Blanton Collier

Blanton Long Collier (July 2, 1906, Millersburg, Kentucky– March 22, 1983, Houston, Texas) was an American football coach who led the University of Kentucky (1954-1961) and Cleveland Browns (1963-1970).

Career

After graduating from Kentucky's Georgetown College, Collier went to work at Paris High School, where he coached several sports. After enlisting in the Navy during World War II, he was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Chicago, where he met Paul Brown, who was in charge of the station's football team. When Brown took charge of the new Cleveland Browns after the war, he took Collier along as an assistant. Collier served under Brown from 1946 to 1953, a period in which the team won all four titles in the fledgling All-America Football Conference (AAFC) before moving to the National Football League (NFL) in 1950. That first season, the Browns captured the NFL title, then reached the championship game in each of the next five seasons.

University of Kentucky

When Paul "Bear" Bryant left the University of Kentucky after the 1953 season, Collier accepted an offer to return to his home state. Collier had several future star coaches serve as assistants under him at Kentucky, including Don Shula, Chuck Knox, Howard Schnellenberger, Bill Arnsparger, Ermal Allen, Ed Rutledge, John North and Bob Cummings. Standout players at Kentucky under Collier included Lou Michaels and Schnellenberger.

UK went 41-36-3 — and 5-2-1 against arch-rival Tennessee — under Collier. Notable wins included winning at #15 Georgia Tech in 1954 and defeating #8 Ole Miss and #17 Tennessee in 1955, #12 Tennessee in 1957 and #20 Tennessee in 1959. However, Bear Bryant's shoes were hard to fill and Kentucky fired Collier in January 1962. Collier returned to Brown's staff in Cleveland. No Kentucky head coach since Collier has left the Kentucky job with a winning record for his tenure in Lexington. The core of the team that Collier recruited formed the basis of the Thin Thirty. Collier's successor, Charlie Bradshaw, thinned the ranks from 88 to 30 players, that brutal season being chronicled in a new book, "The Thin Thirty", by Shannon Ragland.

Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns Collier came back to did not resemble the championship teams of the 1950s. Other teams had caught up to Brown's strategies; new owner Art Modell felt Brown had too much control; and Brown's old-school disciplinarianism did not go over well with the players, especially Jim Brown. After a 7-6-1 season in 1962, Modell fired Brown and offered the job to Collier. Collier only took the job at Brown's insistence; nonetheless, Brown never forgave Collier for replacing him.

Collier earned his players' respect by giving them more leeway both on and off the field. He let quarterback Frank Ryan change plays at the line of scrimmage and allowed more flexibility in pass routes and blocking schemes.

The changes paid off. In 1963, the team finished 10-4, and Jim Brown broke the NFL's single-season rushing record with 1,863 yards. The following season, the Browns went 10-3-1 and then upset the heavily favored Baltimore Colts 27-0 in the league championship. Another Eastern Conference title followed in 1965, but the team lost the title game to the Green Bay Packers. Despite Jim Brown's retirement after the 1965 season, the Browns ran off another four consecutive winning seasons and went to the NFL championship in 1968 and 1969.

Collier was a quiet but emotional man. When a player fell asleep during a film session, Collier did not yell at the player as Brown would have done, but instead criticized himself for not making the session interesting enough. Collier had great respect for black players, which helped endear him to Jim Brown and his teammates.

Browns fans remember Collier's tenure as a golden age of Browns football. The team was not shut out in any game, and giant Cleveland Stadium sold out for almost every game played during Collier's stint in Cleveland.

Somehow, Collier managed to achieve his success while going nearly deaf. Hearing loss forced him out of the head-coaching job after the 1970 season. He continued to work for the Browns as a college scout.

tats

Collier's record as head coach of the Browns was 76-34-2.

External links

* [http://www.uky.edu/Education/hofamers/Collier.html UK Education Hall of Fame entry]
* [http://www.georgetowncollegeathletics.com/Hall_Of_Fame/hof2002.htm Georgetown College Athletic Hall of Fame entry]
* [http://www.ukathletics.com/index.php?s=&change_well_id=2&url_article_id=7166 Kentucky football history (official site)]

Other sources

* Grossi, Tony (2004). "Tales from the Browns Sideline". (Champaign, Ill.): Sports Publishing LLC. ISBN 1-58261-713-9
* Carroll, Bob, et al. (1999). "Total Football II". New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-270174-6.
* MacCambridge, Michael (2004). "America's Game". New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50454-0.