Browns Town 1964: The Cleveland Browns and the 1964 Championship

by Terry Pluto

The inspiring story of Cleveland’s The 1964 Cleveland Browns.

A nostalgic look back at the remarkable story of the upstart AFC Cleveland Browns’ surprise championship victory over the hugely favored Baltimore Colts in 1964. Sportswriter Terry Pluto profiles the colorful players who made that season so memorable,
Pluto takes us through the entire 1964 season from training camp at Hiram College to the championship game in Municipal Stadium. Along the way he recreates an era and a team for which pride was not just a slogan.

They were a team of men in the truest sense of the words, men who didn’t expect to be coddled, men who didn’t believe the world should genuflect at the mere mention of their names. They had the greatest running back in the history of football, and a coach who wore a hearing aid. Their quarterback had a Ph.D. in math. They had a defensive end who was a preacher, and a halfback who became a millionaire. Together, they won it all.

Back before free agency, before shoe contracts and end zone dances, football was a tough game played by men who loved it. They had real jobs in the off season, as insurance salesmen or manufacturers’ representatives, and they lived in the community where they played. They were grateful to the fans for their support and believed that nothing they accomplished was important unless the team won.

"Pluto movingly reveals the substance of a mythic bond between men and a game, a team and a city—and thus lays bare how present-day pro football has surrendered its soul." — Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Biography Memoir, Memoir, True Story, Biography, Nonfiction, Book Club, Drama

322 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Terry Pluto is a sports columnist for the Plain Dealer. He has twice been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the nations top sports columnist for medium-sized newspapers. He is a nine-time winner of the Ohio Sports Writer of the Year award and has received more than 50 state and local writing awards. In 2005 he was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame. He is the author of 23 books, including The Curse of Rocky Colavito (selected by the New York Times as one of the five notable sports books of 1989), and Loose Balls, which was ranked number 13 on Sports Illustrateds list of the top 100 sports books of all time. He was called Perhaps the best American writer of sports books, by the Chicago Tribune in 1997. He lives with his wife, Roberta, in Akron, Ohio."

Reviews

[Johnny G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many months ago, a friend loaned this book to me and was raving about it. I had no interest in reading about the Cleveland Browns, and less so about their 1964 championship over the Baltimore Colts (before it was called the Super Bowl). The first half of the book goes through the formation of the team, from the legendary coaches to the unpredictable owner to the classy gentlemen that filled the roster. Then it went on through the training camp in a small Ohio town, which makes a high school program look big in comparison. Then it chronicled each of the 14 regular season games, leading up to the championship in the 80,000 seat Cleveland Stadium on a slate-gray, bitterly cold December afternoon. The second half of the book takes a look at each of the players and where they ended up with their careers and lives. There was something captivating in the writing that made me care about it all. It just worked for me!

[Robert Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terry Pluto is one of my favorite sportswriters because he makes the endless pain involved in being a Browns fan today a little more palatable. This is a great story of their last championship, which occurred during the year the Beatles stormed America.

[Eric Mayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book had its moments in the early going. I didn’t like the way it rushed through the 1964 football season. All of that was covered in one chapter. I was hoping for some exciting detail. Jim Brown was the NFL rushing leader in 1964. But there wasn’t much writing of his rushing exploits until the fourth quarter or fifth game into the year. I would have liked more of a description of the special connection between the team and the city.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable if not all that entertaining read. Pluto pulls some great stories from the training camp, but overall he manages to sap the games of any thrill and excitment. The player stories at the end are interesting. The beginning and the end of the book are the best and most interesting. Other than that it has helped confirmed my opinion of Art Modell as an A-hole.