This is the 60th anniversary of the 1957 NFL Draft, the best draft ever.
For the league.
And for the Browns.
There had never been anything like it before, there has never been anything like it since and don’t hold your breath waiting for there to ever be anything like it.
It was that off the charts.
The draft, the first four rounds of which were actually held on Nov. 27, 1956, with rounds five through 30 – yes, 30! — occurring on Jan. 31, 1957, is a who’s who of players from the late 1950s through the ’60s. There are nine Pro Football Hall of Famers among them, including the greatest player ever at any position in running back Jim Brown, taken with the Browns in the first round at No. 6 overall.
Brown, who was picked by Cleveland head coach Paul Brown as a plan B choice after the Pittsburgh Steelers grabbed the player he really wanted, quarterback Len Dawson from Alliance, Ohio, at No. 5 overall, was one of three Hall of Famers taken by the team. But only two of them stayed with the Browns.
The one who remained was guard Gene Hickerson, the first of the club’s two seventh-rounders.
The one who eventually left? Defensive tackle Henry Jordan, who played just two years before going on to the Green Bay Packers.
The Browns also got a pretty good quarterback in Milt Plum, who was a full-time starter for four years and, when it comes to passer rating, has both the highest career mark and the highest seasonal mark in franchise history.
Other than the three Browns and Dawson, who actually ended up playing two years for Cleveland before going on to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Hall of Famers chosen by teams in the draft include:
*The player many believe to be the greatest guard ever in Toledo Scott High School and Ohio State product Jim Parker, who went No. 8 overall to the Baltimore Colts.
*Running back Paul Hornung, who was picked at No. 1 overall by the Green Bay Packers.
*Wide receiver Don Maynard, who went in the ninth round to the New York Giants but made his name with New York’s other team, the Jets.
*Wide receiver Tommy McDonald (third found) and quarterback Sonny Jurgensen (fourth round), who were chosen back-to-back by the Philadelphia Eagles. McDonald finished his career with the Browns, and Jurgensen is much more known for what he did with the Washington Redskins.
Other notable players drafted in 1957 include:
*Defensive end Bill Glass, who was a first-rounder by the Detroit Lions but became a Cleveland Browns Legend.
*Detroit’s 17th-round pick, quarterback Jack Kemp, who went on to the Buffalo Bills and then to a political career.
*Quarterback John Brodie (first round), defensive back Abe Woodson (second round) and kicker/punter Tommy Davis (11th round) by the San Francisco 49ers.
*The Eagles’ first-rounder, running back Clarence Peaks.
*Green Bay’s other first-round selection, tight end Ron Kramer.
*Running back Jon Arnett (second round), linebacker Jack Pardee (second round), defensive tackle Billy Ray Smith (third round), defensive end Lamar Lundy (fourth round), a member of the Rams’ famous “Fearsome Foursome” defensive front, and wide receiver Jimmy Orr (25th round). Pardee also played with Washington, and Smith and Orr had their best days with the Colts.
*Linebacker Don Shinnick, taken in the second round by the Colts.
Finally, here are two other bits of interesting information from the 1957 NFL Draft:
*In the 25th round, the Browns took defensive back Tom Dimitroff from Barberton High School and Miami of Ohio. The late father of current Atlanta Falcons General Manager Tom Dmitroff Jr., he never played for the Browns but served as a longtime scout for them.
*And in the 29th, or next-to-last, round, the Chicago Cardinals drafted a quarterback/cornerback from Florida by the name of Lee Corso. He never played a down of pro football, but he coached for more than a quarter-century, almost exclusively in college, and you see him on Saturday mornings in the fall as the colorful longtime analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay show.
