Who’s on Mount Rushmore of Browns?

Who’s on the Mount Rushmore of Browns?

By STEVE KING

When I watched Lebron James play during the latter portion of his career for Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, I began to think about how he fit into the overall – and rich — history of Ohio boys high school basketball.

Embed from Getty Images

It’s what someone does when they love sports and history. It’s a good mix, I am told. I read once – years and years and years ago when I was getting started in journalism – that if you wanted to be a sports writer, then it would be beneficial to be well-versed in, and understand, not just sports but history as well. That got my attention – “Hey, this is right up my alley!,” I thought — and it is something I have never, ever forgotten it.

Advertisement: Buying or selling a home? Visit the Jacob Coker Group with Keller Williams Chervenic Realty

Anyway, I began to formulate who I would include on a Mount Rushmore of Ohio boys high school basketball.

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a massive sculpture carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. Completed in 1941 under the direction of Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln, the sculpture’s roughly 60-foot-high granite faces depict U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Advertisement: For a free insurance review visit Allstate Agent Clint Stott

There can be a great argument that Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln are the four best presidents of all-time. If you want to insert John Kennedy and/or Franklin Roosevelt into that list, a lot of people would agree. But in 1941, FDR was still serving as president and Kennedy was two decades away from being elected, so they weren’t in the running.

Anyway, if you say you’re “putting together a Mount Rushmore” of whatever or whomever, then you’re making a list, really in no particular order, of the four best – ever.

Ad: Friendly Reminder Mother’s Day is coming soon! We got you covered

Just putting it out there because I led this story with it, my Mount Rushmore of Ohio boys high school basketball includes Lebron, Jerry Lucas of Middletown High School, Jim Jackson of the former Toledo Macomber and Clark Kellogg of Cleveland St. Joseph (now Villa Angela-St. Joseph).

But let’s get away from Ohio boys high school basketball and move to pro football – Browns football, that is. If you were going to put together a Mount Rushmore for the Browns, both overall and by position area, who would be included?

Some of the names are obviously … well, obvious. Others might not immediately come to mind. It’s a little of both.

Anyway, I’m going to put together my Mount Rushmores in a multi-part series, beginning first with the positional areas leading up to the overall, or possibly overalls (not clothes).

Start thinking about yours and I’ll start thinking about mine, and let’s see where we end up and how they compare – or perhaps not. But that’s the best part of it – really the best part of sports, period — to discuss, disagree and debate. If we all agreed – were all on the same page — then what fun would that be? We want the members of this new Browns regime to all be on the same page, which, thankfully, appears to finally be the case, but it’s diversity that spurs emotion in compiling sports lists. And sports are built on emotion.