Paul Brown: The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Football's Most Innovative Coach

The influence Paul Brown continues to have on pro football is enormous, though he passed away in 1991 at the age of 82. In one of two recently published biographies on Brown, author Andrew O'Toole hits paydirt with a quality play book that highlights the incredible victories and heartbreaking defeats, though - through it all - Brown never wavered in his focus and goals. Brown - often heralded as, "the father of the modern offense" - came into prominence with the Washington Massillon High School Tigers, taking the helm in 1932 at age 23 and eventually capturing by polls six-consecutive state titles, while amassing a record of 80-8-2 in nine years. From 1941-1943 at Ohio State, Brown was on the verge of creating a collegiate dynasty, winning the 1942 national championship and leading the Buckeyes to a three-year record of 18-8-1. After coaching the Great Lakes Naval Station Blue Jackets for two years came the foundation to a remarkable 17 years with the Browns. Though Brown was the "coach in absentee" with Ohio State, he ultimately became part-owner, head coach, vice president and general manager of Cleveland's franchise in the All-America Football Conference. The club garnered its nickname either from heavyweight champion Joe Louis - shortened from a suggestion of the Brown Bombers - or to honor Brown. The Browns won all four championships in the AAFC, before the league merged with the National Football League, where the team won three titles. Among the innovations Brown introduced to the game during these years were the creation of what is now known as the "West Coast" offense, compiling a game film library, teaching the game in a classroom setting, talking to his quarterbacks through a radio transmitter, using "messenger" guards to relay plays to the offensive huddle, emphasizing safety through the use of face masks on helmets and having a reserve squad (known as a "Taxi squad," because the players drove cabs for co-owner Arthur McBride's Cleveland taxi company). There is a bright spotlight on January 9, 1963, when Brown was fired by Browns majority owner Art Modell, which was done during a Cleveland newspaper strike. O'Toole writes, "It's a cold world. It's an even colder business. You give your life to something; you devote yourself to this football, but where are you ate the end of the day? You wind up with your possessions stuffed in a couple of cardboard boxes callously dumped outside your office, your old office. Your old office, your old job...Nothing that was, is." A tenuous relationship during the early years of Modell's ownership, the partnership permanently fractured over running back Ernie Davis, the sensational 1961 Heisman Trophy winner who was a member of the team, but never played due to suffering from leukemia and losing his battle with the disease on May 18, 1963. Brown refused to play Davis when the cancer was in a brief remission. Depending on the story, this controversial chapter of team history, Modell wanted Da