Phil C
06-11-2007, 04:29 PM
It happened in 1964 which explains why the City is so hungry for an NBA Championship. It was in 1964 on December 27th when Cleveland at 10-3-1 played Baltimore for the NFL Championship. Baltimore was a heavy favorite since they were from the western conference and finished well of Green Bay, Chicago and Los Angeles with a 12 - 2 record. In fact Cleveland just barely beat out St. Louise for the eastern chamionship. Baltimore had a great defense and on offense were led by one of the greatest qbs in Johnny Unitas. Cleveland had the great Jim Brown at RB and a fair defense but not near as good as Baltimores.
However, the Cleveland defense stepped it up and played great in this game. Baltimore's defense played good too. Surprisenly it was a scoreless tie at halftime. The difference is in the second half the Cleveland offense stepped up not with Jim Brown but with QB Frank Ryan's passing mainly to Paul Warfield. The comentators said the first five minutes of the second half would be important and well it was a Cleveland scored first and kept scoring until they had a 27 to 0 lead and in the meantime their defense was super and shut out the Colts.
This was considered a big upset probably even bigger that Joe Namath and the Jets upsetting the Colts but the Jets had the old AFV vs NFL concept that made that game a big upset.
Had they had MVP there is no doubt Frank Ryan the Cleveland QB would have won it.
This was not only an upset about the final score but that Cleveland won it by that margin.
A happy time for Cleveland.
Ironically when Joe Namath was drafted and offereed $400,000 which was a shock and a lot for that time QB Frank Ryan was quoted by the papers as saying about Namath "If's he's worth $400,000 then I'm worth a million." He was to be proved wrong in that regard.
But nevertheless Cleveland had it's NFL championship in 1964,
However, the Cleveland defense stepped it up and played great in this game. Baltimore's defense played good too. Surprisenly it was a scoreless tie at halftime. The difference is in the second half the Cleveland offense stepped up not with Jim Brown but with QB Frank Ryan's passing mainly to Paul Warfield. The comentators said the first five minutes of the second half would be important and well it was a Cleveland scored first and kept scoring until they had a 27 to 0 lead and in the meantime their defense was super and shut out the Colts.
This was considered a big upset probably even bigger that Joe Namath and the Jets upsetting the Colts but the Jets had the old AFV vs NFL concept that made that game a big upset.
Had they had MVP there is no doubt Frank Ryan the Cleveland QB would have won it.
This was not only an upset about the final score but that Cleveland won it by that margin.
A happy time for Cleveland.
Ironically when Joe Namath was drafted and offereed $400,000 which was a shock and a lot for that time QB Frank Ryan was quoted by the papers as saying about Namath "If's he's worth $400,000 then I'm worth a million." He was to be proved wrong in that regard.
But nevertheless Cleveland had it's NFL championship in 1964,