On Being Brown

What it Means to Be a Cleveland Browns Fan

Scott Huler

$15.95

Only 2 left in stock

What makes Browns fans so . . . different? These 33 essays explain: It’s about pride. It’s about desire, tempered by crushing disappointment. It’s about tradition, rivalry, and electrifying victory. It’s about longing. It’s about heart. Includes interviews with Jim Brown, Lou Groza, Paul Warfield, Ozzie Newsome, and other legends.

Softcover / 152 pages / 5 x 7.5 in. / 30 photos / ISBN 9781886228313

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 lost their team, demanded it 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. Scott Huler’s nostalgic memoirs, and his 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.

Additional information

Weight0.39 lbs

Table of Contents

Introduction

Brown

Cleveland Stadium

Orange

Things My Father Saw

“We always traveled first class”: A Moment with Lou Groza

1964

“It can’t be just a bunch of guys in brown uniforms”: A Moment with Jim Brown

The Cincinnati Game

Brown on Brown: A Moment with Mike Brown

“We want Phipps!”

“I gave it my best”: A Moment with Mike Phipps

“I see what Paul Brown saw”: A Moment with Paul Warfield

The Pittsburgh Game

“For those four hours I hated my friends”: A Moment with Greg Pruitt

Red Right 88

Almostness: A Moment with Brian Sipe

Diaspora

Out of Town Brown: A Moment with Harold Manson

He Chose Us

“All I remember is being a Browns fan”: A Moment with Bernie Kosar

Browns Backers Everywhere

A Moment with Bob Grace and Jeff Wagner

Things Change

The Drive, the Fumble, and All That

“Three Disappointments”: A Moment with Ozzie Newsome

Autographed Picture

“No team will ever do that again”: A Moment with Otto Graham

Rumors of War and the Last Pittsburgh Game

Big Dawg and the Man in the Brown Suit

“Hundreds and hundreds of people openly weeping”: The Last Home Game

“It was just a spirit thing”: A Moment with Earnest Byner

Two Friends from Denver

I Have Raked My Last Leaf

The View from the Tunnel: A Few Words from Jerry Sherk

Acknowledgments

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