EDITOR’S NOTE: In honor of the fact that February was Black History Month, we continue with a short series on Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Bobby Mitchell.

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Perhaps the only thing more electrifying than the play itself was Bobby Mitchell’s description of it years later.

Mitchell, in his first game back in Cleveland since the Browns traded him to the then Washington Redskins right after the 1962 NFL Draft, made a game-winning play that was talked about for years. He caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Norm Snead in the closing minutes to give Washington, which hardly ever beat the Browns in those days (the club was 3-19-1 all-time against Cleveland heading into the game and had lost seven straight), a come-from–behind 17–16 triumph in the second game of the season on Sept. 23, 1962 at Cleveland Stadium.

Trailing the Browns 16-10 and with Snead having struggled all afternoon, completing just 7 of 17 passes for 97 yards with three interceptions, the Redskins, with the ball at midfield, needed to do something — anything, really — to make a play since they had to score a touchdown to win. A field goal would do them no good. And it had to come quickly, since the visitors were running out of time.

Snead flipped a short pass to Mitchell, who, in having been switched to wide receiver by Washington, had caught two passes for 44 yards on the day. The club was still feeling its way around with Mitchell, trying to figure out what he could and couldn’t do, but the one that was obvious was that he was at his best with the ball in the open field where he could use his quickness and elusiveness to do extraordinary things with yards after catch.

Mitchell grabbed the ball and moved this way and then that way, dodging Browns defenders as he deftly meaneuvered down the field, showing the kind of moves that Cleveland fans knew so well and had come to appreciate during his four seasons with head coach Paul Brown’s team.

To hear Mitchell talk about it nearly 50 years later at he sat in a small
meeting room at the Pro Football Hall of Fame with two local reporters, was to listen to poetry on a football field as explained by the author. I have never heard anything like it.

“As I was running, it seemed like I was in slow-motion in that I could see everything, and in vivid detail,” Mitchell said. “As I stopped, cut and turned toward the Browns bench, I could see very plainly my old coach, Paul Brown, watching me. Then a little later when I turned toward that sideline again, I saw some of my old assistant coaches watching me. And when I turned toward the Browns sideline one last time, I could see all my old teammates on offense. There was Jim Brown, John Wooten and Gene Hickerson. It
was really incredible.”

Indeed, it was, in good ways and in bad.

Mitchell was beginning a whole new chapter of his career, at a new position with a new team. He just showed the Browns what they had given up and what they would be missing going forward. Meanwhile, his old team was still trying to decipher the health issues of the player they received in the trade, running back Ernie Davis — a deal that blew up in Paul Brown’s face. The visionary of a man who had always seen decades down the road, especially when it came to offensive football, finally hit a roadblock.

To add one more explanation point to the whole situation, Washington won the rematch, too, on its field two months later, 17-9, sweeping the Browns in the season series for the first time in six years.

Another exciting, down-to-the-very-end Browns-Washington game in Cleveland to remember, five years later, is next.

Steve King

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