1953: Browns and Colts Conclude 15-Player Trade

On March 26, 1953 the Baltimore Colts and Cleveland Browns completed one of the largest trades in NFL history. It involved 15 players, most of whom were reserves or newly-drafted rookies. Cleveland was one of the league’s best teams, having appeared in its seventh straight league title game in 1952 including a string of four consecutive All-America Football Conference championships and a NFL title in 1950. The Colts were returning to the NFL after the original team of that name (also previously in the AAFC) folded following the ’50 season - they were replacing the failed Dallas Texans franchise of 1952, which in turn had taken the place of the New York Bulldogs/Yanks of 1949-51, and thus there were players passed along from both of those clubs involved in the transaction.

Of the 15 players involved, 10 were sent by the Browns to Baltimore and included:

QB Harry Agganis, first-round draft choice in 1952 out of Boston University who had not played for the Browns while pursuing a baseball career; S Bert Rechichar (pictured above), Cleveland’s other first-round pick in ’52 out of Tennessee who intercepted six passes as a rookie; HB Don Shula (pictured below), ninth-round pick in 1951 from John Carroll, who intercepted four passes in his first year and went into the military; HB Carl Taseff, 22nd-round draft choice in ’51, also out of John Carroll and just out of the military - he ran the ball 13 times for 49 yards as a rookie on offense; G Ed Sharkey, a veteran of three AAFC seasons and two in the NFL, the most recent with the Browns; G Elmer Wilhoite, 12th-round draft choice out of USC in 1953; E Art Spinney, from Boston College who played for the original Colts in 1950 and spent two years in the military; E Gern Nagler, 14th-round draft choice from Santa Clara in ’53; T Stu Sheets, co-captain at Penn State and 17th-round pick in 1952; and T Dick Batten, 18th-round choice out of College of the Pacific for 1953.


The Colts, building upon the carcass of the Texans franchise and desperate for new talent, gave up five players:

C Tom Catlin, All-American from Oklahoma drafted in the fourth-round for 1953; DT Don Colo, a three-year pro who had been with the original Colts in 1950 and moved on to the Yanks and Texans; OT Mike McCormack, third-round draft choice in 1951 by the Yanks who had played one season for them; HB John Petitbon, formerly of Notre Dame and taken by the Yanks/Texans in the seventh round for 1952, intercepting five passes in his first year; and G Herschel Forester, an eighth-round draft choice out of SMU in 1952 who was in the military.

Head Coach Paul Brown of Cleveland was especially annoyed with players who had indicated that they would play pro football only if they first failed to make it as baseball players. He said of Agganis, a star quarterback at Boston University, that, “we are not waiting to see whether or not (he) makes a baseball team. We prefer to make our plans now and can afford to do so since we do not have a quarterback problem.”

Agganis, known as “The Golden Greek”, chose to sign with baseball’s Boston Red Sox for a reported $35,000 and was forbidden to play football. Colts Coach Keith Molesworth, needing a quarterback, hoped he could be persuaded to change his mind and Agganis was a key player in the deal for Baltimore. “The Golden Greek” stuck with baseball, however, and showed the potential to become a star at the major league level. Tragically, Agganis died of a pulmonary embolism at age 26 in 1955.

Molesworth (and his successor, Weeb Ewbank) had better outcomes with some of the other players. Rechichar, Shula, and Taseff all moved into the starting lineup in the defensive backfield while Spinney started at defensive end before being shifted to guard on offense. Of that group, Rechichar had the biggest immediate impact, garnering second-team All-Pro honors in ’53 and eventually being selected to three Pro Bowls. While he was at it, he booted a league-record 56-yard field goal in the 1953 opening-game win over the Bears.

Rechichar was with the Colts, but past his prime, when they won back-to-back NFL titles in 1958 and ’59. Taseff and Spinney were still in the starting lineup, however. Shula was gone by then, but would gain far greater fame as a head coach (starting with Baltimore).

Of the others, Sharkey played one year for the Colts as a reserve before moving on to Philadelphia in 1954. None of the remaining players involved saw action with the team, although Nagler was with the Chicago Cardinals for five seasons and Pittsburgh for one before ending up back in Cleveland as a tight end.

For Cleveland’s part, Paul Brown was concentrating on strengthening his team at tackle and linebacker. While McCormack and Forester were in military service and would not be available until after 1953, Brown saw them as an investment in the future. Colo was expected to contribute right away, especially with DT Bob Gain leaving for the military, and he did, moving into the starting lineup in ’53 and staying there until 1958 while achieving selection to the Pro Bowl three times during that period.


McCormack (pictured at right) joined the club in ’54, started as a middle guard on defense that year, and then moved to right offensive tackle, where he remained a fixture for eight seasons. He garnered first- or second-team All-Pro honors in every one of those years and went to six Pro Bowls. The lineman that Paul Brown acquired as a future consideration was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1984. Forester, while far less accomplished, put in four seasons with the Browns.

Catlin played at linebacker in Cleveland and also stayed for four years before moving on to the Eagles. Of the five players the Browns received, Petitbon contributed the least, playing one year at safety in 1955 after spending time in the service.

Overall, the huge trade garnered benefits for both teams. Cleveland, filling in some holes on an already-sound club, topped the Eastern Conference in ’53 and added NFL titles in 1954 and ’55 (and regularly contended well beyond). The Colts, looking to build for the future, didn’t become a winner right away (they were 3-9 in 1953), but methodically developed into a championship team by the last two years of the decade.

1953: Bert Rechichar Leads Re-Formed Colts to Upset of Bears

Regular season pro football returned to Baltimore on September 27, 1953 when the re-formed Colts hosted the Chicago Bears in the season-opening contest at Memorial Stadium.

The earlier version of the Colts had replaced the Miami Seahawks in the All-America Football Conference’s second season in 1947 and had joined the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers in the NFL when the leagues merged in 1950. But after going 1-11 to finish with the league’s worst record, owner Abraham Watner sold the franchise back to the league.

Fans in Baltimore pushed to regain an NFL franchise, and after the Dallas Texans folded after one abysmal season in 1952, Commissioner Bert Bell announced that Baltimore could again have a franchise if they sold 15,000 season tickets in six weeks and suitable ownership could be found. The ticket drive reached the threshold in just a month and business executive Carroll Rosenbloom, who Bell had coached at the University of Pennsylvania, agreed to head up the new ownership group.

The new Colts started off with players from the Texans franchise that included DT Art Donovan, DE Gino Marchetti, and halfbacks Buddy Young and George Taliaferro. They also pulled off a 15-player trade with the Cleveland Browns in which they most notably obtained defensive backs Bert Rechichar, Don Shula, and Carl Taseff, and G Art Spinney.

The new Colts had different colors than the old (blue and white rather than green and silver) and the new head coach was Keith Molesworth.

There were 23,715 excited fans on hand for the opening game against the Bears, who were coming off of a subpar 5-7 record in ‘52. Chicago opened the scoring in the first quarter when HB Billy Stone, who had played with the previous edition of the Colts in 1950, ran for a 23-yard touchdown.

Bert Rechichar, the second-year defensive halfback obtained in the deal with the Browns, brought the crowd to its feet when he returned an interception 36 yards for a touchdown midway through the second quarter that tied the score.

With time running out in the first half, the Colts decided to try a long field goal attempt, but rather than use rookie Buck McPhail out of Oklahoma, who had handled all of the Colts placekicking during the preseason but had missed a 45-yard field goal attempt earlier in the contest, it was Rechichar lining up to attempt the kick from his own 44 yard line.

Many in the crowd were surprised to see Rechichar, who had never kicked a field goal as a pro. He made his first one memorable when he set a new league record by connecting from 56 yards out. The kick cleared the crossbar easily to break the previous mark of 54 yards by Detroit’s Glenn Presnell in 1934 and also gave the Colts a 10-7 lead going into halftime.

The game continued to be largely a defensive battle in the second half. In the third quarter, Colts QB Fred Enke was tackled in the end zone by DE Bob Hensley for a safety that narrowed Baltimore’s margin to 10-9. However, the regular placekicker McPhail added a 12-yard field goal in the fourth quarter and that provided the final score as the Colts won, 13-9.

The Bears outgained Baltimore with 334 total yards to 164, including the most passing (225 to 74) and rushing (109 to 90) yards, and had 20 first downs to 9 for the Colts. However, they gave up eight turnovers (four interceptions and four fumbles) and had come up empty on three possessions that took them inside Baltimore’s 20 yard line; they were stopped three times at the two yard line on one of them.

It was a good start for the re-formed Colts, who were 3-2 after five games (they beat the Bears again in Chicago, for good measure), but they lost the remaining seven contests to end up in fifth place in the Western Conference with a 3-9 tally. Just ahead of them were the Bears at 3-8-1.

Molesworth was moved to the scouting department in the offseason and replaced as head coach by Weeb Ewbank, a former assistant under Paul Brown in Cleveland. Baltimore’s fortunes would steadily improve thereafter.

Bert Rechichar (shown kicking at top) was successful on just 5 of 13 field goal attempts, although Buck McPhail hit on only two of five (he also handled all of the extra points and was good on 21 of 23 attempts). Far more proficient as a defensive halfback, Rechichar intercepted seven passes (All-Pro safety Tom Keane snagged 11). Over the course of his career, he kicked 31 field goals in 88 attempts for a 35.2 percent success rate and with a high of 10 in 1955 – when he led the league with 24 attempts. However, after being moved to safety he was named to three consecutive Pro Bowls and picked off a total of 31 passes (15 of them during that three-year period of 1955-57). His 56-yard field goal would remain the NFL record until bested by Tom Dempsey of New Orleans from 63 yards in 1970.