When All the World Was Browns Town: Cleveland Browns and the 1965 Championship

$9.97

- First time in paperback - In this nostalgic look at Cleveland's last championship team, sportswriter Terry Pluto tells the remarkable story of the underdog team's surprise success and the colorful players who made that season so memorable. Pluto movingly reveals the substance of a mythic bond between men and a game, a team and a city--and thus lays bare how present-day pro football has surrendered its soul. -- Kirkus Reviews Terry Pluto, perhaps the best American writer of sports books has picked the right team to get nostalgic about. The 1964 NFL champion Cleveland Browns were sort of a combination of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers and the mid-'60s St. Louis Cardinals--the former because it was the only championship won by a team that was expected to be a dynasty and the latter because it featured so many people who were as interesting off the field as on. -- Houston Chronicle

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Sundays in the Pound: The Heroics and Heartbreak of the 1985-89 Cleveland Browns

$12.41

Before Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore, and before the frustrating expansion years and countless front office mistakes of the twenty-first century, there were the Browns of the late 1980s. The years 1985 to 1989 saw the Cleveland Browns explode out of a decade and a half of inconsistency and mediocrity to win four American Football Conference Central Division titles and make the playoffs five straight years. Twice they came within inches of a Super Bowl appearance, led by an unforgettable cast of characters Cleveland embraced and still cherishes. These teams are perhaps the most memorable in the history of Cleveland professional sports. Sundays in the Pound traces quarterback Bernie Kosar's winding path from Youngstown to Florida to Cleveland, explains why there was so much more to running back Earnest Byner than one unforgotten fumble, and reveals how cornerback Hanford Dixon created a canine phenomenon in the end-zone stands that has persevered to this day. Author Jonathan Knight delves into the Drive and the Fumble ; examines the fairy-tale performance of an aging veteran quarterback who directed the Browns through the snow and into the playoffs in his final game at the old, cavernous Cleveland Stadium on Lake Erie's shoreline; and recounts an epic playoff saga in which the Browns staged one of the greatest comebacks in the history of Cleveland sports. Cleveland Browns fans throughout the country fondly remember the Dawg Days, and they will welcome Sundays in the Pound.

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Kardiac Kids: The Story of the 1980 Cleveland Browns

$15.25

A heart-pounding journey through the most exciting season in Cleveland Browns' history Every longtime Cleveland sports fan knows about Red Right 88, the play that ended the Browns' 1980 season. Trailing 14-12 late in the fourth quarter against the Oakland Raiders in an icy, windy playoff game, the Browns opted to eschew a field-goal attempt and go for a touchdown. Quarterback Brian Sipe's ill-fated throw, intended for tight end Ozzie Newsome, was intercepted by Oakland in the end zone, bringing to a halt Cleveland's kardiac campaign. In Kardiac Kids, Jonathan Knight paints a portrait of the Browns' storybook 1980 season and its impact on the city of Cleveland. Knight takes us through that unforgettable year from beginning to end, describing in great detail how the city simply fell in love with this team. It was the year long-suffering Cleveland sports fans finally had something to be proud of. Tickets were at a premium, players were pursued like rock stars, and songs were written about their on-field heroics. This was a team made up of individuals who weren't expected to be headline grabbers. It had a personable, often humorous head coach and a starting quarterback who was supposed to be too short, too slow, and whose arm was far too weak (and who, by the way, became the National Football League's Most Valuable Player in 1980). A group of football journeymen came together to form the best offensive line in the NFL, and a beleaguered defense improved just enough to help the team realize its destiny. Though the Cleveland Browns boast four world championships and possess a rich and respected past, the magical 1980 season was clearly the most memorable in team history. Kardiac Kids is atribute to that team.

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