Two pro football games on the same field in the same night in Cleveland
By STEVE KING
Say what you want about Art Modell – and everybody around these parts has, all of which has been negative – but he came up with a number of brilliant ideas, including one to spice up the usually mundane NFL preseason.
And the 59th anniversary of the unveiling of that is Wednesday.
Ad: What’s a Browns pet jersey look like? Check it out…
It was on Aug. 18, 1962 that the first NFL doubleheader in history — and last, and only — was held. After two other teams met in the first game, the Browns, with Paul Brown in what would be his final season as head coach, ran past the Pittsburgh Steelers 33-10 in the nightcap before 77,683 fans at Cleveland Stadium.
Yes, just like in baseball, a doubleheader, something that was unheard of before, and since, in pro football. It could happen back then, because NFL games, without all the breaks, stops and starts, lasted only 2½ hours, if that.
The four teams involved split the gate receipts. It gave other clubs, those playing in the opener, a chance to attract much bigger crowds and as such much better gates than if they had played that preseason game in their own stadiums.
It was an instant – and constant – hit for just over a decade.
In 1963, first-year head coach Blanton Collier’s Browns lost 21-7 to the Baltimore Colts in the nightcap in front of 83,218. The two teams would meet there a year later in the NFL Championship Game, with the Browns winning by a convincing 27-0.
The Browns, in that 1964 title season, edged the Green Bay Packers 20-17 in the nightcap before 83,736. The Packers would defeat the Browns 23-12 at Green Bay in the 1965 NFL title game.
In 1965, in a preview of that championship contest, and in their second straight appearance in the doubleheader series, the Packers won 30-14 in the nightcap. The crowd was 83,118.
In 1966, two years after losing the NFL title game there, the Colts returned to Cleveland and defeated the Browns 24-17 in the nightcap before 83,418.
It was the defending Super Bowl champion Packers returning for the third time in 1967, topping Cleveland 30-21 in the nightcap to the dismay of 84,236, the largest crowd in the doubleheader series to that point.
The Browns lost again to the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Packers in the 1968 nightcap, 31-9, in front of an even bigger crowd, 84,918.
The biggest gathering in the DH series, and the second-largest crowd ever for a Browns game in Cleveland, 85,532, watched the Packers top the Browns 27-17 in the 1969 nightcap. By the way, the biggest crowd ever to see the Browns play in Cleveland was 85,703 in 1970 for the first Monday Night Football game, with the Browns defeating the New York Jets 31-21.
In 1970, the Minnesota Vikings replaced the Packers as the Browns’ opponents and won 24-21 in front of 83,043. It was just eight months after Minnesota beat Cleveland 27-7 in the NFL title game.
Then in 1971, in the last true DH – the last time two games were played – the Browns romped past the New York Giants 30-7 before 82,710.
In 1972, in the last game in the series, the Browns fell 20-17 to the Vikings before 70,583. The opening act for that game was not a game at all but rather a concert. It rained hard and the trailer on which the stage sat, got stuck in the mud on the field. Players had to be recruited from the Browns and Vikings locker rooms to push the trailer out.
The doubleheader series had reached its end after 11 years. The game – and the NFL – had grown enough so that two out-of-town teams didn’t need to go to Cleveland for the opener to play in front of a big crowd in that big stadium. They could get it in their own stadiums.
But it was a great idea – a tremendous idea, an innovative idea, a forward-thinking idea – while it lasted, even if it came from Art Modell. Sometimes, you’ve got to give the devil his due.
