Historic 1950 Browns – Giants playoff game
Friday is the anniversary of one of the most important — and historic — games in Browns history.
It was exactly 71 years ago, on Dec. 17, 1950, that the Browns defeated the New York Giants 8-3 in a special American Conference playoff game at Cleveland Stadium to advance to the NFL Championship Game a week later in their first year in the NFL after coming out of the All-America Football Conference.
The game, played on a cold, windy and snowy day, and on a icy field that forced both teams to don tennis shoes for better footing, was necessitated after the clubs went 10-2 and finished the regular season tied for first place in the conference, which would soon be renamed the Eastern Conference. The Browns’ losses had both come at the hands of the Giants, 6-0 and 17-13, New York devised what was called the “Umbrella Defense” to stymie the great Cleveland offense. The Browns won their 10 other games pretty easily.
The Browns offense didn’t do a whole lot against the Giants in the playoff game, but it did enough to set up Lou Groza for two field goals, of 11 yards in the first quarter and from 28 yards in the fourth quarter, providing a 6-3 lead.
The Cleveland defense, and in particular Pro Football Hall of Fame middle guard Bill Willis of Columbus East High School and Ohio State, stole the show. The Giants mounted a drive midway through that fourth quarter, getting to the Cleveland 39, before running back Gene “Choo-Choo” Roberts took a handoff, broke through a small crease in the line, cut to the sideline and headed toward the end zone. Willis, playing over the center, the equivalent of today’s nose tackle, in the Browns’ five-man line, got chop-blocked. Sitting on the ground, he turned in horror to see Roberts, if not the fastest player in the NFL then certainly on the short list thereof, shifting into high gear for, with the poor and deteriorating field conditions, what might have been the game-deciding touchdown.
What happened next is still one of the two greatest defensive plays in Browns history, and the most unbelievable. Willis quickly got to his feet, took off after Choo-Choo and, despite giving him a big head start, caught him at the 7 to save a touchdown. It looked to the naked eye to have been an optical illusion. A lineman catching a fleet runner? No way!
Yes way.
The defense then dug in and kept the Giants from getting a point.
New York never recovered. Late in the game, Willis made his presence felt again in a big way and tackled Giants quarterback Charlie Conerly in the end zone for a safety and an 8-3 lead, all but sealing the victory.
The Browns came into the NFL with a point to prove, that, despite the fact the NFL hard-liners scoffed at them and said they were “a Mickey Mouse team that had played in a Mickey Mouse league (the AAFC),” they were good enough to not just compete in the bigger league, but to win the championship in it.
They did just that a week later, again in thrilling fashion, this time 30-28 over the Los Angeles Rams back at Cleveland Stadium as Groza kicked a field goal in the final seconds to complete an eight-point fourth quarter comeback.
But had the Browns not beaten the pesky Giants, they never would have qualified to play the Rams, which makes that victory, and this date, such big deals.
READ NEXT: Willis catches Choo-Choo
By Steve King
