On Being Brown
What it Means to Be a Cleveland Browns Fan
by Scott Huler
- Format: Softcover, 184 pages, 5 x 7.5 inches
- ISBN: 978-1-886228-31-3
- Price: $12.95
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Description
What is this madness all about?
Anyone who has experienced it knows: being a Cleveland Browns fan is just different.
Why are we the only fans in the nation who ever demanded their team back—and got it? Why did three seasons without football fail even to dampen the enthusiasm? Why have we endured years of heartache (The Fumble, The Drive, “Red Right 88” . . .) yet grown ever more attached to the experience?
These 33 essays hold the answer. Author Scott Huler's nostalgic memoirs, and his personal interviews with Browns legends and other fans, uncover those essential, special elements of shared experience that define what being a Browns fan has meant for us all.
It's about pride. It's about desire, tempered by crushing disappointment. It's about tradition, and learning how to root for the home team at your father's side. It's about rivalry and electrifying victory. It's about longing—for a return to past championships, for future glory. It's about heart. It's about all that, and much more.
This odyssey takes Browns fans back to some wonderful places. It revives some truly heartbreaking moments. And it looks to the future with great hope.
If you're Brown, you'll enjoy the ride.
Reviews
- “Those who . . . want to renew the bittersweet relationship between team and fan will enjoy this book.” — The Plain Dealer
- “Consistently poignant and occasionally profound” — Scene Magazine
- “Captures brilliantly the love affair between the city and the team.” — Currents
- “The 33 essays and interviews are as bite sized as pretzels, just as addictive . . . Each nostalgia cluster has a take on the relationship between team and town.” — Free Times
- “Not just another history lesson . . . this book is therapeutic.” — SportsJam!
- “An absolutely terrific book. I recommend it.” — WERE AM Radio
About Scott Huler
Cleveland native Scott Huler currently roots for the Browns from Raleigh, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has written five books and has been a staff writer for the Raleigh News and Observer and the Philadelphia Daily News as well as an award-winning producer and reporter for Nashville Public Radio. His essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times and have been heard on such national radio shows as National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Public Radio International's Marketplace. Huler graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis and was a 2002-2003 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. More About Scott Huler
Contains References to:
1964 Football Championship, Baltimore Ravens, Bernie Kosar, Blanton Collier, Brian Sipe, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Dawg Pound, Earnest Byner, Greg Pruitt, Harold Manson, Jeff Wagner, Jim Brown, League Park, Lou Groza, Mike Phipps, Otto Graham, Ozzie Newsome, Paul Brown, Paul Warfield, Pittsburgh Steelers, Red Right 88
If you like On Being Brown, then you should try:
- The Browns Fan's Tailgating Guide by Peter Chakerian
- False Start by Terry Pluto
- Curses! Why Cleveland Sports Fans Deserve to Be Miserable by Tim Long