EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the second in a series of stories about NFL Drafts for the Browns that played out quite differently from how they were first perceived. Part 2 focuses on 1964.


The Browns enjoyed their second-best NFL Draft in 1964, garnering two players who would go on to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But absolutely no one — not even Blanton Collier, the genius head coach who helped orchestrate the draft — could have seen it coming.

With their top pick, at No. 11 overall in the first round, the Browns took a two-way back out of Warren Harding High School and Ohio State, and then 90 spots later, at No. 110 overall in the eighth round, they tabbed a running back from tiny Morgan State.

Unlike now, when head coach Ryan Day’s teams fill the air with footballs, the Buckeyes of the early 1960s passed about as often as head coach Woody Hayes uttered The School Up North by its real name, which was next to never. And throwing to the running backs out of the backfield? That happened even less.

So, then, to project that Paul Warfield would, in his rookie year, no less, burst onto the scene — as a wide receiver, of all things — and lead a team that would go on to win the NFL championship in receptions with 52, receiving yards (920), average yards per catch (17.7) and touchdown grabs (nine) would have been not just unrealistic, but rather laughable.

He missed almost all of 1965 with a broken collarbone then returned in 1966 to begin a stretch of four straight incredible seasons before being traded on the eve of the 1970 draft to the Miami Dolphins for a No. 3 overall choice that turned out to be quarterback Mike Phipps.

As with Leroy Kelly, the Morgan State running back, it would not be until two years later, in 1966, that he began to shine on offense, becoming one of the league’s best runners. It came after two years of excelling as a returner.

After all that, then, the immediate-reaction 1964 draft grade would have gone from a D — and that was being kind — to an unquestioned A-plus-plus.

NEXT: They measured up.

Steve King