A Historically Tragic Offseason 62 Years Ago

Wednesday will mark the 62nd anniversary of not just the most tragic Browns offseason ever but also one of the most tragic in pro sports history overall.

It was June 4, 1963 when promising young safety Don Fleming died, being electrocuted while working an offseason construction job when the boom he was operating struck a power line. The 26-year-one resident, and native, of tiny Shadyside, Ohio, in Belmont County in the east central portion of the state, was the third member of the Browns to die in just a 4-1/2-month period at the start of 1963, following running back Ernie Davis, who succumbed to leukemia just 2-1/2 weeks earlier, on May 17, and rookie two-way back Tom Bloom, who was killed Jan. 18 in a car accident on an icy stretch of Interstate 70 near Dayton while returning to Purdue from a trip home to Weirton, West Virginia, located only about 35 miles north of Shadyside.

Bloom, the latter of the Browns’ two sixth-round picks in the 1963 NFL Draft, never even made it to Cleveland to meet his new teammates and coaches.

Davis, who was acquired by the Browns in a trade with Washington after that club had drafted him No. 1 overall in 1962, never played a down with the Browns. He had become as a senior in 1961 the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy after breaking all of Jim Brown’s records at Syracuse. He would have played alongside Brown in the Cleveland backfield, replacing Bobby Mitchell, who had gone to Washington in the trade.

Steve King