When All the World Was Browns Town: Cleveland's Browns and the Championship Season of '64 - Hardcover

Pluto, Terry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684822466 ISBN 13: 9780684822464

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1997

Synopsis

Terry Pluto, four-time winner of the Ohio Sportswriter of the Year award, looks back at a time when all the world was truly Browns Town. The story begins with Art Modell's decision to fire Paul Brown; Pluto shows the roots of that decision, which rocked the football world but almost certainly made the '64 title possible. He takes us through the 1964 season, from the start of training camp at Hiram College to each game along the way to the conference title and then on to the 27-0 victory over the Colts. He takes us behind the scenes, showing how Jim Brown prepared for the biggest game of his life; why Gary Collins was always open; and what tackle Dick Schafrath spotted in the films that enabled him to neutralize the Colts' overpowering defensive end Ordell Braase. He shows the adjustments and breakthroughs that turned a scoreless game at halftime into a rout that still stands as Cleveland's last championship. Pluto visits with the men who won the title some three decades ago, gathering their memories of that season and the lessons they've carried with them through their lives.

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Reviews

Sportswriter Pluto (Falling from Grace, 1995, etc.) movingly reveals the substance of a mythic bond between men and a game, a team and a city--and thus lays bare how present-day pro football has surrendered its soul. During the late 1940s and early '50s, the Cleveland Browns were the class of pro football. Coached by the brilliant martinet Paul Brown (for whom the team is named), the Browns streaked to several AAFC and NFL championships. By the dawn of the 1960s, however, some felt that the game had passed Brown by, among them the brash young man from Brooklyn named Art Modell who, in 1961, bought the team. After the '62 season, Modell ``retired'' Brown and hired one of his prot‚g‚s, Blanton Collier. It was a move Pluto calls ``the best football decision Art Modell ever made.'' He worked with essentially the same raw material Brown had: quarterback-cum-math-Ph.D.-candidate Frank Ryan; aged legend Lou ``the Toe'' Groza; and running back Jim Brown, reckoned by many to be the greatest player ever; as well as several prominent rookies. Collier urged, cajoled, and otherwise motivated the Browns to a stunning season-capping 270 rout of the Baltimore Colts in the NFL Championship Game. Pluto recounts the giddy joys of training camp, the easy camaraderie among players and between the players and their fast-living owner. Pluto also notes that football was at the time not the lucrative profession it is today (at least not for the players) and reveals the subtle racism that was, and continues to be, a problem hounding the teams of the NFL. Today, the Browns play in another city (ironically, Baltimore), and as a result, Modell has gone from civic hero to pariah. Still, for Clevelanders, the 1964 championship will remain one of their most cherished memories. Thanks to Pluto, that moment has been lovingly preserved. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In 1963, the Cleveland Browns's new owner, Art Modell, fired legendary coach Paul Brown. The next year new coach Blanton Collier led the team to the NFL championship?the last title any Cleveland pro team would win. Pluto (Falling from Grace, LJ 11/1/95) tells of the team's season and dramatic win over the favored Baltimore Colts. He adds memories from Jim Brown, Frank Ryan, Bernie Parrish, and other key Browns. Collier would retire in 1970, and in 1996 Modell outraged the town and old players by moving the team to Baltimore. Like Steve Hubbard's Shark Among Dolphins (LJ 9/15/97), another tale of a coach's replacement, this is a good regional sports pick, for Ohio and elsewhere.?Morey Berger, St. Joseph's Hosp., Tucson, Ariz.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684822466
• ISBN 13: 9780684822464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 316