Paul Brown

Paul Eugene Brown (September 7, 1908 - August 5, 1991) qualified for a Rhodes Scholarship in 1930, tuning it down due to employment needs amidst the Great Depression. Brown also rejected a career in law in order to pursue his newest passion of coaching football at the ripe old age of 23. His success was immediate as he drove the Massillon Washington High School Tigers to an 80-8-2 record in nine seasons including a 35-game winning streak. The Tigers outscored their opponents 2,393 to 168 from 1935-1940. Paul took over as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes in 1941 where he led guided the Buckeyes an 18-8-1 record in three seasons and the 1942 National Championship with a 9-1 record. In 1945, Brown, now head coach at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, was hired to coach the new professional franchise of the All-America Football Conference, the Cleveland Browns, which he named for himself. As a professional coach, Paul began implementing numerous strategies that are currently utilized by every team in the National Football League today. He used intelligence tests to measure player’s ability to learn, developed extensive scouting systems that scoured colleges and semi-pro leagues for talent, emphasized the use of film clip studies and tested players on their knowledge and redefined the use of the passing offense. The Cleveland Browns were an immediate success in the AAFC and remained a dominant team for years, even after joining the NFL in 1950. The Browns won all four of the AAFC’s Championships from 1946-1949, then won the 1950 NFL Championship in their first season in the league. Brown led the Cleveland team to the championship game in his first six seasons in the NFL also capturing the 1954 and 1955 championships. During his 17 seasons in Cleveland (1946-1962), Paul Brown compiled a 158-48-8 record in 214 games. In 1968 Brown became the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals of the AFL, leading them to two first place finishes (1970, 1973) after they, too, joined the NFL in 1970. After eight years with Cincinnati, Paul Brown retired from head coaching. In 25 years at the helm of the two Ohio clubs, Brown compiled a 213-104-9 record in 326 games winning seven league championships (4 – AAFC/3 – NFL). Paul Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967.