Coaching Icons: Paul Brown Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1930

In 1926, Brown began to attend Ohio State University, attempting to make it on to the Buckeyes roster. He never made it past the tryouts. The following year, he transferred to Miami University, which despite its name is based in Oxford, Ohio.

At Miami University, Brown became the team's starting quarterback, guiding the team to a 14-3 record. Although he had considered studying history, Brown decided to take up his first coaching job after leaving Miami. He joined Severn School, a prep school in Maryland, in 1930.

Answer: 89%

Brown was taking over a team that had fallen into mediocrity since the mid-1920s. His first year saw the team achieve an admirable 5-4-1 record, and the following year the Tigers went 8-2, but the best was yet to come.

Between the 1935 and 1940, the Tigers would lose just one game. The team's greatest achievement under Brown came in 1940 when after another undefeated season, the Tigers beat the only other undefeated team in the region in Toledo's Waite High School team. Brown left in January 1941 with an 80-8-2 record.

Answer: Great Lakes Bluejackets

In 1944, Brown was commissioned as a lieutenant in the US Navy. He served at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station as the head coach of the Bluejackets, a team that regularly competed against other service teams and college teams. The team went 9-2-1 in Brown's only season.

While Brown was technically the coach of the Buckeyes during the war, he was only the coach in absentia at this point and never returned to the team after returning from duty.

Answer: Brown Bombers

According to this version of events, Brown wanted the team to be named like a champion, and felt the name Brown Bombers was suitable due to its affiliation with world boxing champion Joe Louis. The name was then apparently shortened to the Browns from this name. This was seen as fact until the 1990s.

Brown opposed naming the team after himself, but admitted later in life that the Joe Louis story had been made up to deflect attention from the team being named after him. The first name-the-team contest saw the name "Panthers" win, but the Cleveland Panthers had been a failed team from the 1920s, and Brown once said "I want no part of that name".

Answer: Punt return

The team had seven total touchdowns in the mauling of the Bills. Four of these touchdowns came from runs, with three touchdown runs from Marion Motley and one from Edgar Jones. Jones also caught quarterback Otto Graham's only touchdown pass of the game. The team was also able to make the most of turnovers, with end George Young returning a fumble to the end zone and Lou Saban returning a pick for six points.

The Browns utterly dominated the short-lived AAFC during its short existence, winning four straight championships between 1946 and 1949.

Answer: John Kissell

As part of an agreement with Buffalo Bills owner James Breuil, a number of Bills players would join the Browns in the NFL while Breuil got a stake in the Browns. Kissell had played two seasons as a defensive tackle for the Bills before joining the Browns, where he played three seasons.

Ford had also plied his trade in the AAFC, but he had played with the Los Angeles Dons. Walker had been drafted in 1949 in the AAFC draft by the Browns, but the Detroit Lions had his NFL rights. The Lions gave the Browns a second round pick as compensation. Carpenter was taken 13th overall by the Browns in the 1950 NFL Draft.

Answer: Warren Lahr

The Browns trailed 28-20 heading into the fourth quarter, with the Browns completing three fourth downs to keep the game alive. A touchdown pass to Rex Bumgardner plus a field goal from Lou Groza made it 30-28. The Rams got to the 46 yard line, but Lahr intercepted a sideline pass to deliver the win.

The Browns recorded five total interceptions in the championship game, intercepting Bob Waterfield four times and Norm Van Brocklin once. Lahr had two picks, while Gorgal, Herring and Thompson all had one.

Answer: Both games were televised on the same network

The DuMont television network, which ran from 1942 to 1956, hosted each NFL Championship Game between 1951 to 1955 after agreeing a $475,000 contract with the NFL in May 1951. The 1951 game was the first to be broadcast coast-to-coast.

While Harry Wismer announced both games, his co-commentator Earl Gillespie only worked on the 1951 game. Wismer called the game on his own in 1952. The Browns had the better record in 1951, 11-1 to the Rams' 8-4, but the following year the Browns had an 8-4 record compared to the Detroit Lions' 9-3. The Browns actually lost both games, 24-17 to the Rams and 17-7 to the Lions.

Answer: Arthur B. McBride sells the team

McBride sold the team to a group of businessmen led by David R. Jones, a former director of the Cleveland Indians baseball team, just before the 1953 season began. Graham retired after a 17-16 loss to the Detroit Lions in the 1953 NFL Championship Game, but returned after just one year out.

The Browns thrashed the Lions 56-10 in the 1954 NFL Championship Game, bringing the team its second NFL title, and a first since 1950. Brown wasn't drafted by the Browns until 1957.

Answer: New York Giants

In the final week of the season, the Browns led the Giants 10-3, only needing to win or tie to make it to the 1958 NFL Championship Game against the Colts. Brown called a timeout at the Giants' 16 yard line, alerting the Giants to a possible fake field goal. Indeed it was, and the Giants stopped it, eventually winning 13-10.

In reality, the celebrity of players such as Jim Brown was opposed to Coach Brown's autocratic style. As football replaced baseball as America's most loved sport, Brown could no longer keep his players locked in chains.

Answer: Traded him to the Detroit Lions

Even though Jim Brown's fame had undermined the coach's authority, Brown was still the only coach who insisted on calling every offensive play. Alongside this, Plum was not allowed to call quarterback audibles at the line of scrimmage, which frustrated him. The Browns finished third in the 1961 NFL Eastern Conference and Plum was traded to Detroit the following offseason.

Answer: Brown's decision to trade Bobby Mitchell

The conflict between the two was almost constant, but truly escalated when Brown traded halfback Mitchell to the Washington Redskins in exchange for the rights to Ernie Davis, a Heisman winning running back. Brown did not tell Modell about this plan and the owner only found out after a phone call with Skins owner George Preston Marshall.

When Davis was diagnosed with leukaemia before the 1962 season, Modell wanted Davis to have the opportunity to play before he died. Brown refused and the relationship was forever damaged. Davis died in May 1963.

Answer: Bernie Parrish

Parrish said "By 1962, he was more worried about protecting his reputation as the greatest coach who ever lived than he was about winning a title. By the end of the 1962 season, a lot of us wanted to be traded because we were convinced that we'd never win a title with Paul Brown." This view was echoed at the time by McCormack, who stated that he did not think the team could win under Brown.

Wiggin was more complimentary about his former coach, saying in 1997 "I believe that Paul Brown could have been a general in the army. You put Paul Brown in charge of anything and he would have been one of those special people who could organise and lead."

Answer: It was a homage to an old Cincinnati team

The Cincinnati Bengals had actually existed in several football leagues between 1937 and 1942. Brown was hoping that this naming would create a link to the city's past.

While Modell had no influence on Brown's naming of the team, Brown decided to use orange as the team's primary color to anger Modell.

Answer: 1970

In 1970, Brown led the Bengals to an 8-6 record, enough to win the AFC Central. Despite a loss in the AFC Divisional Round to the Baltimore Colts, Brown was given the award for the first time. He also won the UPI NFL Coach of the Year in in 1969 and 1970.

In 1969, the AP award was given to Minnesota Vikings head coach Bud Grant. 1971 saw George Allen win the award as coach of the Washington Redskins. After the Miami Dolphins went undefeated in 1972, Dolphins coach Don Shula won the award for a fourth time.

Answer: Oakland Raiders

The fourth seeded Bengals headed to Oakland to face the second seeded Raiders in the AFC Divisional round. (The NFL prohibited teams from the same division meeting in this round, or the Bengals would have faced the top seeded Steelers instead). Despite trailing 31-14 in the fourth quarter, the Bengals made a spirited comeback, eventually losing 31-28.

Brown said he'd "never been prouder of a football team" than the one that lost in the 1975 NFL playoffs. He retired four days later at the age of 67.

Answer: He was inducted in the same year he helped form the Bengals

Brown was part of the class of 1967, and was amongst the first names to be inducted. However, he was not part of the original class of 1963. The Bengals were established just a few months after Brown's induction, in May 1967. As an interesting side note, Joe Stydahar, the coach of the Los Angeles Rams during the 1950 and 1951 NFL Championship games, was inducted in the same year as Brown.

Motley, who had played a crucial role in the 1950 championship team in Cleveland, was inducted in 1968.

Answer: Massillon

After retiring from the Bengals as head coach, Brown's public appearances were limited, even though he was still president of the team until his death. In later life, Brown battled pneumonia and died from complications surrounding his illness in August 1991.

He will forever be buried in the place where he truly established himself as a football genius.

Answer: Jim Brown

Before World War II, any attempts to integrate black players into the NFL had mostly failed. Usually, black players would be easily cut and would often not be drafted. Brown never talked about race, and never allowed it to influence the decisions he made. Jim Brown also referred to how Coach Brown would refuse to stay in hotels where white and black players would be segregated.

Brown's silent integration of black players into the NFL can be compared to the effect that Red Auerbach had on the NBA.

Answer: Don Shula

Shula ranked fifth on the list, the second best for NFL coaches. (Vince Lombardi ranked first for NFL, second overall)

Halas was fourth in the NFL, placing 14th on the list. Noll was fifth and 15th. Belichick was eighth for the NFL and 20th overall, also placing behind Joe Gibbs and Tom Landry.