Customer Reviews

Browns Scrapbook: A Fond Look Back at Five Decades of Football, from a Legendary Cleveland Sportswriter

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Chuck Heaton covered the Cleveland Browns from their beginnings in 1946 in the upstart All-America Football Conference through 1993 for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.

These were years when local print journalism dominated team coverage and columnists mostly painted portraits of the stars, while not looking to upstage the story by injecting themselves into the debate. And it was a time when team employees - like long-time trainer Murray Kono - were as famous as some of the players and coaches.

The columns - reprinted from the years Heaton covered the team - have a much more unhurried, though meticulous, feel. Fans used to the columnists of today who battle local TV news shows, 24-hour sports TV and radio networks, Internet team websites and bloggers for unique angles in stories may not initially appreciate Heaton's style.

But this book is history much more than simply a walk down memory lane and is as an important volume in understanding the past art of sports journalism, which moved down the field with majestic class.

Chuck Heaton had the catbird's seat for the golden era not just of the Browns but of the NFL.
Writing in a classic, conversational style, Heaton recalls the days when men played for glory, there was regional loyalty and a fan's devotion was rewarded by teams and players.
Paul Brown, Jim Brown, the Kardiac Kids: every chapter is a treasure. Tell this stuff to kids today, they won't believe you. Every football fans needs this book in their Christmas stocking. What a treat.

Brown's Scrapbook opened my eyes to a world of professional football that is at once endearing and, sadly, a faded memory. I grew up watching the Browns in the 70s and 80s, and as a kid, all I knew was what happened on the field. I knew my favorite team were lovable losers; cardiac kids, always destined for *near* greatness. Today I still watch my team every chance I get, but the NFL I know as an adult is not the NFL Chuck Heaton grew up with. This book opened my eyes to an entirely different NFL. One where players, coaches and the media had a completely different relationship. I used to wish I'd been born early enough to watch my favorite team win at least one NFL championship. Now I just wish I'd been able to see coaches, players and media actually caring about each other instead of being so wrapped up in themselves.

I know the Browns will win a championship again, well ok it's at least possible. But I think the NFL that Chuck Heaton covered is long gone, not to return again. I loved reading Mr. Heaton's memories of what once was.

My husband bought this book for his dad planning to either cut it up and make a collage of photos or scan it and do so, and after the book arrived he liked it too much in it's entirety to do so. He ended up reading through the book himself and just giving the book as a whole. It was like a dual gift, he enjoyed it himself and then gifted it like he had planned. Very informative and great photos.

The subtitle tells it all: A Fond Look Back at Five Decades of Football, from a Legendary Cleveland Sportswriter.

Shortly into the book, you'll find this line: 'It was different back then.' Indeed, it was. I'm probably not alone in thinking it was BETTER back then, as well.

Chuck Heaton joined the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a sportswriter in 1946. His first beat was baseball, and his timing was excellent. The Indians won it all in 1948 and challenged again in 1954. Just before the end of that season, he was switched over to football, and from then until another switch 24 years later, he was the main writer of and about the Browns. It was a few more years before he retired (almost) completely, giving him 51 years of writing about sports.

In the early days of football, before the NFL became the marketing-obsessed entity it is today, teams didn't have their own year-round training/office complexes like they do today-it was after all, only a part-time 'game'. Most teams trained at a local college or university, which had a field and dormitories for the players, coaches and media. Yes, indeed, you read that correctly! In those early days, reporters lived with the players. Can you imagine that happening these days? Of course, that was also in the days before the ever-present television/media obsession, too.

Fans of football (or any other sport, for that matter) as it used to be will particularly enjoy the piece on page 157, titled "The Year Sports Lost Its Innocence". It's enough to make a grown person cry!

Heaton observed the greats and the not-so-greats among players and coaches, many of whom became life-long friends. He attended (and wrote about) the big games and the forgettable ones, as well, including the first Monday Night Football, Superbowls and championship games before the era of Superbowls. And yes, there was once such a thing!

In the early 90s -before the great defection --he compiled a personal sort of history about the Browns, in a series that ran in the Plain Dealer, under the same title as this book. For the most part, the pieces fall easily into six categories: Places, On and Off the Field, Rivals, Big Moments, The Game and Hall of Famers. A postcript lists the All-Time Greatest Browns Team.

Some of the individual pieces here carry the date they were originally printed, which helps to place them in the proper context of one's memory. The date on which Paul Brown died or the day the team was moved to Baltimore merit this attention. There are also eight pages of photos.

It's entirely appropriate that one of those photos is of Mr. Heaton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame holding the Dick McCann Memorial Award he received in 1980. Who says nice guys can't finish first?

Any football fan in your life should love this book!

This is an absolutely GREAT read by a wonderful sportswriter. I must make a disclosure here: Chuck is my friend and I have read a decent percentage of everything he has ever written since my early days as a Browns fan in NE Ohio. His stories are elegantly told -- with humor and honesty. This is a nice gift for the sports junkie in your family ... or just a nice treat for yourself. You won't be disappointed either way, because these are stories unfamiliar to the average NFL fan.

Chuck Heaton is a legend in the world of sports writing. That's not an exaggeration. Chuck is one of the very few writers who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

He was even chosen to present Browns running back Leroy Kelly at his induction into the Hall of Fame.

This collection of short stories serves as evidence of the worthiness of Chuck Heaton's Hall of Fame induction.

It must have been difficult to choose stories from Chuck's 50 years of writing, but the included works are outstanding. They give a feel for the game, the players and the time that we just don't read about anymore.

The book is broken down into several sections. The Places section tells tales of the travels of the players, coaches and sportswriters. Young readers will not believe the conditions. Superstars flying coach on a commercial plane? Unheard of. As Chuck wrote, "...such incidents will never be experienced by the present media covering the Browns. It was different back then."

Yes it was. For example, Chuck tells how "Black players were not allowed in the hotel the Browns used in Dallas and so the squad split up. The black players went to practice and then went to live with black families in the area." That was 1954, not that long ago.

Another section is On and Off the Field which includes reportings of the death of Paul Brown, trading Bobby Mitchell and the waiting by Leroy Kelly and Gene Hickerson for the Hall of Fame. Heaton claims Otto Graham as the best QB and rightly predicted that Red Right 88 would be Brian Sipe's legacy.

Brown's fans should ignore the favorable comments about the traitorous Art Modell. Chuck's stories were written long before the dastardly deed of moving the team.

The Rivals section is lots of fun. We read about Chuck Noll, Bum Phillips, Jack Lambert and others from the hated Steelers, Bengals and Oilers. Older readers will remember the rivalry with the Detroit Lions and way back to the pre-NFL days for the 49ers rivalry.

There are also some great old photos in the book - Chuck with the players and coaches and lots of classic Browns photos.

The Big Moments section should be savored. It includes reporting on the Browns 1964 championship over the Colts, the 1950 victory over the Eagles that shocked the NFL, the firing of Paul brown and the (gulp) Drive.

The Game section covers the NFL Draft and Chuck tells why 1964 was the year "the sport lost its innocence." (Chuck blames Joe Namath.)

The next section is on Hall of Famers and covers Jim Brown, Lou Groza, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis, Bobby Mitchell, Paul Warfield, Mike McCormack, Frank Gatski and Leroy Kelly.

The final section is a lot of fun as Chuck chose his all-time greatest Browns team. Some selections are no-brainers such as Jim Brown at running back. Others will be a source of debate for football fans. And younger fans will argue that Josh Cribbs, for example, should be the kick returner and not Leroy Kelly. That's part of the fun.

The photo on the cover of the book summarizes the contents. Chuck is being lifted into the air by 4 Browns linemen. This kind of camaraderie was prevalent then (at least for respected writers like Chuck) and unlikely to be seen again.

Just as the quality writing and stories of Chuck Heaton are unlikely to be seen again.

Note. Sadly, Chuck Heaton passed away February 14, 2008 at the age of 90.

AUTHOR CHUCK HEATON CREATES A LOT OF NOSTALGIA AND GREAT MEMORIES WITH THIS SHORT BUT SWEET BOOK FILLED WITH GREAT PHOTOS AND STORIES ABOUT MANY OF THE LEGENDARY CLEVELAND BROWNS. THE BOOK IS A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES AND INSIGHTS WHILE CHUCK COVERED THE BROWNS WHILE WRITING FOR THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER. I FOUND SOME REALLY GOOD STORIES ABOUT PAUL BROWN, OTTO GRAHAM, JIM BROWN AND ART MODELL. AT THE END OF HIS BOOK, CHUCK LISTS HIS ALL TIME BROWNS TEAM BY POSITION. I WAS VERY SURPRISED AND SAD TO READ ABOUT THE RECENT DEATH OF CHUCK. IN THE EARLY 1970'S, CHUCK'S FIRST WIFE DIES FROM A BRAIN ANEURISM AND HE HAD TO GO ON AND RAISE 5 CHILDREN AMONG THEM WAS DAUGHTER PATTY. WHO WOULD BECOME ACTRESS PATRICIA HEATON WHO STARRED ON EVERYONE LOVES RAYMOND. I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT FOR ALL BROWNS FANS.

Was shipped on time and arrived before xmas as needed. I would buy again.

I was generally disappointed with Heaton's recollections of the
Browns. (Not Amazon's fault) I had expected the author to have more vivid written memories of the team I grew up with. Book was shallow, in my humble opinion.