Age: 27 (Dec. 6)
3rd
season in pro football & with Browns
College: Northwestern
Height: 6’1” Weight: 190
Prelude:
A single-wing
tailback in college, Graham chose to sign with the Browns of the new AAFC rather
than the NFL Detroit Lions, who had drafted him in the first round in 1944,
after coming out of the Navy. An outstanding athlete, he first played pro
basketball before joining the Browns for the 1946 season. Mobile and an
accurate passer, Graham threw for 1834 yards as a rookie and led the AAFC with
17 TD passes as the Browns won the league championship. He was the league’s MVP
for the first time in ’47 as he led the AAFC in overall passing as well as
completion percentage (60.6), yards (2753), TD passes (25), and yards per
attempt (10.2) and the Browns again won the title.
1948 Season Summary
Appeared in
all 14 games
[Bracketed
numbers indicate league rank in Top 20]
Passing
Attempts – 333 [3]
Completions –
173 [2]
Yards – 2713 [1]
Completion
percentage – 52.0 [3]
Yards per
attempt – 8.1 [3]
TD passes – 25
[2]
Most TD
passes, game – 4 vs. NY Yankees 10/24, at San Francisco 11/28
Interceptions
– 15 [4, tied with Bob Chappuis, Bob Hoernschemeyer & Sam Vacanti]
Passer rating
– 85.6 [3]
Rushing
Attempts – 23
Yards – 146
Yards per
attempt – 6.3
TDs – 6 [7,
tied with Mickey Colmer & Julie Rykovich]
Interceptions
Interceptions
– 1
Return yards
– 0
TDs – 0
Punt Returns
Returns – 1
Yards – 12
Average per
return – 12.0
TDs – 0
Scoring
TDs – 6 [18,
tied with Bob Pfohl, Jack Russell & Julie Rykovich]
Points – 36
Postseason: 1
G (vs. Buffalo Bills, AAFC Championship)
Pass attempts
– 24
Pass
completions – 11
Passing
yardage – 118
TD passes – 1
Interceptions
– 1
Rushing
attempts – 1
Rushing yards
– 0
Average gain
rushing – 0.0
Rushing TDs –
0
Kickoff
returns – 1
Kickoff ret.
Yards – 46
Kickoff ret.
TDs – 0
Awards & Honors:
AAFC MVP: League
(co-winner)
1st
team All-AAFC: League, AP, UPI
2nd
team All-NFL/AAFC: Sporting News
2nd
team All-AAFC: NY Daily News
Browns went 14-0
to finish first in the Western Division. Defeated Buffalo Bills for AAFC
Championship (49-7).
Aftermath:
The Browns
won the AAFC title once more in 1949, and Graham led the league in passing
yards (2713). He was a consensus first-team All-AAFC selection. The Browns
moved to the NFL in 1950 and won another championship. They lost title games in
1951 and ’52, but Graham was a consensus first-team All-Pro in ’51 and led the
league in pass attempts (364), completions (181), yards (2816), and TD passes
(20) as well as interceptions (24). Cleveland won the Championship games
following the 1954 and ’55 seasons (the latter after Graham was coaxed out of
retirement to play one more year) and
he led the league in completion percentage in each of his last three years as
well as yards (2722) and yards per attempt (10.6) in 1953, and TD percentage
(8.1) and yards per attempt (9.3) in ’55. Altogether, over 10 seasons (four in
the AAFC, 6 in the NFL) Graham averaged 9.0 yards per attempt (a record 8.6 in
the NFL alone) while throwing for 23,584 yards (10,085 in AAFC, 13,499 in NFL)
with 174 TDs (86 in AAFC, 88 in NFL). He also ran for 882 yards and scored 44
TDs, with a high of 8 in 1954. He was a first-team All-league selection three
times in the AAFC as well as three more times in the NFL and was chosen for the
first five Pro Bowls. Perhaps most significantly of all, he quarterbacked
Cleveland to a championship game in all ten years, winning seven of them. The
Browns retired his #14 and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
Class of 1965.
[Updated 6/14/13]
[Updated 6/14/13]
--
MVP Profiles feature players who were named MVP or
Player of the Year in the NFL, AAFC (1946-49), AFL (1960-69), WFL (1974), or
USFL (1983-85) by a recognized organization (Associated Press, Pro Football
Writers Association, Newspaper Enterprise Association, United Press
International, The Sporting News, Maxwell Club – Bert Bell Award, or the league
itself).
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