For the mental health of everyone involved so as to prevent NFL Draft/quarterback talk overload – and also because it’s just a heckuva lot of fun – let’s take a brief respite (only a couple of days) and focus on something else football- and Browns-related.
And history-related as well, which is what we always like to do here at brownsdailydose.co
Sunday marks the 64th anniversary of an important day in Browns history. It was on this date, March 26, in 1953 that the club made a great – and interesting – trade with the Baltimore Colts.
In fact, it is one of the biggest trades in NFL history, involving a whopping 15 players, some of whose names you may recognize.
The Browns gave the Colts Harry Agganis, Bert Rechichar, Elmer Willhoite, Carl Taseff, Ed Sharkey, Art Spinney, Gern Nagler, Owen Scheetz and Dick Batten, and in return, they acquired John Pettibon, Herschel Forester, Mike McCormack, Don Colo and Tom Catlin.
What a steal for the Browns!
It starts with McCormack, who became a Pro Football Hall of Fame right tackle for Cleveland and, as it turned out, later served as a head coach of the Colts.
Colo is one of the best defensive tackles in Browns history and is in their Legends club.
Catlin was a Browns reserve linebacker for four seasons.
A left guard, Forester also played four years and was a part-time starter for two of them.
Petibon was a backup defensive back for two seasons.
As for the players Baltimore received, five players are notable, including:
*Defensive back Don Shula, from Painesville Harvey High School and John Carroll University, who went on to become the NFL’s all-time winningest coach with the Colts and Miami Dolphins and is, of course, enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
*Another defensive back and a product of Cleveland East High School and John Carroll, Taseff served as a longtime assistant coach for his good friend Shula.
*Rechichar was a defensive back who was the first of the Browns’ two first-round drafts picks in 1952, taken at No. 10 overall out of Tennessee. He had 24 interceptions during a long career in Baltimore (after having had six picks for the Browns in 1952). But he’s known much more so for having held the NFL record for longest field goal for 17 years with a 56-yarder in 1953 in his first season with the Colts.
*A wide receiver, Nagler never played for Baltimore but did spend five seasons with the Chicago Cardinals and one with the Pittsburgh Steelers before returning to Cleveland in 1960 to play the final two years of his career. In that first season, he finished second to Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell with 36 receptions.
*And finally, there’s Agganis. Drafted two spots behind Rechichar in 1952, at No. 12 overall, he never played a down for the Browns despite having been a great quarterback at Boston University. But he still left his mark on Northeast Ohio. His nephew, Mike Agganis, owned the Vermont Reds Eastern League baseball team, who turned into the Canton-Akron Indians, who turned into the Akron Aeros, who, after being purchased by Ken Babby, eventually turned into the Akron RubberDucks.
There, wasn’t all that more entertaining than another heaping helping of draft/quarterback talk, especially since the draft isn’t for almost another month yet?
