Dec. 12, 1964 - The Browns used Paul Warfield, their swift new pass receiver, with maximum effectiveness against the Giants today at Yankee Stadium and demolished the home team, 52-20. The victory sent Cleveland, the Eastern Conference champions, into the NFL championship game against the Colts of the Western Conference at Cleveland Dec. 27.
Warfield, as expected, was more than the Giant defense could handle. But someone had to throw him the ball and that someone was Frank Ryan (pictured with Jim Brown), the Browns’ quarterback.
Ryan, a brainy man about to acquire a doctorate in higher mathematics, has been a pro football player for seven years. Today he had his finest game, and it came at the right time, clinching the title for which Cleveland players, coaches, and fans have been yearning.
Ryan’s pinpoint passing to the inside and outside amounted to 12 completions of 13 attempts for 202 yards and five touchdowns.
That is the kind of a day quarterbacks dream about and seldom achieve. Warfield, the split end, was Ryan’s man. Frank threw to the rookie from Ohio State five times and hit five times for 103 yards and one touchdown. The first three passes, totaling 91 yards, were the integral parts of Cleveland’s three second‐period touchdowns that broke the game open.
The three touchdowns left the Browns with a 24-7 lead at halftime, and the remaining 30 minutes sorely tested the resistance to pain among the Giants and 63,007 spectators who filled the Stadium.
The Browns, under full momentum with the prospect of earning $8,000 apiece if they can beat Baltimore, rolled to three touchdowns in the third period and one in the fourth.
“Ryan was simply beautiful,” exclaimed Jim Brown after the game. “He was more than that — he was superb. We just didn’t know who to give the game ball to. Ryan was my choice for it — along with [coach] Blanton [Collier].”
That is exactly the way the rest of the happy Browns decided, presenting the 28-year-old Ryan with one football and the 58-year-old Collier with another.
Ryan declared: “This is my greatest day in football — better than anything that happened to me in college [Rice University] or anything that ever happened to me before that. I owe it all to one man. That man is Blanton Collier, right over there. He’s made the big difference for me.”
Arthur Modell, the Cleveland club’s owner, was among the phalanx of admirers who crammed their way through the dressing room door to congratulate all of the Browns.
Modell pointed out that Collier has compiled a 20-7-1 record since taking over the club from Paul Brown two years ago, adding: “I’ll take a record like that for the next 40 years.”
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