The Mount Rushmore of Browns kickers

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

By STEVE KING

What better way to kick off the Browns’ Mount Rushmore series than with kickers, right?

The Browns have four running backs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

They have one left tackle in the HOF, another one to follow down the road, another who should be in and another very good one. Plus, they just took a left tackle with their first-round pick, at No. 10 overall, in the NFL Draft.

So the lineage at those two positions – kicker and running back — is obviously extremely strong.

But, if you’re looking for the longest lineage of top talent at a position, one that begins at the beginning and spans nearly the entire 71-year, on-the-field existence of both franchises, the present one from 1999 on and the original one of 50 years (1946-95), there’s no question that it’s kicker. It’s not even close, really.

So, if there’s a Mount Rushmore of Browns kickers, it would have to include Hall of Famer Lou Groza, who played a team-record 21 seasons (1946-59, 1961-67), Don Cockroft (13 seasons, 1968-80), Matt Bahr (8½ seasons, midway through 1981-89) and Phil Dawson (14 seasons, 1999-2012)

A case – a strong one, in fact – could be made for including Matt Stover on that list. Stover did indeed kick well for the Browns for the final five years of the original franchise (1991-95), but he just wasn’t with the team long enough. The other players all kicked much, much longer here, and just as well, if not better. In the end, then, that longevity stands out, and wins out.

Here’s a look at the four who did earn a spot on the Mount Rushmore of Browns kickers:

LOU GROZA

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Groza, a product of tiny Martins Ferry (OH) High School and Ohio State, considered himself a left tackle who kicked. He was, indeed, an outstanding tackle – more on that later in the series – but, whether he liked it or not — and he didn’t – he is much better known for his kicking, in large part because of the high visibility of the position as opposed to left tackle.

Just as his HOF head coach both with the Browns and at Ohio State, Paul Brown, is known as “The Father of Modern Football” for all the innovations he brought to the game, Groza could easily be called “The Father of Modern Kicking” for all that he delivered to that position. That he was the game’s first great kicker is why college football hands out the Lou Groza Award to its best kicker every season.  

Before Groza came along as a member of that first Browns team nearly 75 years ago, kicking not just in pro football, but also at all levels of the game, was something to which no one, not even coaches, paid much attention. But, like everything else, Brown took every position seriously, including kicking since it was a place where points came from, trying to make it the best that it could be to make his team as good from top to bottom as was possible. He had a willing player in Groza.

The Browns spent a lot of practiced time on kicking, and it paid off, especially so in 1950 in their first year in the NFL. Groza kicked two field goals on a frozen turf to help the Browns beat the New York Giants 8-3 in a special American (later Eastern) Conference playoff game, then the following week, he kicked the game-winner in the final seconds to complete a 10-point fourth-quarter rally as Cleveland edged the Los Angeles Rams 30-28 in the league title game.

Groza played through 1959 in his first stint with the Browns before retiring – albeit temporarily – because of back problems, but he returned healthy in 1961 to play six more years before retiring for good following the 1967 season.

He is still the Browns’ career scoring leader with 1,349 points. The 115 points he scored in the Browns’ last NFL championship season of 1964 is still fifth in club history. His .885 field-goal percentage in 1953 is also fifth in team annals, and he had a career mark of .581. That it was accomplished exclusively on grass fields, without the advent of modern field-maintenance technology and artificial surfaces, is remarkable.

DON COCKROFT

Cockroft was a third-round draft choice in 1967 out of tiny Adams State as the heir apparent to Groza, and after spending the first year learning under him as a non-roster player, he took over the kicking duties in 1968 and also served as the team’s punter for nine seasons, through 1976.

Following a legend is never easy, but Cockroft did a good job overall. He really propelled his career to a new level – and proved without a shadow of a doubt to the club that he was the kicker going forward – when, following his missing a field goal from the same spot just a few minutes earlier, he hit a game-winning 26-yarder in the final seconds to give the Browns a key 26-24 home decision over the Pittsburgh Steelers that helped propel them to a wild-card playoff berth.

And the next time the Browns made the playoffs, in 1980, he also kicked the game-winner – this time a 22-yarder in the final minute – as Cleveland topped the Cincinnati Bengals 27-24 to capture the AFC Central title.

Cockroft did that in 1980 despite being hampered all year with back problems, and struggled on a frozen field in bitterly-cold weather in the 14-12 divisional playoff loss to the Oakland Raiders two weeks later in what turned out to be his final NFL game.

He finished with a career field-goal percentage of .659.

MATT BAHR

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Dave Jacobs beat out Cockroft for the kicking job in the 1981 training camp, but he didn’t last long. He really struggled, so much so that he was cut halfway through that first season in favor of Bahr, who had been waived by the rival Steelers. Bahr made his first big mark with the Browns a few weeks later when he made the deciding kick in a 15-12 win over a San Francisco 49ers team that went on to win the Super Bowl that year.

Bahr continued to be money for the Browns, hitting a bunch of big kicks through the 1980s. He made 74.1 percent of his tries for his career.

Just like he came to the Browns, Bahr exited from them, being beaten out by an unknown by the name of Jerry Kauric in the 1990 training camp. Kauric struggled and was replaced in 1991 by Stover.

PHIL DAWSON

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The Browns have made tons of mistakes in this expansion era, but two things they did right – very much so – was drafting a future Hall of Famer in left tackle Joe Thomas in 2007 and keeping Dawson from a bevy of kickers in that first re-born season of 1999, and sticking with him.

Dawson needs no introduction to modern Browns fans. His list of big kicks – including two unbelievable ones in a snowstorm to beat the Buffalo Bills 8-0 in 2007 – is long, and well-documented.

Browns President Joe Banner stupidly refused to even negotiate with free agent Dawson follow the 2012 season, and he ended up signing with the San Francisco 49ers. The Browns have really struggled with their kicking since then.

Is Dawson, who has a team-record career .840 field-goal percentage, the best kicker in Browns history, even better than the iconic Groza?

He is, though the humble Dawson, who knows fully and embraces Browns history, especially that of Groza, would never want to hear that.

NEXT: Punters.

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