1964 NFL Title Game

[sport historian]

The 1964 Brown-Colt NFL Title game had several notable features. It pitted Jim Brown against Johnny Unitas. This meant the best running back ever going against the best quarterback in a NFL Title game. I don't think this ever happened before or since.


The Browns and Colts had played in two recent regular season games. In 1959, the Browns upset the champion Colts 38-31. Brown had 178 yards and 5 TDs. Unitas threw for over 300 yards. In 1962 Baltimore clobbered Cleveland 36-14, as Jim Brown was stopped cold at 11 yards in 14 attempts. Unitas had a big day in the Colt win.


It was thought that Brown would have to have a very big day for the Browns to win. The Browns were 10-3-1 and had looked bad in some of their games. The 5-9 Steelers beat them 23-7 with 35-year old John Henry Johnson gaining 200 yards. Blanton Collier's teams always gave up a lot of yards. It was thought that there was no way Cleveland could hold down Unitas. The 12-2 Colts were 7 point favorites. When has the home team been a 7 point underdog in a title game?


The first half was scoreless. Unitas was unable to throw downfield (like Peyton Manning against the Patriots). He only completed 5 passes to WRs all day. The Browns broke the game open in the third quarter and won 27-0, in a way a bigger reversal than Super Bowl III.


Brown went 27-114, and was pretty much stopped by the Colts except for two or three plays. A 46 yard run set up the first Ryan to Collins TD pass. A 15 yard screen and a 23 yard run each set up FGs. That was typical of Jim Brown, however. Inmany games, he ran all over the defense. In others, he would get you on a few plays. If Brown got over 20 carries, when you totaled him up at game's end, he'd have a good day.


Brown receiverGary Collins, a now forgotten player, caught 3 TDs and was MVP. Paul Warfield, a Hall of Famer, only caught one pass. Collins usually did better than Warfield in the big games. He and Brown QB Frank Ryan were the surprise heroes this day.


Johnny Unitas only had95 yards passing with 2 interceptions, one bounced off Hall of Famer John Mackey's hands. He had an even worse game than Peyton Manning did against New England this year.


On another thread, Bernie Parrish's assertion of fixing was discussed. Parrish has a long chapter on this game in his book. Bernie has NEVER said anything about the 1964 NFL TitleGame being fixed, athough it was a big shocker at the time. Parrish called defensive signals for the Brown defense that stopped Unitas and the Colts cold.

 

[bigunreal]

Great post. Gary Collins was a real star WR for years, and has indeed
been forgotten. Warfield was always the #2 guy there, and didn't
attract much attention until he went to the Dolphins. While he put up
good numbers, he was very overrated, IMHO. Lynn Swann was very
similar to Warfield; made a few great catches, got lots of undeserved
attention, but his truly anemic stats are definitely not deserving of
the Hall Of Fame. The fact he's there is really a travesty,
especially considering that the first truly great receiving TE,
Jackie Smith, still isn't in there, and neither are lots of WRs with
similar or superior stats like Collins, Pete Retzlaff (also a TE),
Chris Burford, Dwight Clark,Caroll Dale,Gary Garrison,Jimmy Orr,Pete
Pihos and,Del Shofner, to name just a few.



As for Bernie Parrish not mentioning this game being fixed; if it had
been fixed, he was probably very happy about the script, and wouldn't
be likely to mention that his only NFL championship was not legitimate.

 

[Don Wassall]

I was just looking at Collins' stats and he still ranks 28th all-time in career TDs with 70 (out of just 331 receptions). That's very impressive, especially when you consider that in the pre-caste era, players generally had shorter careers, played shorter schedules, and the dink-and-dunk offenses that have provided such mediocre talents as Terrance Mathis with 111 receptions in a season, didn't exist. Receivers ran medium to deep routes on just about every play, rather than the 3-yard routes and the stand-still-and-I'll-throw-it-to-you plays that inflate the stats of receivers and QBs today. The obsession with personal statistics and personal glorification at the expense of the team didn't exist at all pre-caste either, but we all know that everything about football now is superior to the bad old days, right?

 

[bigunreal]

I found an interview online with Collins, in which he expressed
biiterness at not being in the Hall Of Fame (he specifically mentioned
Lynn Swann). It was noted in the interview that Collins was included on
the NFL's all-1960's team, but had never even been inducted in the
Cleveland Browns' special ring of honor, let alone the Hall Of
Fame.

 

[sport historian]

The running backs played a different game 40 years ago also. For instance, you didn't run on third and long. You passed for the necessary yardage. Cleveland didn't run Jim Brown on long yardage or when they fell 2 TDs behind. I remember hearing the announcers saying that if Cleveland fell behind, they couldn't run Brown as much as they wanted.


It was O.J. Simpson's Bills (that's what they were 1972-76), who changed this by running O.J. in a spot were it's easy for a runner to pick up 10-12 meaningless yards. The Bills would be 3 TDs behind, 3rd and 20, and would call a running play for Simpson. Jim Brown (and Jim Taylor) didn't get this "easy" yardage.


I recall a Thansgiving Lion-Bill game in 1976. The Lions grabbed a quick 3 TD lead and started playing "soft" against the run. Buffalo kept giving O.J. the ball and he got 273 yards. The Lions won 27-14 and were never threatened. Simpson, in effect, ran out the clock on his own team while padding his own stats. O.J. required this king of ego-boosting. The Bills were a promising team in 1973, but had sunk to 2-12 and 3-11 in Simpson's final 2 years in Buffalo.


I just checked and Gary Collins does have slightly better career stats than Lynn Swann. Collins was considered a great receiver during the 60s. I would suggest trying this website:


www.raresportsfilms.com


They have a video of the 1964 NFL Title Game, as well as other title games and yearly team highlights of the 50s and 60s. You can see how the game was played in that era.

 

[jaxvid]

Here's some pictures of Gary Collins.

Gary Collins (1962-71) -- A reliable 6'4" possession receiver and the all-time team leader in receiving TDs (70). Best known for scoring three times -- the game's only touchdowns -- in the 1964 championship game after publicly predicting that win over the favored Colts (five years before Joe Namath did something similar). Less known: he beat out future Boston Celtics legend John Havlicek to make the team after the Browns drafted both in 1962. Also the regular punter for six seasons. Despite spending his entire NFL career as a Brown, scoring ten or more TDs four times, and making the Pro Bowl twice, he's not yet among the Cleveland Brown Legends.

Also a picture of Bernie Williams

Here is the the website where I found these pictures. A sure treat for any Clevland Browns fans.
Ace Davis weblog

Also found the following which might be of some interest.

Ross Fichtner (1960-67) -- A Browns fan since childhood, he was part of the defense that blanked the heavily-favored Colts for the 1964 NFL title. Averaged an impressive 21.5 yards per return of his 27 career interceptions, the most of any Browns safety. On Oct. 23, 1966, in front of a then-record Stadium crowd of 84,721, Fichtner picked off three passes in a 30-21 win over the undefeated Dallas Cowboys.

A white defensive back on the cover of Sports Illustrated, I will pay 100 pesos to anyone that can come up with another!

Heres a 3 sport guy. Says he was drafted in 3 sports!

Dave Logan (1976-83) -- Athletic enough to be drafted in three sports, Logan used his 6'5" height to good effect, not only on offense, but to defend Hail Mary passes on occasion, as I recall. He now does the play-by-play for Broncos games.

 

[Don Wassall]

How aboutthe description above of Collins as a "reliable possession receiver." Wonder what year that was written. . . had to be recent. 70 touchdowns in just 331 catches is a possession receiver????And he'sstill the team's all-time leader in that category after all these years? Gotta love that unintentional pro-Caste System humor! Edited by: Don Wassall

 

[jaxvid]

I saw that "possesion receiver" comment. I wondered who was going to be the first to notice it. Don, you are "sneaky fast" and "deceptively quick".

 

[sport historian]

Gary Collins wasn't considered just "A reliable possesion receiver." He was known as a clutch player who scored TDs. Here is Bernie Parrish, from his book:


"Frank Ryan could score with a killer's instinct from inside his opponent's 20-yard line, especially when he threw to Gary Collins on their predictable yet unstoppable post pattern. Half oftheir success was Gary's own belief that he was considered the greatest clutch receiver in the league, a belief I shared."


If you watched the NFL Game Of The Week in the 60s, you saw Collins catch TD pases on the post pattern from the 25-yard line on in many times. Someone too young to have followed pro football in the 60s, and only knows today's game, would assume Collins was just "a possesion receiver."

 

[Gary]

If I remember right Gary Collins was also a top punter.