Otto Everett Graham, Jr. (December 6, 1921 –
December 17, 2003) was a professional
American football and
basketball player who played for the
Cleveland Browns in both the
All-America Football
Conference and
National
Football League, as well as the
Rochester Royals in the
National Basketball
League.
Early life
Born in
Waukegan,
Illinois
, USA, Graham grew up with a strong connection to
music, with his father serving as Waukegan High School's band
director. However, it would be on a variety of athletic
fields where Graham's talents would truly sing, making him the most
famous native of Waukegan since
comedian
Jack Benny.
Graham
graduated from Northwestern University
, attending the school on a basketball
scholarship. In 1944, he was named an All-American in
basketball. He was talked into playing football by Northwestern's
head football coach,
Lynn Waldorf, who
saw him throwing a football on campus. By the time he was finished,
he had played four years of basketball, three of football, two of
baseball and also played the cornet in the Wildcats' school band.
Graham's time on the football field would be spent at
tailback. He finished third in the 1943 Heisman
Trophy voting.
AAFC and NFL career
In 1944, Graham was drafted by the
NFL's
Detroit Lions, but was obligated to serve in
the
United States Coast
Guard, serving his time with the Coast Guard while it was still
operating in the service of the
United States Navy. His football coach
during his Coast Guard-Navy career was
Bear
Bryant. Even before Graham's term was ended, head coach
Paul Brown of the fledgling
Cleveland Browns of the
All-America Football
Conference (AAFC) offered him a two-year contract for $7,500
per season. In addition, Brown offered a $1,000 bonus and $250 per
month for the duration of the war, an agreement Graham quickly
signed. Brown knew all about Graham's talent having been head coach
at Big Ten rival Ohio State during the latter's college days.
However, Graham also found time to play one year of professional
basketball for the
Rochester Royals. In what
would become one of his trademarks, the Royals captured the 1945-46
National
Basketball League title.
Upon joining the Browns in 1946, he was switched to
quarterback, where he would lead the team to the
league championship game in each of his 10 seasons, winning on
seven occasions. During the AAFC's four-year existence, the Browns
won the championship each year as Graham threw for 10,085 yards and
86 touchdowns and rushed for 11 more. Graham won the league's
Most Valuable Player award in
1947 and 1948, sharing the honor the latter year with
San Francisco 49ers quarterback
Frankie Albert.
The Browns joined the
National
Football League in 1950, and won the league championship in
their first NFL season, deflecting the criticism of their
domination of the
AAFC. Graham paced the team
to a 10-2 record on the season, the only two losses coming against
the
New York Giants, whose
Umbrella Defense proved to
be a source of frustration for the quarterback.
Graham gained revenge in the 1950, 8-3 playoff win against those
same Giants. Playing on a frozen field that hindered both team's
passing, Graham rushed for 36 yards in the Browns' 4th quarter
drive, leading to
Lou Groza's field goal
which broke a 3-3 tie and gave Cleveland the lead for good.
Graham's clutch play also led to the NFL title one week later.
Trailing the
Los
Angeles Rams by one point with 1:48 remaining and starting
their drive at their own 31-yard line, Graham started with a
15-yard run, then followed with passes to receivers
Rex Bumgardner and
Dub Jones, before running one
more play to set up
Lou Groza's
game-winning 16-yard field goal.
After signing a contract during the offseason that reportedly made
him the highest-paid player in the game, Graham helped the 1951
team to 11 consecutive wins following a loss to the
San Francisco 49ers in the season
opener. The streak helped him win NFL Player of the Year accolades,
but more importantly, helped garner a return match against the
Rams.
In contrast to the previous season which saw the Browns win with a
late score, it would be the Rams that captured the game on a
touchdown pass with 7:35 left in the game. Graham had been sharp in
the game's first series, when he moved 54 yards on three pass plays
for a quick 7-0 lead. Unfortunately, his later fumble helped set up
a Ram touchdown, while a fourth quarter interception put a major
dent in the Browns' comeback hopes.
During the 1952 campaign, Graham and the Browns proved to be
consistent by winning two games, then losing one over the course of
the year to finish with a 9-3 mark. The team's 37-34 loss to the
New York Giants in the regular season finale proved to be an omen
two weeks later when the Detroit Lions stopped the Browns by a 17-7
score. The pain of losing a second straight championship paled in
comparison to the tragedy that befell Graham on January 2. While
practicing for the
Pro Bowl in Los Angeles,
his six-week-old son Stephen died from a severe cold.
During the next season, Graham bounced back, scoring two touchdowns
on quarterback sneaks and throwing for 292 yards in the
season-opening 27-0 shutout of the
Green Bay Packers. That victory would be
the first of 11 straight for the Browns, whose bid for a perfect
regular season ended one week later with a 42-27 defeat at the
hands of the
Philadelphia
Eagles. Despite the 11-1 mark, the team came up short for the
third consecutive year in the NFL Championship, falling 17-16 to
the
Detroit Lions. Bobby Layne's
33-yard pass to Jim Doran with less than three minutes remaining
provided the heartbreak for the Browns.
Graham would go on to win Player of the Year honors that year, but
became a painful footnote in the development of the
football helmet facemask during a game against the
San Francisco 49ers on
November 15,
1953. With six
minutes remaining in the second quarter, Graham was injured after
receiving a blow to the jaw by a 49er player, but returned to the
game after receiving 15 stitches. The injury compelled Paul Brown
to work toward developing the prototype of what would become the
facemask.
Before the start of the Browns' 1954 training camp, Graham's name
became connected to the infamous
Sam
Sheppard murder case. As one of the ostepath's neighbors,
Graham and his wife were asked by police for information on
Sheppard, with the signal caller noting that the couples had
attended local stock car races four days before the murder.
Back on the field, the Browns got off to a sluggish start, dropping
two of their first three contests. However, eight straight wins
again helped put the team into the title game, facing the
Detroit Lions for the third straight season.
In what was expected to be his farewell to the game, Graham ran for
three touchdowns and passed for three more in a 56-10 rout of the
Lions. As expected, Graham announced his retirement following the
game.
After his potential successors struggled during the 1955 training
camp, Graham was convinced to come back following an appeal from
Paul Brown. Shaking off the rust from his brief departure, he led
the Browns to a 10-2 regular season mark, then officially closed
out his playing career with a 38-14 victory over the
Los Angeles Rams in the NFL
Championship on
December 26,
1955.
During the
latter half of his career, Graham's popularity was such that he and
his wife Beverly hosted a local television show in Cleveland
entitled, At Home With the
Grahams.
Graham's 57-13-1 record as a starter in the NFL represents the
highest winning percentage of any quarterback (.810).
Legacy
During an astounding career in which the Browns compiled a 105-17-4
record, at the time of his retirement Graham's 86.6 career pass
rating (combined AAFC and NFL) served as one of the best of all
time, tossing 188 touchdowns in ten seasons of play.
In his
final year of play, Graham won the Hickok
Belt as top professional athlete of the year, and ten years
later, he was inducted into the Pro Football
Hall of Fame
. In 1999, he was ranked number 7 on
The Sporting News' list
of the 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranking player
who had played in the AAFC.
Otto Graham is considered by many historians to be one of the
greatest winners in the history of professional sports. Graham
played six seasons in the NFL and took the Cleveland Browns to the
NFL Championship Game all six seasons, winning three NFL titles.
Including four seasons in which his team captured four AAFC titles,
Graham played ten total seasons of professional football and made
the league championship game all ten seasons, winning seven league
titles. In his single season as a professional basketball player,
the Rochester Royals (today's
Sacramento Kings) also captured the league
title. Thus, in 11 seasons as a professional athlete, Otto Graham's
teams made the championship all eleven years, winning eight
titles.
Midway through his career in
1952,
the NFL passed a rule requiring
offensive
lineman to wear jersey numbers 50-79, in order for the
referee's to identify an
ineligible
receiver; this rule has since passed down to every other level
of football. Unlike the more rigid numbering system that would go
into effect in
1973, players were
not given a
grandfather clause if
they played in the league before 1952, and Graham had to switch his
jersey number
from 60 to 14. Although Graham was better known with number 60, the
Browns retired his number 14 while 60 remains in circulation,
currently worn by
defensive end
Melila Purcell. While at
Northwestern, Graham wore number 48.
After retirement
Following his retirement, Graham served as head coach of the
College All-Stars in their
1958 clash against the defending NFL champions, leading the squad
to a convincing 35-19 victory over the
Detroit Lions. The following year, he accepted
a full-time position as head football coach at the
Coast Guard Academy, where he served for
seven seasons, leading the team to an undefeated regular season
campaign in 1963.
Graham found time to return to professional football during the
1964 and 1965 seasons by
moonlighting
as a radio commentator for the
American Football League's
New York Jets.
NFL coaching career
Between 1966 and 1968, Graham coached the
Washington Redskins, but whatever magic
he had as an
NFL player
disappeared on the sidelines as the team recorded a mark of 17-22-3
during that time period.
After resigning the Redskins' post in favor of the legendary
Vince Lombardi, Graham returned as
athletic director of the
Coast Guard Academy before retiring at
the end of 1984.
Graham and Lombardi would be linked again when Graham underwent
surgery for
colorectal cancer in
1977, the disease that claimed Lombardi's life seven years earlier.
Graham subsequently became a vocal supporter of early detection of
the disease
Graham's 1963 CGA team was undefeated in the regular season but was
trounced by a Western Kentucky team, 27-0 in the
Tangerine Bowl.
Death
Graham
died of a heart aneurysm in Sarasota,
Florida
on December 17, 2003.
References
-
http://www.cleveland.com/brownshistory/plaindealer/index.ssf?/browns/more/history/19501217BROWNS.html
URL Accessed October 15, 2007
-
http://www.laketheposts.com/2009/03/purple-mafia-profiles-otto-graham-as.html
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