OF DINO LUCARELLI AND MICHAEL STANLEY’S TIE TO THE BROWNS

By STEVE KING

Former Browns beat writer Tom Reed from first the Cleveland Plain Dealer and then The Athletic always referred to me in stories as “the de-facto historian” of the team.
Full disclosure here: While I am humbled by his kind words, the truth of the matter is that former Browns — and Indians, Cleveland Barons and Cleveland Stadium Corporation — public relations staffer Dino Lucarelli deserves that term a lot more. Now 86, retired and living in Independence, just south of Cleveland, he is indeed the Browns historian to whom all Browns historians look for wisdom, knowledge and direction. Every time I’ve been around him, I’ve learned something, and that something has always been cool.
I thought of all this — and Dino — the other day when I heard about the passing of Cleveland music legend Michael Stanley.
Dino worked hard to research the names of the Browns radio and TV play-by-play announcers and color analysts through the years. It took a lot of work on his part, but for years since it was included, it has been a nice addition to the Browns media guide, even in its virtual-only sense now.
“Who’s this guy? ” I said while pointing to a name on the list.
“Stan Gee? That’s Michael Stanley’s dad,” Dino replied.
I was floored. I never would have guessed, not knowing at the time that Michael Stanley’s full name — his real name — was Michael Stanley Gee.
“Really? Wow!”
Gee, otherwise known as a Cleveland radio disc jockey, was the radio color analyst along with play-by-play announcer Bob Neal, the famed Indians radio play-by-play partner of Jimmy Dudley, on flagship station WGAR in Cleveland in the Browns’ first season of 1946, and then again on TV (Dumont TV Network) with Neal in 1948, the first year that the Browns televised their road games and also the year that Michael Stanley was born.
Like most teams back then, the Browns televised their games — again, road only — through 1967, after which the major networks purchased the rights to the games.
Thanks again, Dino, for educating me all these years.