Editor’s note: The following, about the contest against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 5 at Cleveland Stadium, is the fifth in a series of stories on the games that made up the Browns’ 1980 Kardiac Kids season. This is the 35th anniversary of that memorable year.

Starring first at Champion High School in Warren and then at Ohio State, linebacker Randy Gradishar had always been one of Northeast Ohio’s favorite sons.

He is still is, in fact.

But there was one day in 1980 – on Oct. 5, to be exact – when people around these parts were spitting his name because of what he did to their Browns.

His 93-yard interception return of a tipped pass for a touchdown right before halftime was the deciding play in the Denver Broncos’ 19-16 victory at Cleveland Stadium that snapped the Browns’ two-game winning streak and dropped them below the .500 mark again at 2-3.

Already leading 10-6 on Don Cockroft’s 24-yard field goal and Brian Sipe’s 40-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Reggie Rucker, the Browns seemed to be going in for the kill when they drove to the Denver 1 near the end of the first half.

But Gradishar’s big play turned the game around, and the stunned Browns never really recovered.

The Browns did manage to come back to tie the game 13-13 at halftime on Cockroft’s 45-yard field goal, and his 40-yard kick in the third quarter accounted for all of Cleveland’s second-half points.

Fred Steinfort won it for Denver with a chip-shot 19-yard field goal with 5:50 remaining in the game.

Sipe threw for 258 yards and the TD with one interception. Rucker had three receptions for 83 yards, and Mike Pruitt rushed for 60 yards in nine carries.

The Browns had outplayed the Broncos for much of the day and had nothing to show for it. All in all, it was just extremely frustrating.

The Browns, who went into 1980 with high hopes, thought they had their early-season problems figured out, but this nightmarish loss sent them back to the drawing board.

Next: Scintillating in Seattle.