LEO MURPHY’S FAVORITE PIECE OF MEMORABILIA

By STEVE KING

As I mentioned in my last post, Leo Murphy had a lot of cool Browns-related items, the former longtime trainer of the team who passed away last weekend at the age of 94.

But the coolest thing – bar none – was a Browns helmet. I know this because it knocked my socks off when I saw it, and because I could tell how special it was to Murphy, who served the Browns for 40 years (1950-89).



When we got done looking at everything – at least what I thought was everything – during my five-hour visit one mid-summer afternoon in 1996, he excused himself and went into a back room off the finished part of his basement.

“I’ve got to go get something to show you,” Murphy said in his toughed-sounded Irishman tone.

That there was a grand finale to this show of Browns memorabilia floored me. The rest of the stuff was, in my estimation, certainly of grand-finale quality.

He returned holding an old-looking Browns helmet. It was orange with the brown-and-white striping down the middle, just like the helmets of today, but it had something different – unique – on one side.

Everybody thinks Murphy’s favorite Browns helmet is the one that belonged to Pro Football Hall of Famer Otto Graham, to which Murphy and equipment manager Morrie Kono affixed a makeshift facemask to protect the quarterback’s face after he suffered a severe gash on his chin that required 15 stitches to close when he received a cheap-shot elbow from Art Michalik just before halftime of a home game from the with the San Francisco 49ers in 1953. After all, it is the helmet that had the first facemask in history.

Yeah, Murphy liked that one. But it wasn’t his favorite.

Murphy also liked the helmet into which, at the request of head coach Paul Brown, he installed a radio transmitter for a 1956 game. That was the first radio transmitter, connecting players on the field to coaches on the sideline, in the game’s history. But that wasn’t Murphy’s favorite, either.

So, then, what was so special about the helmet Murphy showed me?

I’ll tell you all about it in my next post.