Mount Rushmore of Browns guards

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 15th in a series of stories about the Mount Rushmore-worthy players – the best players – in Browns history. Today we look at guards.

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By STEVE KING

A Pro Football Hall of Famer, a player who should get serious consideration for the HOF and two other very good players are on the Mount Rushmore of Browns guards.

The Hall of Famer is, of course, Gene Hickerson, who played for the club from 1958-60 and 1962-73, with an injury-plagued season in between; the quasi-Hall of Famer is one of Hickerson’s contemporaries, Jim Ray Smith (1956-62); and in the so-called Hall of the Very Good are John Wooten (1959-67) and Abe Gibron (1950-56).

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I know, I know, you’re wondering why Joe DeLamielleure (1980-84), a Hall of Famer as well, didn’t make this list. Good question.

It’s simply because he spent almost all of his great seasons with the Buffalo Bills before coming to the Browns in a trade during that Kardiac Kids year. He played well in that first season of 1980, making the Pro Bowl, but what he did for the club overall during his five seasons simply doesn’t measure up to the exploits of Smith, Wooten and Gibron.

Here’s more about the four guards who did make it onto Mount Rushmore:

GENE HICKERSON

Why it took 34 years for him to get into the Hall of Fame is anyone’s guess. After all, he blocked for three HOF running backs in Jim Brown, Bobby Mitchell and Leroy Kelly, being especially outstanding in pulling out and leading the Browns’ famed sweeps, and he played on good teams. Along with that, he made it to the Pro Bowl six times. What more does as guard need to do? His only problem is that he never campaigned for himself. That just wasn’t him.

JIM RAY SMITH

For whatever reason, he was forgotten for a while, even by those in Cleveland, and that’s hard to understand because he blocked for Brown and Mitchell, too, and made the Pro Bowl in five of his seven seasons with the team. Again, he is HOF-worthy.

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JOHN WOOTEN

When Smith left the Browns, Wooten took over, playing at the guard spot opposite of Hickerson for five seasons (1963-67) and making it to two Pro Bowls. That tandem was a real contributing factor to the club going 49-20-1 in the regular season during that time, making the playoffs three times and playing in two NFL Championship Games, with one title.

ABE GIBRON

Another guard who was, for who knows what reason, forgotten for way too long, he was a starter for six years, earning four Pro Bowl trips, during which time the Browns made it to five straight NFL title games, winning two championships.

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NEXT: Right tackles.

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