On this date in Browns history, May 4

On this date in Browns history, May 4

By STEVE KING

Good tackles.

Good name.

Good coaches.

Good friends – most of the time anyway.

That’s the storyline of this date in Browns history, May 4.

Let’s begin with the most recent of the two significant events on May 4. It was with the first of their picks on the second day of the 1979 NFL Draft, in the seventh round, at No. 183 overall, that the Browns hit the jackpot by selecting Texas A&M offensive tackle Cody Risien.

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Risien became the starter at right tackle in 1980 and remained there through ’89, after which he retired. He missed just one season, 1984, when he suffered a knee injury in the final preseason game after head coach Sam Rutigliano, for whatever reason, had him playing late in the fourth quarter. Without Risien holding down the right side of the line, quarterback Paul McDonald was sacked a whopping 53 times in 1984, the offense struggled all year and the Browns, who had been picked before the season to win the AFC Central, started 1-8 on their way to a nightmarish 5-11 finish. And Rutigliano was fired after a last-play 12-9 loss at Cincinnati that dropped the mark to 1-7. He was replaced by defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer.

That’s how important Risien, a two-time Pro Bowler, was not just to the line or the offense, but to the team overall. Of course his absence wasn’t the only reason why the 1984 season went south, but it sure was a significant factor.

Risien made an impressions on people outside of Cleveland. The late Frank Gifford and his wife, Kathie Lee, named their son, Cody, after Risien. Frank was watching a Browns game on TV when Risien was singled out by the announcers. He mentioned to Kathie Lee, who was pregnant, that Cody might be a good name and she agreed. Coincidentally, Cody Gifford was born on the same date, May 22, that Risien was born in 1957.

Long before the day Risien was drafted – 34 years, to be exact, on May 4, 1945 – Paul Brown and his one-time friend, Ohio State head coach Carroll Widdoes, got into a squabble. Widdoes, who was an assistant under Brown at first Massillon High School and Ohio State from 1941-43, including in 1942 when the Buckeyes won their first national championship, accused Brown of trying to sign OSU players, including Lou Groza, for the Cleveland franchise that would begin play in the new All-America Football Conference in 1946.

Brown, who had already been named head coach of the Browns, denied it, saying he was interested only in players who had no plans to return to Ohio State. Groza, who was a freshman at OSU after being recruited by Brown out of Martins Ferry (Ohio) High School before he left to serve in World War II, had told the school he would not be returning after he was discharged from the service.

The war was almost over. Germany would surrender three days later, on May 7, 1945, and the war would end completely with Japan’s surrender a little over three months later, on Aug. 14.

A Pro Football Hall of Fame left tackle and kicker, Groza played with the Browns for 21 seasons, from 1946-59 and 1961-67. So, yes, it was a great move by Brown to have been interested in Groza.

Widdoes’ first Ohio State team in 1944 went 9-0 and finished ranked second in the country to Army, and his second squad went 7-2, after which he stepped down as head coach and went back to being an assistant. He chose his offensive coordinator, Paul Bixler, as head coach. Widdoes was a Buckeyes assistant for three seasons before serving as head coach at Ohio University from 1949-57.

As for Bixler, who played at Mount Union and had coached football at Canton McKinley High School and football and basketball at the University of Akron, he spent just one season at Ohio State before becoming head coach at Colgate from 1947-51. He then went on to serve as a Browns assistant under Brown for nine seasons (1954-62).

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On this date in Browns history, May 4