Читать книгу Cleveland's Finest - Vince McKee - Страница 8

CHAPTER ONE

The Golden Years

There was a time in Cleveland sports when winning wasn’t just hoped for—it was expected. There have been those in the sports media across the country who have made the mistake in recent years of mocking Cleveland’s teams for not winning a world-championship title in over 49 years. What those pundits don’t realize is that this city was built on winning and that its fans can and will survive anything.

Cleveland is a blue-collar city with hardworking people who support their hardworking teams. No matter the previous season’s record, the loyal fan base in Cleveland is confident that the current season will be their season. Times have been tough for Cleveland sports teams, but it wasn’t always that way. In fact, from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, Cleveland served as the marquee sports city on the planet.

Joe DeLuca, who grew up in Cleveland, has many stories about the winning years of the past. Things were much different then, when winning wasn’t a gift but a birthright. Born in 1933, Joe had the incredible opportunity to watch the first-ever Cleveland Browns football game in person. Throughout the first 15 years of his life, he witnessed multiple championship seasons, not only in football but also in hockey and baseball.

The Cleveland Barons were a professional minor-league team in the American Hockey League who played their home games at the Cleveland Arena from 1937 to 1973. The Barons won nine Calder Cups, which was the minor-league equivalent of the NHL’s Stanley Cup. As DeLuca once recalled, “The owner of the team, Al Sutphin, was beloved by fans for his aggressive nature in trying to build a winning team. The Barons were so dominant that most people around the country considered them good enough to be the NHL’s seventh pro team. If it wasn’t for a longstanding feud between Sutphin and NHL president Clarence Campbell, the Barons may have been the seventh NHL team at one point.”

DeLuca remembered having to take streetcars from West 105th Street to Euclid Avenue downtown to see games at the old Cleveland Arena: “The cars had the old stove heat in them and weren’t very warm. We would try to sit as close as possible to the front to keep warm and not freeze.” Braving the cold of the streetcar rides paid off when he arrived at the famous arena in search of another Cleveland Barons win. He fondly recalled the packed lobby area where fans lined up to buy tickets, not to mention beer and soda. Soldiers who were home from the war would wear their uniforms to the arena, bringing their girlfriends with them. Going to games was a special occasion, and everyone would wear hats, men and women alike.

The Cleveland Arena hosted great events such as the Ice Capades, circus performances, area high school basketball championship games, and even Knights of Columbus track meets. It was a long, narrow hockey rink, regulation-size with stands that could comfortably seat 10,000 fans with another 1,000 fans standing. But with 90 percent of games selling out, it was always a packed house to watch the city’s favorite maulers on ice. A general-admission ticket to a hockey game cost $1.25, while a Grand Stand ticket cost $2.25. For those in the crowd who had the money to spend, a box seat sold for the hefty price of $3.25. DeLuca explained that most people at the time only made about $40 a week, so these prices were steep for the league’s best team. The atmosphere of the crowd was very different, however. “Back then just about everyone who went to a game would smoke cigarettes,” DeLuca detailed. “It was much more commonplace, and the arena officials saw no harm in allowing the fans to smoke in their seats. A thick haze of smoke would fill the arena to the point that you could barely see the scoreboard. The fans who didn’t smoke didn’t mind because they just wanted to be there and root on their winning franchise. Fans back then were such die-hards that it didn’t matter where they sat because they just wanted to be there.”

DeLuca rooted for all players but held the Italian-American players closest to his heart. He explained that, being Italian himself, it was only natural to root for them, with his favorite player being Ab Demarco. Because he had to attend school during the day, most of the games DeLuca went to took place on Friday and Saturday nights with the occasional Sunday-afternoon matinee. “People in this town loved hockey, and if it wasn’t for Jim Hendy buying the team and sticking a knife in the Cleveland hockey fan’s heart, it would still be around today,” DeLuca said. In 1948, the Cleveland Barons won the Calder Cup again in a four-game sweep over the Buffalo Bison team. As thrilling as the victory was, it paled in comparison to the wild ride the 1948 Cleveland Indians were about to take DeLuca and the rest of Cleveland on.

DeLuca’s earliest memory of baseball came from sitting on his Italian immigrant grandfather’s lap listening to Jack Graney call games on the radio. His grandpa would have a cloth hanky present at all times. When the Indians were winning, he would keep the hanky nice and smooth, folded neatly on his lap. When things weren’t going well, he would twist and bite on it in a sign of frustration and worry. Joe had three uncles who listened to the games with him—Prosper, Jimmy, and Rocco—who were New York Yankees fans because of Joe DiMaggio. It was important to DeLuca that he grew up as an Indians fan and make his grandfather proud, despite his uncles’ love for the dreaded Yankees. DeLuca was such a devoted fan of the Cleveland Indians that he would sneak into League Park on off days and ran around the bases. It wasn’t until then-groundskeeper Emil Bossard caught him and kicked him out that his fun ended.

In 1920, the Cleveland Indians won the World Series in seven games over the Brooklyn Dodgers. The series was unique in that it was actually a best-of-nine series. The amazing game five of the series contained the first World Series triple play, a grand slam, and a home run hit by a pitcher. Years later, the team’s owner, Bill Veeck, moved the team from League Park to Municipal Stadium. DeLuca’s uncle Rocco had a weekend job delivering soda pop to the Municipal Stadium. It was on these trips that young DeLuca tagged along, just to run out of the truck at each stop and catch a glimpse of the inside of the ballpark. Memories like these only increased his passion for the team and strengthened his support. Then along came the famed 1948 season.

During DeLuca’s junior-high years, kids who made all A’s were rewarded with sports tickets. DeLuca never won any, so he would trade different items with star students in exchange for their prized tickets. It never mattered to DeLuca that these giveaway tickets were always for games against lowly teams such as the Philadelphia Athletics and Washington Senators—he was just happy to be there. As he recalled, “There was a city-wide essay contest amongst Cleveland teenagers to decide who would be the visiting team’s bat boy that season. It was won by my classmate, Alan Broyles, from Audubon Junior High. It wasn’t so much that Alan was a baseball fan, more so just a really good writer, which drove his classmates crazy that he would win. At school, Alan refused to discuss the players he got to meet, which only increased the jealousy of his classmates for landing such a sweet gig.”

The Indians succeeded thanks to a new owner and a roster of great upcoming players, including the boy manager and star player Lou Boudreau. They boasted an amazing pitching staff led by Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, and Gene Bearden. They even had the first African American player in the American league, Larry Doby. The 1948 season provided incredible memories for the fans and players alike. “You could walk down the street at anytime and hear what was going on in the game because every store window and home had it on the radio blaring loudly. The excitement of Cleveland Indians baseball filled the air wherever you went,” DeLuca recalled.

Owner Bill Veeck was called a showman by the media and the rest of the owners in the league. He ran such promotions as free-nylon night to boost female attendance. Another highlight was free-TV night and even free-washer-and-dryer night. Veeck went as far to allow midget auto races on the field track due to high pressure from Cleveland’s mayor at the time, Thomas A. Burke. Veeck did whatever it took to get fans into his stadium and behind his ball club. His love for baseball started early in life when his father was the general manager of the Chicago Cubs. The young Veeck got his start by planting ivy on the walls of Wrigley Field at the age of just 15. Veeck would always make it a point to sit in the stands with the fans. He did his best to build excitement by relating to the fans as much as possible. He never wore a traditional tie and dressed in the same fashion as the average blue-collar worker in the mills. No matter where he went or what he did, he always carried a flair about him that sparked enthusiasm wherever he went.

The chance to play in the 1948 World Series came down to a one-game playoff between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox. The beloved Indians traveled to Fenway Stadium and chose knuckleballer Gene Bearden to take the mound for this crucial game. Red Sox manager Joe McCarthy made an odd choice in Denny Galehouse, who had won only eight games that season, to start. On the strength of Ken Keltner’s incredible game, in which he clubbed three hits, including a three-run home run off the famed Green Monster, the Indians cruised to victory and a trip to the World Series.

It was also on this day that DeLuca and his classmates discovered that their principal and teachers actually were normal people: He was shocked when he arrived at school and heard the announcement from the principal that the game would be played over the loudspeaker. DeLuca and his classmates felt as if Christmas had come early upon hearing this unthinkable announcement. When the Indians won that game, all of the children ran out of the school building screaming in celebration. “Church bells were ringing and factory whistles blaring,” remembered DeLuca, with the last celebration of that magnitude having come in 1945 when World War II had ended. Later that evening, DeLuca’s parents tried to take him and his sister downtown to celebrate the victory, but they were unable to make it all the way there because the streets were packed with people celebrating. It was almost impossible for DeLuca to wait for the morning paper to arrive the next day and read the article written by his favorite sports columnist, Gordon Cobbledick.

The 1948 World Series was played against another team from Boston, the Boston Braves of the National League. Game one was decided when a beautiful pick-off play at second base between pitcher Bob Feller and second-baseman Joe Gordon was called safe, even though the runner was clearly out. The runner was able to stay on base and came home to score shortly thereafter, giving the Braves an eighth-inning 1–0 lead that they would not surrender.

“The Indians were down but not out,” stated DeLuca. The next two games were Indians victories due to excellent pitching performances by Bob Lemon and Gene Bearden. Game two was a victory against the phenomenal Boston Brave pitcher Warren Spahn. Cleveland went on to win game four, thanks to a great pitching effort by Steve Gromek and a game-winning home run by Larry Doby. After a rare shaky performance by Bob Feller, the Indians lost game five 11–5, taking the series back to Boston.

October 11, 1948, was the last time Cleveland celebrated a World Championship win in baseball. It came on the heels of another great performance by pitcher Bob Lemon, where the Indians beat the Braves 4–3. Cleveland had held off a Boston two-run rally in the eighth inning to hold on for the win and the World Championship title.

The next day, Cleveland’s public schools were closed so that the children could join in the downtown celebration. A 20-car escort led the parade route, with Bill Veeck and Lou Boudreau sitting in the lead car while the crowds of people alongside the parade screamed in pure joy. In the mass of people, DeLuca found himself standing alongside none other than the visiting team’s bat boy, Alan Broyles. For the first time all season, Broyles was actually showing emotion as DeLuca saw a single tear trickle down his cheek. It turned out that he was a fan after all.

In 1946, professional football returned to Cleveland when Mickey McBride, real estate agent and owner of the Yellow Cab Taxi Company, founded the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland had a prior professional football team in town called the Cleveland Rams; however, after winning a championship in 1945, the team’s owner, Dan Reeves, relocated the Rams to another town.

Mickey McBride’s first order of business was to move the Cleveland Browns from League Park to the new Cleveland Municipal Stadium downtown. If not for this improvement, there might not have been a football team in Cleveland for many years. Many fans have the false impression that the team was named after the “Brown Bomber,” Joe Louis, when in fact the Cleveland Browns were actually named after legendary coach Paul Brown, whom McBride hired to coach his new team. This naming came after a failed attempt in the local Cleveland newspaper to let the fans decide on a name for the team. Though the fans had voted for the Panthers as the name, Paul Brown shot that down, stating that the Panthers were associated with past failed team in another town.

Brown was brought in to coach the Cleveland Browns after years of serving in the US Navy and following very successful coaching stints at Massilon High School and Ohio State University. He signed a contract worth a reported $17,500 yearly, which at the time was the highest paid coaching contract in football. McBride even reportedly offered Brown a stipend for the rest of his time in the military.

Brown wasted no time signing as many players as he felt were needed to help the team win immediately. With some of the biggest and best players brought aboard, including Northwestern quarterback Otto Graham, eventual Hall of Famer running back Marion Motley, star wide receiver Dante Lavelli, and placekicker Lou “The Toe” Groza, the new team in town proved to be a force to reckon with. The Browns began practicing at the campus of Bowling Green State University, located a few hours west of Cleveland. The team colors, brown and orange, came from the Bowling Green Falcons.

“The Browns were being led by a great disciplinarian,” detailed now-80-year-old Browns fan Joe DeLuca. “Brown was such a strict coach that he even enforced a dress code, but that was why his players respected him. He even fired the team’s captain, Jim Daniel, after he had gotten drunk a week before the 1946 championship game. Daniel had gotten so drunk that he took a swing at a cop. In order to set an example for the rest of his team, Paul Brown didn’t hesitate to cut his captain.”

The Browns joined the All-American Football Conference in 1946. Brown was so well prepared that he convinced McBride to keep a list of reserves who didn’t make the team employed on his taxicab payroll just in case of an injury. The part-time taxi drivers were fondly known as the Taxi Squad. Brown searched the entire country to bring in the best talent he could find.

The Browns took the field at Municipal Stadium for their first game against the Miami Seahawks in front of 63,000 fans on September 6, 1946. DeLuca can still close his eyes and recall the moment: “The lights were shut off in the whole stadium, the only light coming from the exits signs, when a spotlight from the right-field stands turned on. The light shone into the dugout, where the Miami Seahawks players were about to run out and take the field. As the announcer spoke and the first player from the Seahawks ran across the field, he kicked up a little dust as he ran across the dirt infield. I remember getting chills seeing this, thinking something great was happening. I still get goose bumps as I think about it all these years later.”

DeLuca can still name every single player from the 1946 roster, the position they played, and their number without even having to look at a team picture. Years later, he would meet Lou Groza at a laundromat and tell him that it was the greatest team in Browns history. When Groza asked him why he felt that team was the best ever, DeLuca replied, “If that team was lousy, no one would have come and they would have left town.” It was vital that the 1946 Cleveland Browns be great.

Coach Brown’s winning team brought packed houses for each game. Cleveland fans quickly forgot about the Rams when the Browns crushed the Seahawks and kept the ball rolling all season. McBride was a smart businessman who took full advantage of the team’s success, selling tickets at the premium price of 25 cents apiece. Included in each paid program was a raffle ticket that entered fans in a drawing to win a brand-new car. McBride even promised a big celebrity would appear at every home game as well.

In 1946, the Cleveland Browns won their first league championship against the New York Yankees, 14–9. This completed a magical first season that spilled over into a 1947 season. In their second year, the Browns defeated the Baltimore Colts 42–0 for a second consecutive championship. Heading into 1948, nothing would change: The Browns won their third championship with a 49–7 trouncing over the Buffalo Bills. The Cleveland Browns did not lose a single game the entire 1948 season, making them a dominant force in the league.

The year 1948 in sports had been so amazing for Cleveland that the city was now known simply as “The City of Champions.” As DeLuca shared, “We were so spoiled with all the winning, it was as if it would never end.” In 1949, the Browns won the championship title yet again under the direction of Brown with a 21–7 win over the San Francisco 49ers. In 1950, the Cleveland Browns moved into the NFL and remained dominant, winning the championship on Christmas Eve over the Los Angeles Rams 30–28. Paul Brown was proving he could win in any league at any level. DeLuca attended that game with hundreds of other rabid fans, freezing but winning! The irony was sweet, because they had just beaten the former Cleveland Rams.

The Browns would go on to reach the championship finals for the next three years, but they did not win those championships. Changes for Coach Brown started before the 1953 season when McBride sold the team to a group of local businessmen led by David Jones for $600,000. Brown was upset that McBride did not consult him about the deal, even though the new owners assured him they would stay out of the picture and let Brown run the team. This was a vital issue for Brown, who needed full control over personnel decisions in order for his system to work successfully.

Brown remained unfazed with the ownership change and led the Browns to back-to-back NFL championship wins over the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams in 1954 and 1955. The 1955 championship would be the last one for which Brown retained Otto Graham, who announced his retirement following that final game.

In 1956, the Browns suffered their first losing season under Coach Brown as they struggled to go 5–7. It was their first season without Graham as quarterback, and the team had problems adjusting. In the following year’s draft, the team selected Jim Brown out of Syracuse University. Loaded with talent, Jim Brown was one of the greatest runners to ever play the game. The problem, however, was his lack of discipline, which he later used to misalign his teammates against Coach Brown. It didn’t help matters that Coach Brown was critical of some aspects of Jim Brown’s game, including his extreme lack of blocking. Where Jim Brown excelled was running, not blocking or being an all-around good teammate. In Brown’s first season, the team would reach the championship game but go on to lose 59–14.

As Jim Brown rose as a star, players began to question Paul Brown’s leadership and play-calling. By the late 1950s, Jim had turned his teammates and the media against the proven coach. It was Jim Brown’s play on the field that allowed more people to side with him over the seasoned coach. Fans were in awe of Brown’s running ability, and they willingly looked past his off-the-field antics. Jim Brown later started a weekly radio show, which Coach Brown did not like as it undercut his control over the team. The team finished second in its division in 1959 and 1960, but these finishes didn’t bother Jim Brown because he continued to lead the league in rushing every season.

A dark cloud soon rose over Cleveland in 1961 when Art Modell, a New York advertising executive, bought the Browns in 1961 for almost $4 million. At first it looked as if Modell would not be all that bad as an owner—he gave Paul Brown a new eight-year contract and stated that he and Brown would have a “working partnership.”

It didn’t take long, however, for Modell to get in Brown’s way and start playing a heavy hand in the team’s field affairs. This upset Coach Brown, who was used to having total control in football matters. Only 35, Modell was close in age to many of the players, and he took it upon himself to try to buddy up to many of them. Modell became very close with Jim Brown, which was the kiss of death for the disciplinarian coach. Modell could be heard during games second-guessing Paul Brown’s play calling.

Things finally came to a head between owner and coach when Paul Brown traded Bobby Mitchell for the rights to Ernie Davis, a Heisman Trophy–winning running back out of Syracuse. Davis was no stranger to the end zone, having broken all of Jim Brown’s rushing records at Syracuse. This was a trade that did not sit well with Jim Brown, and he was not happy to have Davis as a teammate. Sharing the spotlight was not something Jim Brown preferred. Sadly, Ernie Davis never played a single game as a Cleveland Brown—he was diagnosed with leukemia before the start of the 1962 season.

Paul Brown was a methodical and disciplined coach who tolerated no deviation from his system. He ran a well-oiled machine, which was simply not the way Jim Brown wanted to be coached. In the end, Modell sided with Jim Brown and fired the legendary coach on January 7, 1963. This was right in the middle of a newspaper strike that allowed Modell to keep this move under the radar. It was the first of many shocking moves and disappointing decisions that Cleveland sports fans would have to endure by Modell that would occur over the next forty-plus years. Blanton Collier, Paul Brown’s longtime assistant, was later named as the team’s new head coach.

Paul Brown would only stay away from the game for less than five years; he was quick to throw in his hat for team ownership of the AFL franchise that was starting in Cincinnati. Brown was the third-largest investor in the team and was given the title of coach and general manager, two roles he would succeed in. The Bengals joined the NFL in 1970 as a result of the AFL–NFL merger and were placed in the newly formed American Football Conference. In his years as the Bengals head coach, Brown took the team to the playoffs three times but was never able to win a championship for the Queen City.

Coach Paul Brown was a great leader. Many of the men who worked directly underneath him continued on to amazing careers, including Don Shula, Blanton Collier, Weeb Ewbank, Bill Walsh, and Chuck Knoll, to name a few. Coach Brown finished with seven league championships during his tenure with Cleveland. He led the Browns to 11 straight title games in that stretch. It was the most dominant run of any head coach in the history of football. As one of the greatest head coach in the history of professional football, Paul Brown will forever be remembered as the man whose coaching ways, attention to detail, and discipline reshaped the landscape and model of pro football.