The Best of Times

[Rich4eagle]

Reliving the glory

1964 Cleveland Browns

The Great, the Good, The excellence.........and All The World is Brownstown............what a year 1964!

After the great start in 1963, and weak ending, the 1964 season started with modest expectations for the Browns. They had now missed playing in a Championship game six years in a row. Unheard OF! Blanton Collier, however, solidified his position as head coach. The fine season of Dr. Frank Ryan in 1963 solidified the QB position. They had the great Jim Brown and his running mate Ernie Green and a powerful running game.

Two super things happened in the 1964 draft! They selected future hall of famer Paul Warfield with the first pick and little known future Hall of Famer Leroy Kelly with the eight round pick. Those who ever watched the game and understand it know that Paul Warfield was one of the greatest WR's to ever play the game a TD machine who blocked like a linebacker and leaped like a high jumper. In fact he was an Olympic broad jumper. Kelly was a special teams player that year. He was so quick off the snap in later years he often got called for illegal motion when not. The table was set for an offensive powerhouse in 1964....and wow was it! Gary Collins, Paul Warfield at WR and Johnny Brewer at TE and the tandem of Jim Brown and Ernie Green at RB. Leroy Kelly returning kick offs and punts. Jim Brown gained 1442 yards and averaged 5.2 yards a carry but only scored nine TD's. Collins scored 8 and Warfield 9. Amazingly, Ernie Green scored the most 10 TD's as the Offense rolled all year scoring 50 TD's.

The offensive line was Dick Schafrath at LT, John Wooten at LG, John Morrow at C, Gene Hickerson at RG, and John Brown at RT

The defense was named the rubber band defense bending but never breaking. They had two excellent pass rushing ends in Bill Glass and Paul Wiggin and the DT's were Jim Kanicki and Dick Modzelewski. The linebackers were Jim Houston OL, Vince Costello MLB, and Galen Fiss OL. The corners were Bernie Parrish and Walter Beach. The Safeties were Bobby Franklin and Larry Benz

A interesting tidbit was the Browns gave up more first downs (275) than they achieved (255) and were outgained 337 yds per game to 320 yds per game. But they were a scoring machine putting up 415 points in those 14 games and allowing 293. Thus the bend don't break terminology. They played an earlier version of cover two which made yards harder near the goal line. This was a hold over strategy from Paul Brown days. The offense was just explosive. Paul Brown loved offense and Blanton Collier was a true offensive mind.

Check out the scores of the games...........the season started beating the Redskins 27-13 followed by an offensive shootout 33-33 tie with the St. Louis Cardinals. Then they had a 28-20 victory at Philadelphia. Then they whacked the Cowboys 27-6. It always makes me happy when the Cowboys get hammered by the Browns.

Next, were the rival Steelers at home on Saturday night..(the first ever NFL Saturday night game).....a Modell innovation before 80,000 fans looking for win number four. What a shocker, the Steelers John Henry Johnson, who was bruiser of a running back much like Kevin Mack, ran over the Browns for over 200 yards and the Browns suffered a terrible 23-7 loss. It would be the worst loss of the season.

The Browns then reeled off five straight wins. Whipping in succession at Dallas 20-16, the Giants 42-20, at Pittsburgh 30-17, Washington 34-24, and the Lions 37-21. Racking up points by big numbers weekly. With the record now 8-1-1 they went to Green Bay and lost to the Packers 28-21. Then beat the Eagles 38-21, lost at St. Louis 19-28 and then in crucial season ending game massacring the Giants 52-20 in New York finishing the season 11-3-1. They won the Eastern Conference earning the right to play the vaunted Baltimore Colts in the NFL Championship game.

On a cloudy day on December 27th, the game started out as a defensive struggle. The two best offensive teams in football scored zero points in the first half. The Colts offense was the most prolific in the NFL besting the Browns as they set an NFL scoring record. Lou Groza, the kickoff kicker and field goal kicker and a Browns great repeatedly made the tackles downfield on the kickoffs. Something you will never see again.

In the second half, the Browns offense went into high gear, Jim Brown ran wild and Frank Ryan repeatedly connected downfield on passes. He hit Gary Collins three times for TD passes. Groza kicked two field goals. The Defense went out of body, from bend don't break all year, to terrorizing Johnny Unitas and vaunted Baltimore offense. The defense was lead by Galen Fiss who played the greatest game of his career in the biggest game of his career. The picture of his smashing Unitas on one play is a landmark Browns photo. When the overcast day ended the uniforms were dirty and the beloved Browns were World Champs by a score of 27-0. I was one happy young man.

The greatest game of a lifetime. Perfect! A half of offensive perfection and a total defensive domination and a shutout. What a day. BTW, that score 27-0 was the last time the NFL Championship game ended in a shutout including all the SuperBowls. Forty seven years now since the big game was a shutout. The Browns were indeed an offensive juggernaut. To this day, I still believe that opposed to popular opinion in the end it is offense that wins championships. But that is another story. I cannot tell you how many times that year the Browns offense answered every time an opponent took a lead or threatened for a lead.



fficeffice" />>>

[Enigmatic Evil]

1964? I thought that was just a year relevant to cars? I didn't think any of you guys were THAT old! :P

All jokes aside, Rich, thank's for the little history lesson. Helps some of us younger fans appreciate where the team has come from. We will get to the Superbowl again, hopefully sometime soon but the team needs time to build.

Good post.

[Speed Dawg]

Thanks Rich for the memory. That was my first Cleveland Browns game that I can remember. I sat there with my dad. It's a shame he never got to see them in a SB before he died. Now my health isn't so good, I just wish they would get off their damn asses and give us a trip to the SB. The powers to be, ( in Cleveland ), just don't seem to realize some of us old timers want to see that before we die.

[Greythan]

I missed the game. I was 2 months old and out of the country.

My Dad talks about those days fondly. Didn't the Saturday night games die some time later due to the volume of cheap beer that was consumed?

[Rich4eagle]

Apparently not many Browns fans give a crap about their last great game and great season. And that is sad and says loads about the state of fandom of the Cleveland Browns. The Saturday night game did not die. it became the Thursday Night Game and the Saturday late game at end of season and the MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

but when thinking is not a big thing.......or giving two shits about history it is irrelevant...........who cares

[Alo]

Thanks for posting that, Rich. Very good stuff.

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by Rich4eagle

Two super things happened in the 1964 draft! They selected future hall of famer Paul Warfield with the first pick and little known future Hall of Famer Leroy Kelly with the eight round pick. Those who ever watched the game and understand it know that Paul Warfield was one of the greatest WR's to ever play the game a TD machine who blocked like a linebacker and leaped like a high jumper.

This is a TERRIFIC post Rich! One of my favorites in quite some time.

This ALWAYS flies under the radar when people talk about the undefeated Miami Dolphins in 72. The first thign anyone would say about that team was Csonka and Morris both rushed for over 1000 yards when a regular season was 14 games. In addition, Jim Kiick added another 600 rushing yards or so. HOWEVER, anytime anyone wanted to cheat a Safety in the box, Paul Warfield got vertical and caught TD passes. He for Miami what Andre Johnson did for a previous undrafted no-name like Arian Foster.

Unfortunately, Cleveland traded Warfield for the cannon arm of Mike Phipps. He was Kyle Boller before Kyle Boller became Kyle Boller. Arm strength and smarts don't mean a thing if the guy can't read the defense at the speed of the NFL game or exercise a little depth perception and poise.

We DID go full circle to bring Warfield back to work with Brian Sipe for some football we called the Cardiac Kids.

[Greythan]

I think that's why so many older Browns fans are wary of the arm strength attribute. Mike Phipps probably threw the ball as hard as anyone at the time. Had ALL the physical tools. Couldn't play the game at all. Our next two notable QB's both had popgun arms (Sipe and Kosar) and yet were effective, All Pro caliber players.

I'd like to have both, but if I have to pick.... I'll take moxy. Colt showed some of that. We'll know soon enough.

[Rich4eagle]

Originally Posted by Flugel

[/CENTER]
[/CENTER]

This is a TERRIFIC post Rich! One of my favorites in quite some time.

This ALWAYS flies under the radar when people talk about the undefeated Miami Dolphins in 72. The first thign anyone would say about that team was Csonka and Morris both rushed for over 1000 yards when a regular season was 14 games. In addition, Jim Kiick added another 600 rushing yards or so. HOWEVER, anytime anyone wanted to cheat a Safety in the box, Paul Warfield got vertical and caught TD passes. He for Miami what Andre Johnson did for a previous undrafted no-name like Arian Foster.

Unfortunately, Cleveland traded Warfield for the cannon arm of Mike Phipps. He was Kyle Boller before Kyle Boller became Kyle Boller. Arm strength and smarts don't mean a thing if the guy can't read the defense at the speed of the NFL game or exercise a little depth perception and poise.

We DID go full circle to bring Warfield back to work with Brian Sipe for some football we called the Cardiac Kids.

Thanks Tom for understanding and contributing to the insight of the great Paul Warfield. And thank you too Greythan.

I worked hard to create the post all my words trying to summarize what I saw that day. The other site pissed all over it. One buffoon called it a great cut and paste. Anyway, if you are Browns fan and want to know what happened in detail from the 50's till 2004, I am the guy. After we passed on Ben I got pissed off for six years