Paul Brown, the founder of the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, died this morning. He was 82.
Bengals spokesman Allan Heim said Brown died at his home in Cincinnati from complications caused by pneumonia in his lungs.He is survived by his wife, Mary, and two sons, Michael and Pete Brown. The sons are on the Bengals staff. His first wife, Katie, died in 1969. Another son, Robin, died in 1978.
Heim said a funeral is scheduled for Wednesday morning at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in his hometown of Massillon, Ohio.
Brown began his coaching career in 1930 after graduating from Miami (Ohio) University where he was a star quarterback. After coaching at a high school in Massillon and at Ohio State University, Brown formed the Cleveland Browns of the All America Conference in 1946. The Browns captured four league titles before entering the NFL in 1950 and immediately winning its championship - the first of three titles in the 1950s.
The 1960s saw him get fired in Cleveland, win election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and form the Bengals expansion franchise that he coached until 1975. He continued to run the team's operations as vice president and general manager, usually taking a behind-the-scenes approach.
"He's certainly one of the key figures in professional sports," former Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson said. "Football would not be what it is without him. He was always concerned about his guys after football. Football was just a steppingstone. He wanted you to prepare for your life's work."
It was as a coach that the Brown made his biggest mark on the game. He was known for his innovations - introducing classroom techniques that are commonplace today, using film to grade players, calling plays from the sideline.
He ran his team with a seriousness that shaped his image.
"I was a serious-looking guy," he said. "Of course, you can't exactly do much about how you look. They formed images of me.
"Every time we'd go to New York to play the Giants - and were beating them pretty regularly - I'd get a new term. The first one was `the cold, calculating Brown.' Then I got to be `deadly'; we were winning too much," he said, laughing. "Cold, deadly, calculating."
And a winner. Brown had a 213-104-9 record as a professional.