Other than the fact it was a matchup of two of the NFL most high-profile teams at the time, there seemed to be nothing extraordinary about the game between the Browns and Green Bay Packers 54 years ago today, on Oct. 15, 1961.
 
That was especially the case for the Browns, who, after giving up just seven points in each of the last two weeks, collapsed defensively in losing 49-17 before 75,042 at Cleveland Stadium to drop to 3-2.
 
Green Bay, on the way to the first of two straight NFL titles, and five in a seven year span in the 1960s, rolled up almost 500 yards of offense. Quarterback Bart Starr was nearly perfect, completing 15 of 17 passes for 272 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.
 
The Packers jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter advantage, led 21-3 at halftime and then 28-10 going into the fourth quarter, when they turned up the throttle even more and scored three additional touchdowns to put an exclamation point behind their great performance.  
 
But as noteworthy as all that was, none of it was the lasting memory to come out of that game.
 
Rather, it was what the Packers did with their rushing attack and, in a real strange, sad and roundabout sort of way, how that set off a chain of events that helped the Browns recover – somewhat at least — from a trade that went horribly wrong.
 
The Packers ran for a whopping 216 yards. While Browns head coach Paul Brown was distraught by that, he was at the same time intrigued by what he saw from Green Bay’s two big runners, fullback Jim Taylor and halfback Paul Hornung, both of whom are enshrined with him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
 
Taylor bulled his way to 158 yards and four touchdowns, on runs of 26, one, 45 and four yards, on just 21 carries, averaging 7.5 yards per try, while Hornung carried seven times for 37 yards, including a four-yard score. Together, they pounded the Browns with 195 yards rushing and five TDs on 28 carries. The Cleveland defense simply had no answer for them.
 
The Browns also had two Hall of Famers in their backfield with fullback Jim Brown and halfback Bobby Mitchell. They complemented each other well, the massive Brown with his powerful running and Mitchell, a scatback, with his speed and elusiveness. Plus Mitchell put his ego aside and was more than happy to let Jim Brown carry the brunt of the load and be the main man in the Cleveland offense.
 
But as good as Jim Brown and Mitchell had been since they were first paired together in 1958, Paul Brown thought he could do better. He envisioned Jim Brown being in a backfield with another big back, allowing the Browns to run over teams like the Packers had done to his Browns.
 
So in the offseason, Paul Brown pulled off a blockbuster trade, sending Mitchell to Washington for the rights to Syracuse running back Ernie Davis, whom the Redskins had selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1962 NFL Draft. Davis was a big back, much in the mold of Jim Brown, and had broken most of Brown’s records at Syracuse.
 
Mitchell was switched to wide receiver by the Redskins and became even a more prolific player than he had been as a running back.
 
But fate was cruel to Davis and the Browns. Davis was stricken with leukemia and never played a down with the Browns. He died on May 18, 1963.
 
When it became apparent that Davis, whose illness was not identified for quite a while, was not going to be able to play at least in the 1962 season, Paul Brown was forced to find a plan B. Without Mitchell, he had no one of substance to play with Jim Brown.
 
Paul Brown contacted his good friend, Packers head coach Vince Lombardi, whom he had gotten to know when Lombardi was an assistant coach with the arch rival New York Giants for much of the 1950s. When Paul Brown explained the situation to him, Lombardi said he had a good rookie back in rookie Ernie Green, a 14th-round draft choice from Louisville who would have no chance to make the Packers because of the presence of Taylor and Hornung.
 
So Lombardi offered Green to the Browns in a trade, and Paul Brown gladly took him up on it.
 
Green saw little action with the Browns in 1962, but he began to blossom both as a runner and receiver in ’63. However, Paul Brown wasn’t around to see that, as he was unceremoniously fired by new team owner Art Modell following the 1962 season and replaced by Brown’s top assistant and good friend, Blanton Collier.
 
Green was not as good as Mitchell – few were – but he was still pretty good and, like Mitchell, was selfless and quietly let first Jim Brown and then Leroy Kelly get most of the carries, and praise. As such, he was a good fit in the Cleveland backfield.
 
Green had an outstanding seven-season career with the Browns, and in 1964, he rushed for 526 yards and six touchdowns and caught 28 passes for three more scores as the club won its first NFL title since 1955 with a 27-0 rout of the Baltimore Colts.
 
In 1965, the Browns returned to the championship game but, interestingly enough, lost 23-12 to Lombardi’s Packers.
 
Nothing was ever going to soothe the terrible loss of Davis, a great young man whose personality touched everyone he met during his short time in Cleveland, or replace the production of the great Mitchell.
 
But the addition of Ernie Green was the next-best thing, and the journey to that taking place began on this day way back in 1961.