Head coach and General Manager Paul Brown was a winner. In fact, winning was all he cared about.
Quarterback Otto Graham was a winner as well. Winning was all he cared about.
And like those two men, team owner Arthur “Mickey” McBride – he was known almost exclusively by his nickname — was a winner, too. Winning was also all he cared about.
Having a triumvirate like that with one – and only one – unified goal in mind is exactly why those early Browns teams were almost unbeatable. If they were leading the Browns to that kind of success now in this media-crazy day and age, they would be so popular that they would have their own 24/7 TV channel. They would be the equivalent of the New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and Robert Kraft.
All this has been called to mind, of course, with last Thursday’s announcement by Cleveland Yellow Cab owner Brian McBride that the company started by his grandfather 90 years ago will be closing within two months.
I discussed that in our last post, along with the fact that Mickey McBride came up with the idea of the taxi squad, the forerunner of today’s practice squad, to stash players the Browns might need in an emergency. He let them drive his cabs to make money while they were waiting for a roster spot. When the moment of their promotion arrived, they would not have to be summoned from their home three states away. Thy would be right there in Cleveland.
Ingenious.
McBride, like Brown, was so far ahead of his time.
But Mickey McBride deserves more – much more, really – than one day’s mention on brownsdailydose.com. For goodness sakes, the story of the planned closing of Cleveland Yellow Cab is one of the last connections to the original Browns. That’s kind of important, especially on a Browns-centered website, don’t you think?
With that in mind, then, here’s a little more about Mickey McBride. It’s from his bio near the front of the 1947 Browns Press Book, as media guides were called then. The Browns were coming off their championship in the All-America Football Conference in their – and the league’s — inaugural season of 1946.
Keep in mind that pro football then was a far cry from what it is today in terms of the attention it received – it was light years behind major league baseball – and in the money it generated.
*About McBride’s desire for winning and his general philosophy: “Cleveland has been good to me,” McBride said. “I’ve made a great deal of money here. In return, I would like nothing more than to give the fans a team they can be proud of.
“I’m not in this football business to make money. In the first place, I don’t need it, and in the second place, if I was looking for a get-rich-quick investment, the last thing I’d do is buy a pro football club.
“It’s a risky business. Too much depends on ideal weather conditions, and this is no climate to risk a buck on a rain drop. I don’t intend to lose a bundle, either. I just want to give the people of Cleveland the best team possible. They deserve it.
“I don’t like to be associated with a loser, but I’m no quitter. We were pretty lucky last year, but things might get tough. When they do, we’ll buckle down to the job of righting whatever is wrong and we’ll keep plugging away until we’re back in winning stride.”
*On why, according to the press book, McBride’s “first act after acquiring the franchise was to sign Paul Brown as general manager and coach. Why did he go after the youthful ex-Ohio State coach and Great Lakes (Naval Training Center) mentor?”
Says McBride, “I believed Paul Brown was the best man in the business. Moreover, I knew that he had tremendous popularity throughout Ohio. Whenever I go into any business, I want the best. Even if I own only a peanut stand, my stand has to be better than that of the man across the street.”
*On McBride as a successful businessman: According to the press book, “This policy of aspiring to excel, besting his competitors and tackling impossible tasks has paid off handsomely for the ex-Chicagoan, who was selling newspapers at the age of 6 and earning $10,000 as a newspaper circulation executive 17 years later (in 1930, which was a lot of money for that time).
“McBride’s business acumen was evidenced even as a youngster. When he was a Chicago newsboy selling papers at a penny apiece, he was making more money on a side business than on his paper business. McBride’s stand was at a popular intersection. His regular customers used to give him the free transfers they had just received from the street car conductor, and in return, McBride gave them free papers. McBride then sold these transfers for three cents to persons who otherwise would have had to pay five cents fare.”
*And finally, on how McBride is portrayed in the first three paragraphs of his bio in the press book: “Everything considered, Arthur B. McBride (not to be confused with Arthur B. Modell) probably can be termed the most unusual owner in the major professional football leagues.
“With him, a championship team comes under the heading of civic duty. This obligation to the community supersedes even personal pride, of which he blandly admits he has plenty.
“And, concerning financial success, McBride expects to reap none from his sponsorship (ownership) of the Browns in the All-America Football Conference. He claims he’ll be content to break even on the venture as long as the spectators leave each game tingling with thrills and nursing the satisfaction that they got their money’s worth.”
Are you listening, Jimmy Haslam?
