great, obviously, pedigree of running backs with Jim Brown and the Roy Kelly and most recently, Nick Chubb. And, you know, others in between the Pruitt's and everything else. The Browns have always been blessed with great running backs. But, you know, Miriam Motley was, you know, arguably, you know, the first great running back that they had. And he, you know, paved the way for the rest. And then you have, you know, just, you know, some of the other great players at the positions that they played at receiver and everything else. I mean, it was just, it was a great football team. 

Darin Hayes 
Yeah. And you were saying, you know, talking earlier, saying, you know, the Browns were the AFC and you're, you know, kind of sheepish saying, you know, cause you're from that area. Well, you know, we were fortunate enough going through this series, going through, you know, team by team, you know, Larry Schmidt in New York city, he's telling us, Hey, the Brown, you know, a lot of, uh, uh, salutations to the Browns are Joe Hessian from, uh, the 49ers aspect is telling us, uh, you know, about great things. And almost all of them, uh, Ken Crippen, another one that, you know, talk on Ron and all of them are anytime that their teams, their AFC teams they were talking about would either give the Browns their one of their four defeats or take the Browns to the wire or only lose by three or something. That was a high point of those AFC franchises that were not the Browns. That's how important the Browns were to the AFC. So. 

George Bozeka 
But it's interesting to hear that, that's fascinating to me, but yeah, I think it's true. And I think it was true, you know, I think a lot of people looked Paul Brown down because he came from a high school, but, you know, he, I think always felt that, you know, football is football no matter what level it is. And if you have the right system and you apply it the right way, there's gonna be success at every level. And I think he truly believed that, you know, and I think that, you know, he laid the groundwork when he was, you know, at Maslin, you know, and I think that's all well depicted, you know, the Maslin Museum has a Paul Brown Museum now, which we visited last year during our convention. And, you know, and I think they, they play off the fact that, you know, just, you know, the foundation that he laid in that regard was, you know, and a lot of people didn't respect him because he said, well, you know, he's at high school and all this, as I said, that Ray Flaherty said, oh, he's just a high school coach. Well, now he was much more than just a high school coach. You know, you see the excellence at every level and he had excellence at every level. And I don't think many coaches can really say that, you know, I mean, he just had excellence at every single level that he played, that he coached at. 

Darin Hayes 
you know, going back to our discussion we had with Canton and Maslow talking about Paul Brown. And, you know, I didn't realize that. And I think we even mentioned it during that that podcast is, you know, Paul Brown may be the only coach that won a national championship at the high school, the collegiate and the professional level. Yeah. And, you know, I don't know, maybe somebody like Pete Carroll, if he wanted high school, I don't know if he did or not. Maybe he's the even come close to that. But that's an amazing fact, you know. 
George Bozeka 
I've never researched it, but he could very well be the only one. You may be right, it'd be interesting to research that to see if there's anybody else that had that trifecta, but yeah, because you're right, he did. He not only won state championships in football, he also won what was considered at the time national championships, you know, and he did that there and then he, you know, won the national championship at Ohio state. And then obviously went right into the AFC and won championships and eventually won the NFL championship, you know, so obviously pre Super Bowl era, but you know, I always like to tell people the Super Bowl is the NFL championship game. You know, it just called the Super Bowl. So, you know, 

Darin Hayes 
True. Very true. 

George Bozeka 
people always, you know, I again, you know, Super Bowl era. There was a lot of great football in the NFL before the Super Bowl. So, browns, browns prove that and other teams, the great, you know, Packers teams of the 30s. And, you know, the great, you know, Green Bay teams, obviously, the Green Bay was the one team that sort of straddled both eras winning, you know, the early championships for Lombardi and then winning once I got into the Super Bowl. But, you know, I think that's the other thing is that the Browns can be included in that argument of the best team ever, and are obviously one of the, you know, dynasty teams of the league, you know, the the Browns at their dynasty and in the 50s, and then you had the backers in the 60s. You know, obviously, the Niners and we had the Steelers in the 70s, then you had the Cowboys and the Niners and you know, so and then obviously the majors and recent years. But you know, I think they're one of those teams that can be included in that that dynasty argument. 

Darin Hayes 
Yeah, I, I totally agree with you. I don't, I think maybe only the Packers in, in the Browns that you're talking about, you know, they have seven, both of them had like seven appearances in the championship games and 10 a 10 year period. That's that's unbelievable. That's not even, you know, the great, the Steelers and the 49ers and the Cowboys and even the Patriots, they didn't do that. Well, maybe the Patriots got close, but they didn't win as many as in a row, but that's just an amazing feat. And, uh, especially for what was an upstart team, you know, when you're doing it right from the word go and you're winning, that's truly amazing. 

George Bozeka 
Yeah, yeah, it really is. And, you know, just, it's really an amazing record that the Browns put together during that timeframe. So it's a great legacy for the Cleveland area and just football in general. 

Darin Hayes 
Yeah, it certainly is. And I'm glad that Cleveland was able to keep the Browns name and the traditions and everything when the whole thing happened at the end of the 90s and got to have a team back. Yes, that's a great piece of tradition to have. 

George Bozeka 
Yeah, I'm really glad when they moved the team to Baltimore that they didn't take the name with them because you know I always remember that when the Colts left, you know Baltimore and they went to Indianapolis and they still kept the nickname the Colts I know a lot of the former Colts players That that didn't sit right with them. I remember Johnny United saying hey, I didn't play in Indianapolis You know, so, you know I think it's always interesting that you know what that means to these players and you know that just didn't sit right with some of those Colts players So I'm glad that they did keep the nickname the colors and everything else 

Darin Hayes 
Yeah. And no, I don't know if I've ever asked you this, but I know I've asked some other people about this. Just taking the sort of that parallels that we're talking about. The Cleveland Rams winning the championship like you discussed earlier and then leaving actually almost soon right after that going to LA. You see, so you have a city that's like, hey, we're the champs and our team's leaving. You know, thank goodness, like you said earlier, that the Browns came in and filled that big void. It was in their hearts. But, you know, is that worse than the Browns being sort of taken from the city? And, you know, they didn't have a championship that year, but they were, you know, very big fan base, you know, no matter what their record was. And they were a team on the rise at the time. What do you think maybe is worse for the city? I think worse than when the Browns left. 

George Bozeka 
the Browns, that was that was just a really painful time for Northeast Ohio. Because, you know, the Browns, I think, are still when they're there, I still feel that it's mostly a football, even though we have the the Guardians now, and obviously the Cavs and the LeBron James years, I've always felt that the one championship that would mean the most to this area would be a Brown Super Bowl championship. So I think that it's just one of those things that, you know, whereas I think when the Rams left, because you had the Browns filling the void almost immediately, I don't think that was, you know, as bad plus, as I said, whereas the area didn't seem to really necessarily embrace the Rams, they almost immediately and raised the Browns. And maybe it was because of Paul Brown and the Ohio background and everything else because, you know, it was just a little bit, you know, different. I mean, obviously, the Rams were during the Warriors and everything else, you know, and then and then fairness to into the situation. I mean, as I said, Reeves always had a plan in mind that he wanted to take the team to Los Angeles, he saw that as a promised land. And actually, you know, that was his pioneer moment, because he opened that up to, you know, major sports, you know, it wasn't for him, you wouldn't have had the Dodgers and then the Giants moving out that way, and the Lakers and everything else, you know, he was the first to go out there and realize that, you know, this could be a Mecca for pro sports. But you know, I mean, the Rams the Rams were at one time playing at a high school stadium, you know, they played at Old Shaw High School Stadium, which is in an area that I work in on Thursdays. And I mean, it's a nice high school stadium, it's in a very, you know, old, you know, neighborhood. But I mean, it was a high school stadium, you know, and it's always interesting to me when I drive by and realize that pro football games were played at this high school stadium, NFL games, and that's always just, it's hard to get my arms around this. That's why it's hard sometimes for me to get my arms around the fact that how Paul Brown was not respected, because now we know who Paul Brown was. And he not always, you know, was instrumental with the Browns, but also the Bengals, how many coaches can say and coaches can say that they were responsible for two franchises, you know, because even though Mickey McBride owned the Browns, I mean, Paul Brown was the architect, and then he became the architect of the Bengals. You know, so I mean, you know, how many how many can say that that, you know, two teams that they were architects for, you know, that's just an amazing thing. And now what we know about Paul Brown for them to say, Oh, he's just a high school coach and all this and all that, my goodness. So yeah, so yeah, it's just it's an amazing history. 

Darin Hayes 
Yeah, that's a, that's a great thing. I mean, I can hold it league is very interesting. We appreciate you sharing that with the Browns. Now, before I let you go, I want to make sure, you know, see what's going on. What's the vibe going on with the PFRA these days. 

George Bozeka 
Yeah, we have the third book in our great team series is gonna be coming out here very soon, probably in May. Just finished editing the proofs for that book. And I'm pretty sure if it didn't go to the publisher here in the last 24 hours, it's pretty close to the printer. It's pretty close to going to the printer. So that book will be published here very shortly. We're already in the works on our fourth book, which is gonna be on the 64 bills. And we've already decided our fifth book is gonna be on the 76 Raiders. So that's going very strong. Otherwise we've been planning our 2023 convention and I can't reveal the site yet, but we're gonna probably be revealing that shortly. So that's coming up next year, the 2023 convention. We're real excited about the choice that we made. And I think the membership will be real excited about that too. So those are some of the sort of big things that we've been working on that are coming up. And on a smaller level, our Buffalo Western New York chapter holds a chapter meeting every year that's actually pretty well attended every year from the area and beyond. And that's coming up this coming Saturday. We're excited about that. Jeff Miller and the people at the Buffalo area do a really good job on that little sort of mini chapter meeting that they have every year. So that's also coming up as one of our chapters. Some exciting times for the PFRA and we're looking forward to this year and beyond. 

Darin Hayes 
And I would like to point out too, you know, for, for those listening that are not members and want to, you know, have some great fellowship and learn about some great pro football history and talk with some others of the same interest. It's a very reasonable $35 a year. I believe the website's what? 

George Bozeka 
profootballresearchers.org. You can get there and then join. You get our magazine, the coffin corner comes out six times a year. And you also get access to our members only section, which is just a fantastic sort of archive of football information for the fan out there. In fact, whenever I get a new member, they're always anxious to get their members only login so they can get in there and look at some of the things we have on there. We've got some great things posted in there and people love that section. And it's a great organization. And believe me, if you're a football lover, it's definitely worth joining the PFRA and it just, it's a great organization. And by being a member, also if you come to our conventions, the fee is less for members. So I always say that if you're a member, that's also a perk is that you get in for a reduced fee at our conventions. So that's always a perk also. 

Darin Hayes 
And I can tell you this for a fact, the information is evergreen. It's all, it's always good. As a matter of fact, our friend, Joe Zagorski, I was digging through some old coffin corner articles, and I was doing some research on coal mining. Uh, leagues. And I found one from 1979 by Joseph Zagorski on the Anthracite league. And Joe is going to be. Actually, I'm going to be talking to him later this week, probably airing next week after this episode talks about the Anthracite league and the article that Joe wrote so many years ago. So that's, that's a great, great thing. So, but George, I really appreciate you spending time with us, sharing your knowledge and your love of the Browns and a very, uh, really a fascinating team and a really good team. And we appreciate you coming on here and sharing that with us tonight. 

I really enjoyed it. 

Take care, Darin.
 
You too, George. 
George Bozeka 
Thank you. 
 

A Very Special thanks to George Bozeka for his knowledge shared ad from the websites we linked above in the article.