John Havlicek a Cleveland Brown?
By STEVE KING
The Browns made pro football history when, from 1946-55 in their first decade of existence, they put together what is still the greatest run ever by playing in 10 straight league championship games in first the All-America Football Conference and then the NFL, winning seven crowns.
And seven years after that run ended, the Browns almost changed pro basketball history.
John Havlicek, Cleveland Browns. pic.twitter.com/geVKZ5kN0f
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) April 13, 2020
Here’s the story in Cliff’s Notes fashion: The Ohio State men’s basketball team will play its NCAA Tournament opener against Iowa State at 9:50 Friday night. The Buckeyes played in the first NCAA Tournament championship game 80 years ago, in 1939, and won what is still their only national title 21 years later, in 1960, by routing California 75-55.
Those Buckeyes, considered one of the best teams in NCAA Tourney history with the way their dominated their four postseason foes en route to finishing 25-3, had a star-studded cast that included Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Larry Siegfried and a backup player named Bobby Knight.
Lucas and Havlicek, both of whom are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame along with Knight (for coaching), had long and distinguished NBA careers. Siegfried played at a high level in the pros as well and was Havlicek’s teammate on the multiple championship-winning Boston Celtics teams of the 1960s.
But Havlicek almost didn’t make it to the Celtics, even though they took him in the first round, at No. 7 overall, in the 1962 NBA Draft.
Havlicek had been a three-sport all-state athlete in football and baseball along with basketball at Bridgeport High School in East Central Ohio. The Browns remembered that and, looking at his 6-foot-5 frame and taking into account the incredible ball skills and athleticism he displayed for the basketball Buckeyes, rolled the dice on Havlicek, taking him as a wide receiver in the seventh round, at No. 95 overall, in the 1962 NFL Draft.
Havlicek spent all of training camp and the preseason with the Browns before being released on the final cutdown.
As Browns assistant coach Blanton Collier said in giving him the bad news, “You’re better off being a basketball player.”
And Havlicek was indeed better off, as he proved right away when he went to the Celtics.
But what if the Browns had kept him?
We’ll never know.
More Cleveland Browns news
- “AP Source: Browns Signing Free Agent Clayborn To 2-Year Deal” (AP)
- Under Further Review (Browns Daily Dose)
- “Browns’ chances of making 2020 playoffs increase with NFL owners approving expansion from 12 to 14 teams” (cleveland.com)
- “How expanded playoffs would’ve changed things in NFL, including for 2007 Browns” (BrownsZone)
- Jim Donovan and Doug Dieken – Simply the best (Browns Daily Dose)
- “JC Tretter stresses unity in letter to NFLPA members” (PFT)
