Cleveland Browns: Best game of each decade 1940s-1990s

November 19, 1972 – Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns

1972 was the breakout year for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who suddenly started winning under Coach Chuck Noll after centuries of losing football.  By November 19, they actually led the Browns by a game in the AFC Central Division with a 7-2 record. Quarterback Terry Bradshaw was no great shakes at quarterback, but they made yards on the ground with rookie Franco Harris, Preston Pearson and Frenchy Fuqua on the ground.

In particular, Harris was not the primary halfback until Game 5, at which point he went on a tear and was headed to a 1000 yard season despite not playing much in the early going. The Steeler defense were the real stars however, really came together with the likes of defensive linemen Mean Joe Green and Dwight White, linebackers Andy Russell and Jack Ham, and defensive backs Mel Blount and Mike Wagner.

The Browns were perceived to be fading under head coach Nick Skorich. The great hope was quarterback Mike Phipps, who owner/GM Art Modell hoped would blossom into another Joe Namath.  Leroy Kelly was still an effective runner at age 30, though not nearly as hot as Harris, who had been running wild for five weeks with four 100 yard games out of five starts. In addition to Kelly, Bo Scott was doing damage on the ground as the fullback.

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Cleveland’s best receiving threat was tight end Milt Morin, and the Browns had two decent receivers in Frank Pitts, and Fair Hooker. It seemed like a good but not great cast, while the Steelers had several young stars and were on the rise.

By November, the Steelers suddenly looked unbeatable, and their fans were beside themselves. They started up fan club groups including Franco’s Italian Army, in honor of Harris’ mixed Italian-African-American parentage; and Gerela’s Gorillas, after the Steelers’ kicker, Roy Gerela. The Gorillas came to games dressed in gorilla suits, and they were really rather entertaining, at least at first. Some of them showed up for the game in Cleveland and finagled tickets. It was weird that in a Browns game in November, on a cold and wet Sunday,  a vocal minority was present in the stands cheering for Pittsburgh.

Somehow this correspondent and a high school buddy managed to get scalper tickets in the bleachers (it wasn’t known as the Dawg Pound at that point). This was the first game I had attended without my parents watching. Good thing they didn’t know, because there were shouting matches and fights in the stands and all kinds of extracurricular entertainment. This was really the game that ignited the Browns-Steelers rivalry, because up to this point the Steelers had almost never beaten the Browns. Now, suddenly, they were favored by the oddsmakers.

In particular I remember one rather nerdy Pittsburgh fan in a green jacket  trying to act as a cheerleader for Pittsburgh fans in the bleachers whenever they made a good play, facing the crowd and pumping his fist. His thick horn rimmed glasses made him look kind of like an accountant, but he was trying to be cool, the classic beta dog hoping to be taken for an alpha dog.

Anyway, the green jacket guy and the other Pittsburgh fans were delirious when the Gorilla kicked a field goal to put the favored Steelers up 3-0. Perhaps they figured the game was already over. Yep, the Steelers were an unstoppable juggernaut, you see? But Phipps led the Browns right back and Don Cockroft knocked in a three pointer to answer. Later Phipps scored on a quarterback sneak to put the Browns up 10-3.

In the second quarter, Cockroft hit another field goal, giving the Browns a commanding 13-3 lead. The green jacket guy was crestfallen as his Steelers seemed to be coming apart in the mud in Cleveland Stadium. Bradshaw was under terrific pressure from tackles Walter Johnson and Jerry Sherk, and Nick Roman was having a great game from his defensive end position.

Leroy Kelly and Bo Scott were pummeling the Steeler defense, three yards and a pile of mud.  Phipps was completing passes when he needed to, and finally connected with speedy Frank Pitts on a 17 yard touchdown pass, putting the Browns up 20-3.

Now it was over. Or was it? The Steelers took the ensuing kickoff and quickly marched 85 yards down the field, scoring on a tackle-eligible play to make it 20-10 at halftime. The green jacket guy had recovered some of his mojo. In the 1970s, ten points was a good lead but not insurmountable.

In the second half, Cockroft kicked another field goal and again Bradshaw and the Steelers put a drive together and Fuqua went in from the one.  Now they were behind by only six points.

On their next possession, Franco Harris took a handoff and ran left. One of the Browns missed a tackle on the slippery field, and suddenly Harris had a massive hole to run through. From the bleachers, there was a collective groan because we could see there were no tacklers in position to make the stop and Harris was very fast.

He streaked 75 yards to the end zone, and suddenly the Steelers were ahead 24-23. The green jacket guy and his cronies in the bleachers were euphoric, pumping their fists and carrying on with high fives all around.  It was enough to make you sick.

Was it over?  One Browns fan didn’t think so.  He stood up and waved a 20 dollar bill offering to bet the Pittsburgh weenies on the outcome.  There were no takers, however, as the Steelers fans laughed him off.

But Phipps got the Browns moving again and got within Cockroft’s range, with fewer than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.  About this time, some guy from at least fifteen rows back threw a chocolate milk carton and hit the guy in the green jacket right in the back of the head.

It was actually rather amazing that anyone could throw a chocolate milk carton with that kind of accuracy. Maybe the guy was a former quarterback. It didn’t really hurt the green jacket buy, he wasn’t very happy, as he perhaps contemplated for the first time that the bleachers might not be the nicest place for a cocky Steelers fan.  Elsewhere in the bleachers we could see a few fistfights had broken out, and an intoxicated fan or two were given escorts by the stadium cops.

But Cockroft, who had knocked in three field goals already, missed the potential game winner! Boos rained down and some fans questioned the heritage of the intrepid kicker, but it did not matter. The guy in the green jacket was jumping up and down pumping his fist and leading cheers for the Steelers and laughing at the Browns and Cockroft. The Browns were dead now. It was over.

Or was it over? The Browns defense rose up and shut down the Steelers, four and out. Leroy Kelly, the aging superstar, returned the punt nine yards, giving Phipps and the Browns the ball back on their own 42 with 52 seconds left. Phipps was cool, slipping and sliding in the pocket somehow connecting with Hooker and Pitts moved the Browns into field goal range. This time Cockroft was good from the 30.

Pandemonium! The Pittsburgh fans had been pretty loud, but with the Browns ahead the noise was deafening. The guy in the green jacket and his friends, who had been so gleeful minutes ago, were in shock.  He just sat there with a dazed look on his face, surrounded by happy, taunting Browns fans. It would be a long, long drive back to Pennsylvania.

But it was still not over!  There was one more kickoff and a “hail Mary” pass from the strong-armed Bradshaw that fell incomplete. NOW it was over.  The stadium roared again for several minutes, and a rivalry was born.