Word: grahame
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Detroit Lions' Quarterback Bobby Layne hardly measures up to Cleveland's Otto Graham as a passer. During the past National Football League season, Layne completed only 46% of his passes, compared to Graham's 65%. But versatile Bobby Layne has other virtues. As a swivel-hipped runner, he was the Lion's second leading ground gainer, and unlike most quarterbacks, college or pro, Layne does his own signal calling, whereas Graham gets a flow of instructions from the bench. This week, when Detroit and Cleveland met for the N.F.L. championship, it was quick-thinking Layne...
...hookup in sports-television history. Cleveland was favored by just three points, the margin of a field goal that might be kicked by Cleveland's famed Tackle Lou ("The Toe") Groza. But Layne & Co. had other ideas. Detroit's huge (average: 235 Ibs.), hard-charging line forced Graham to fumble soon after the opening kickoff. Layne promptly called on an old Texas high-school football mate, Doak Walker, for the Detroit score. Graham, stopped, could only retaliate with a Groza field goal. At halftime, underdog Detroit...
...retaining their championship, the Lions accomplished what no other team had managed to do in Otto Graham's eight years of professional play: they held Graham to two pass completions (in 15 attempts), for a net gain of just four yards...
Stitches Don't Hurt. Graham, says Coach Brown (who converted Otto from a Northwestern single-wing halfback), "is the first to admit how much he must depend on the work of other players." The other players, in turn, depend on Graham. During a tight game with the San Francisco Forty-Niners earlier in the season, Graham suffered a severe face gash (only his second injury in eight years of pro ball). The wound required 15 stitches, but Graham went back into the game, completed nine of ten passes, and the Browns finally won, 23-21. Next night, Graham...
Last January, while Graham and his wife were in Los Angeles for the pro bowl game, their youngest child was taken ill and died before the Grahams could get home. "It set me thinking," Otto says. "It was the first adversity that ever hit me. Until then, the worst that had ever happened to me was to have a pass intercepted. It gave me a more serious outlook. Now, I just want to keep busy...