Quarterback, Cleveland
Browns
Age: 30 (Dec. 6)
6th
season in pro football & with Browns
College: Northwestern
Height: 6’1” Weight: 195
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). Graham was co-MVP with San Francisco’s Frankie Albert in ’48, a
season in which he once more led the AAFC in passing yards (2713) while tossing
another 25 TD passes and the Browns went undefeated. The Browns won the AAFC
title for the fourth straight year in 1949, and Graham led the league in
passing yards (2785) and yards per attempt (9.8). While no MVP was awarded by
the league, he was a consensus first-team All-AAFC selection. Graham and the
Browns moved to the NFL in 1950 and kept up their winning ways by achieving
another championship. Graham was selected to the Pro Bowl.
1951 Season Summary
Appeared in
all 12 games
[Bracketed
numbers indicate league rank in Top 20]
Passing
Attempts – 265
[2]
Most
attempts, game – 30 at San Francisco 9/30, vs. Philadelphia 11/11
Completions –
147 [2]
Most
completions, game – 18 at San Francisco 9/30
Yards – 2205 [2]
Most yards,
game – 277 vs. Chi. Bears 11/25
Completion
percentage – 55.5 [2]
Yards per
attempt – 8.3 [3]
TD passes – 17
[2]
Most TD
passes, game – 4 vs. Chi. Cards 12/2
Interceptions
– 16 [6]
Most
interceptions, game – 3 vs. NY Giants 10/28, at NY Giants 11/18, vs. Chi. Cards
12/2
Passer rating
– 79.2 [3]
200-yard
passing games – 6
Rushing
Attempts – 35
Yards – 29
Yards per
attempt – 0.8
TDs – 3 [15,
tied with fifteen others]
Scoring
TDs – 4
Points – 24
Postseason: 1
G (NFL Championship at LA Rams)
Pass attempts
– 40
Pass
completions – 19
Passing
yardage – 280
TD passes – 1
Interceptions
– 3
Rushing
attempts – 5
Rushing yards
– 43
Average gain
rushing – 8.6
Rushing TDs –
0
Awards & Honors:
NFL MVP: UPI
1st
team All-NFL: AP, UPI, NY Daily News
Browns went 11-1
to finish first in the American Conference. Lost NFL Championship to Los
Angeles Rams (24-17).
Aftermath:
The Browns
reached the NFL title game and lost again in 1952, and Graham led the league in
pass attempts (364), completions (181), yards (2816), and TD passes (20), as
well as interceptions (24), and was once again named to the Pro Bowl. 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.
--
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).
