In 10 seasons, Otto Graham quarterbacked the Cleveland Browns to 10 championship games in two leagues, winning seven times. If the main idea is to win, there never has been a better quarterback.
Graham, 82, died Wednesday at Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Hospital, where he had been taken earlier in the day. His son, Duey Graham, said his father had a tear in his aorta, the same heart condition from which actor John Ritter died this fall. In 2001, Graham had been diagnosed as being in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
A native of Waukegan who starred in football and basketball at Northwestern, Otto Everett Graham Jr. caught the eye of Paul Brown for his Browns in the newly formed All-America Football Conference that former Tribune sports editor Arch Ward started in 1946. Graham’s Northwestern teams had upset Brown’s heavily favored Ohio State teams in 1941 and 1943.
“I remembered his tremendous peripheral vision and his great athletic skill, as well as his ability to throw a football far and accurately with just a flick of his arm,” Brown wrote in his autobiography.
Self-effacing and subservient to Brown, Graham became the most efficient passer of all time, and still ranks in the top five according to the formula designed to compare passers from different eras. Graham, who was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965, is the only passer among the top 10 who played before the 1960s.
“I was lucky to have Paul Brown as a coach,” Graham said.
The Graham-Brown alliance became the envy of every quarterback and coach, although it was not without friction. Graham said he started out calling his own plays but Brown later became the first coach to use messenger guards to shuttle plays from the bench. Graham reluctantly obeyed with great results.
Sometimes overlooked in comparisons because of his four championship years in the All-America Conference, Graham threw three touchdown passes and ran for a fourth in his first NFL game against the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles, a 35-10 victory. He threw four touchdown passes to lead the Browns to the NFL title, 30-28 over the Los Angeles Rams in their first NFL season in 1950.
Graham threw for three touchdown passes and ran for three in the 1954 NFL title win (56-10) against Detroit. Brown coaxed him out of retirement for a final season in 1955 and the Browns beat the Rams (38-14) again for the title in what Brown hailed as Graham’s finest hour.
Brown removed Graham from the game early and the Los Angeles crowd gave him a huge ovation.
“I looked at him and said, `Thanks,'” Brown wrote. “And that was it, the end of an era that could never again be duplicated because, though we tried, we never found another Otto Graham.”
Graham completed .559 percent of his passes in the AAFC and .557 of his passes in the NFL. The Browns won 88 percent of their AAFC games and 81 percent of their NFL games under his direction.
“All the quarterbacks today are better than they were in my day,” Graham insisted when he was nearing his 70s. “I played when the average weight of a defensive lineman was 195.”
On teams with Hall of Fame fullback Marion Motley, Hall of Fame receiver Dante Lavelli and outstanding receivers Mac Speedie and Dub Jones, Graham perfected sideline routes and the art of throwing the ball before a receiver made his break.
Hall of Fame coach Greasy Neale of the Eagles once said: “I never saw a passer who hung the ball out there the way Graham does.”
Graham, also an effective runner, never missed a game, yet became one of its most outspoken critics against violence, causing him to be derisively labeled in some circles as “Touch Me Not Otto.” Brown invented the facemask to protect Graham’s broken nose.
Graham was quoted in a 1955 Life Magazine article, “Savagery on Sunday,” as saying: “The game is getting rougher every year. It’s war rather than sport.” He spoke at a libel trial of the “moral obligation” for players to play cleanly.
“Otto was my greatest player because he played the most important position,” Brown said. “I don’t discount Marion Motley, Lavelli or Jim Brown. But the guy that was the engineer, the guy with the touch that pulled us out of many situations was Otto Graham.
“He was an All-America in basketball and one year he played with Rochester in the [old NBL]. He was a tremendous playmaker. I watched him in a game one night and I wasn’t aware of him scoring, yet he ended up with 20 points. And he’d helped everyone else score. His hand-eye coordination was most unusual, and he was bigger than you think, and faster than you think. Find another quarterback who took his team to as many championships.”
Graham began setting records on the first day of his life when he was born weighing an Illinois state-record 14 pounds, 12 ounces. Graham’s parents were music teachers and he learned to play many instruments, including the French horn for which he received Illinois state champion honors. On the athletic field, he was All-State in football and basketball for Waukegan High School.
He entered Northwestern on a basketball scholarship but caught the attention of football coach Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf while playing intramural football.
He was a triple threat from 1941-43 passing, running and kicking while compiling All-America honors in both football and basketball. In 1943, he won the Silver Football as the Big Ten’s most valuable player and finished third in Heisman Trophy balloting behind Notre Dame’s Angelo Bertelli.
After retiring, Graham tried coaching at the Coast Guard Academy, posing an undefeated record in 1963 before a Tangerine Bowl loss. He then preceded Vince Lombardi as general manager and coach of the Washington Redskins from 1966-68, where he was 17-22-3 in three seasons before returning as athletic director at the Coast Guard Academy, where he stayed until he retired in 1985. He also used to coach the College All-Stars in their annual game at Soldier Field against the NFL champions.
In the book, “The Golden Age of Pro Football,” Graham said: “Every old-timer will always tell you how things were different in his time, but one thing I’m convinced of–we were more of a team. We cared about our teammates. Nobody was selfish. . . .
“When I coached the College All-Stars, every year there were more prima donnas than there were the year before–all talking about money. Money wasn’t the prime factor when we played in the ’50s. We played mostly because we liked to play.”
Graham is survived by his wife of 57 years, Beverly; three children: Duey, Sandy and Dave; two foster daughters; 16 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
