Browns Scrapbook: A Fond Look Back at Five Decades of Football, from a Legendary Cleveland Sportswriter

The subtitle tells it all: A Fond Look Back at Five Decades of Football, from a Legendary Cleveland Sportswriter. Shortly into the book, you'll find this line: 'It was different back then.' Indeed, it was. I'm probably not alone in thinking it was BETTER back then, as well. Chuck Heaton joined the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a sportswriter in 1946. His first beat was baseball, and his timing was excellent. The Indians won it all in 1948 and challenged again in 1954. Just before the end of that season, he was switched over to football, and from then until another switch 24 years later, he was the main writer of and about the Browns. It was a few more years before he retired (almost) completely, giving him 51 years of writing about sports. In the early days of football, before the NFL became the marketing-obsessed entity it is today, teams didn't have their own year-round training/office complexes like they do today-it was after all, only a part-time 'game'. Most teams trained at a local college or university, which had a field and dormitories for the players, coaches and media. Yes, indeed, you read that correctly! In those early days, reporters lived with the players. Can you imagine that happening these days? Of course, that was also in the days before the ever-present television/media obsession, too. Fans of football (or any other sport, for that matter) as it used to be will particularly enjoy the piece on page 157, titled "The Year Sports Lost Its Innocence". It's enough to make a grown person cry! Heaton observed the greats and the not-so-greats among players and coaches, many of whom became life-long friends. He attended (and wrote about) the big games and the forgettable ones, as well, including the first Monday Night Football, Superbowls and championship games before the era of Superbowls. And yes, there was once such a thing! In the early 90s -before the great defection --he compiled a personal sort of history about the Browns, in a series that ran in the Plain Dealer, under the same title as this book. For the most part, the pieces fall easily into six categories: Places, On and Off the Field, Rivals, Big Moments, The Game and Hall of Famers. A postcript lists the All-Time Greatest Browns Team. Some of the individual pieces here carry the date they were originally printed, which helps to place them in the proper context of one's memory. The date on which Paul Brown died or the day the team was moved to Baltimore merit this attention. There are also eight pages of photos. It's entirely appropriate that one of those photos is of Mr. Heaton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame holding the Dick McCann Memorial Award he received in 1980. Who says nice guys can't finish first? Any football fan in your life should love this book!

This is an absolutely GREAT read by a wonderful sportswriter. I must make a disclosure here: Chuck is my friend and I have read a decent percentage of everything he has ever written since my early days as a Browns fan in NE Ohio. His stories are elegantly told -- with humor and honesty. This is a nice gift for the sports junkie in your family ... or just a nice treat for yourself. You won't be disappointed either way, because these are stories unfamiliar to the average NFL fan.

Chuck Heaton covered the Cleveland Browns from their beginnings in 1946 in the upstart All-America Football Conference through 1993 for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. These were years when local print journalism dominated team coverage and columnists mostly painted portraits of the stars, while not looking to upstage the story by injecting themselves into the debate. And it was a time when team employees - like long-time trainer Murray Kono - were as famous as some of the players and coaches. The columns - reprinted from the years Heaton covered the team - have a much more unhurried, though meticulous, feel. Fans used to the columnists of today who battle local TV news shows, 24-hour sports TV and radio networks, Internet team websites and bloggers for unique angles in stories may not initially appreciate Heaton's style. But this book is history much more than simply a walk down memory lane and is as an important volume in understanding the past art of sports journalism, which moved down the field with majestic class.

Brown's Scrapbook opened my eyes to a world of professional football that is at once endearing and, sadly, a faded memory. I grew up watching the Browns in the 70s and 80s, and as a kid, all I knew was what happened on the field. I knew my favorite team were lovable losers; cardiac kids, always destined for *near* greatness. Today I still watch my team every chance I get, but the NFL I know as an adult is not the NFL Chuck Heaton grew up with. This book opened my eyes to an entirely different NFL. One where players, coaches and the media had a completely different relationship. I used to wish I'd been born early enough to watch my favorite team win at least one NFL championship. Now I just wish I'd been able to see coaches, players and media actually caring about each other instead of being so wrapped up in themselves. I know the Browns will win a championship again, well ok it's at least possible. But I think the NFL that Chuck Heaton covered is long gone, not to return again. I loved reading Mr. Heaton's memories of what once was.

Chuck Heaton had the catbird's seat for the golden era not just of the Browns but of the NFL. Writing in a classic, conversational style, Heaton recalls the days when men played for glory, there was regional loyalty and a fan's devotion was rewarded by teams and players. Paul Brown, Jim Brown, the Kardiac Kids: every chapter is a treasure. Tell this stuff to kids today, they won't believe you. Every football fans needs this book in their Christmas stocking. What a treat.