Quarterback, Cleveland
Browns
Age: 32 (Dec. 6)
8th
season in pro football & with Browns
College: Northwestern
Height: 6’1” Weight: 200
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. He was named league
MVP by UPI in ’51 as the Browns went 11-1, although they lost the Championship
game to the Rams. 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.
1953 Season Summary
Appeared in
all 12 games
[Bracketed
numbers indicate league rank in Top 20]
Passing
Attempts – 258
[8]
Most
attempts, game – 32 at Washington 10/18
Completions –
167 [2]
Most
completions, game – 20 vs. Philadelphia 10/10
Yards – 2722 [1]
Most yards,
game – 328 vs. Philadelphia 10/10
Completion
percentage – 64.7 [1]
Yards per
attempt – 10.6 [1]
TD passes – 11
[7]
Most TD
passes, game – 3 at Chi. Cardinals 10/4
Interceptions
– 9 [15, tied with Adrian Burk]
Most
interceptions, game – 2 vs. Pittsburgh 11/8, at Philadelphia 12/13
Passer rating
– 99.7 [1]
300-yard
passing games – 2
200-yard
passing games – 9
Rushing
Attempts – 43
Yards – 143
Yards per
attempt – 3.3
TDs – 6 [5,
tied with Joe Arenas & Y.A. Tittle]
Scoring
TDs – 6
Points – 36
Postseason: 1
G (NFL Championship at Detroit Lions)
Pass attempts
– 15
Pass
completions – 2
Passing
yardage – 20
TD passes – 0
Interceptions
– 2
Rushing
attempts – 5
Rushing yards
– 9
Average gain
rushing – 1.8
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 Eastern Conference. Lost NFL Championship to Detroit
Lions (17-16).
Aftermath:
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 Graham led the
league in completion percentage in each of his last three years as well as 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.
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