“Rocky Colavito’s 4-Home Run Game and the Golden Era of Cleveland Sports”

The Greats of a Great Era

Tuesday is the 66th anniversary of the greatest single-game feat by a player in Cleveland pro baseball history.

It was on June 10, 1959 that Rocky Colavito of the then Indians tied a Major League Baseball record when he hit four home runs in a game against the host Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium. It was the eighth time that a player had clubbed four homers in a game, and it was just the third time that it occurred in four consecutive at-bats. There are now 19 players who have hit four homers in a game.

Colavito, who hit 377 home runs in his career, was one of the giants in the Ohio sports scene at the time. From the roughly three-decade period of the late 1940s into the mid-1970s, there were a a number of great players, teams and accomplishments.

Take a look:

*The Browns played in 10 straight league championship games, winning seven titles, in their first 10 years of existence from 1946-55. Quarterback Otto Graham and head coach Paul Brown were there for all of that, etching their names into history.

*In 1948, the Browns went 15-0 and won their third straight All-America Football Conference championship. Now, with the AAFC’s statistics being absorbed into those of the NFL, the Browns’ feat is officially recognized as one of just two times in NFL history that a team has finished its season with a perfect record — no losses or ties — and won a league title. The other team, of course, is the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who were 17-0 and captured Super Bowl VII. The Browns’ perfect finish is the foundation of a 29-game unbeaten streak (27-0-2) from the middle of the 1947 season through the middle of the 1949 season.

*Middle guard and fullback Bill Willis broke the color barrier permanently not just in pro football but also in pro sports overall coming out of World War II when they played in the Browns’ first-ever game on Sept. 6, 1946.

*Larry Doby of the Indians broke the color barrier in the American League when he played in a game on July 5, 1947. A year later, Doby and the Indians won the World Series. Game 5 at Cleveland set a World Series record with a crowd of 86,288.

*Browns running back Dub Jones tied an NFL record by scoring six touchdowns — four on runs and two on passes from Graham — in a game against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 25, 1951 at Cleveland. The other players to have done it are Pro Football Hall of Famers Ernie Nevers and Gale Sayers.

*The 1954 Indians set an
American League record by finishing 111-43 (.721). The New York Yankees won 103 games but finished eight games behind. The 1994 Indians, with their amazing 100-44 finish, didn’t come close to even threatening the 1954 team’s feat.

*Browns running back Jim Brown set an NFL record by rushing for 237 yards twice, on Nov. 24, 1957 against the Los Angeles Rams and Nov. 19, 1961 against the Philadelphia Eagles. He rushed for a league record 1,803 yards in 1963 and finished his career with a record 12,312 yards. He is generally regarded as the greatest player at any position in league history.

*The Indians’ Bob Feller retired after the 1956 season and 13 years last was named as the greatest right-handed pitcher of baseball’s first 100 years.

*With sophomore center Jerry Lucas, an Ohio high school legend, leading the way, the Ohio State men’s basketball team in 1960 won its only national championship. Noted longtime sports broadcaster Brent Musburger calls it the greatest college basketball team he’s ever seen.

The Buckeyes won the national championship in football in 1954 and 1968, and in 1975, running back Archie Griffin became the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner.

*Wide receiver Gary Collins set an NFL Championship Game record by catching three touchdown passes from quarterback Frank Ryan to lead the 1964 Browns to a stunning 27-0 upset victory over the Baltimore Colts at Cleveland.

*And finally, on Sept. 21, 1970, before a raucous record crowd of 85,703, the Browns hosted the launch of Monday Night Football and got the series headed toward the national phenomenon that it became by defeating the New York Jets 31-21 in a wildly exciting game.

Steve King