Sports' Forgotten Heroes

Blanton Collier was the last coach to lead the Cleveland Browns to an NFL Championship; and he did so in 1964. Amazingly, if you ask most Browns fans who the last coach was to lead the team to a Championship most will say Paul Brown. Of course, Brown, for whom the team is named, was at the helm for a combined seven AAFC and NFL Championships. But his last title with Cleveland came in 1955. Sure, he led the Browns to a championship appearance in 1956, but that was the end of Paul Brown’s championship run. He was let go after the 1962 season and in stepped Blanton Collier who had the tall task of replacing a legend and rebuilding a championship pedigree. It didn’t take long. After the Browns had gone 7-6-1 in Paul Brown’s last year, Collier immediately restored Cleveland’s winning ways by leading the team to a 2nd Place finish in the Eastern Conference with a 10-4 mark. In 1964, Collier and the Browns went 10-3-1 and shutdown the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in the championship game 27-0. In all, Collier ser