Forty years later, Jim Brown and his Cleveland Browns' teammates huddled together one more time as NFL champions.
On an emotional night of laughter and a few tears, it felt like Dec. 27, 1964, again.
PHOTO: AP
The last Cleveland team to win a world championship, the 1964 Browns were honored Friday night at Severance Hall.
The highlight was the presentation of a championship trophy by commissioner Paul Tagliabue to the 1964 Browns, who beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts 27-0 for the title.
"The 1964 Browns were a team, and not just champions, but a championship team," Tagliabue said. "They played a hard-nosed style of football that is still admired today. They were a team ahead of its time."
Brown was joined by fellow Hall of Famers Leroy Kelly and Paul Warfield as well as Frank Ryan, Gary Collins and other members of the 1964 squad.
As they walked into the hall on a red carpet earlier in the evening, Browns owner Randy Lerner leaned against a fence and watched as players he only knew from NFL Films footage or stories told by his father, went past.
"I so feel not ownerish right now," Lerner said. "I just feel like watching great football players."
Lerner had hoped to reconnect the old Browns with his new team by holding the gala, and he commissioned for a trophy to be made to honor the 1964 team.
"Forty years," said linebacker Jim Houston, part of a Cleveland defense that shut out Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas and Company that day. "That's a long time."
Before there was a Super Bowl or a Vince Lombardi Trophy, the NFL gave its champions the Ed Thorp Trophy, an award named after an official who later made footballs for the league.
Like hockey's Stanley Cup, the Thorp was inscribed with the winner's name by the league and passed from champion to champion each year. When the Browns won in 1964, they inherited it from the Chicago Bears, the 1963 titlists.
But when the Browns lost the 1965 NFL championship game to Green Bay, they handed the Thorp over to the Packers, who have kept it to this day in their Hall of Fame.
That's because after the 1966 season, NFL champions got a new trophy each year. It was named the Lombardi Trophy in 1970 to honor the Green Bay coach.
After Tagliabue presented the trophy to the Browns, Jim Brown strained as he lifted the 80-pound bronze helmet flanked by a replica of the Cleveland city skyline.
During the ceremony, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra played music from NFL films. The event was co-hosted by Steve Sabol of NFL Films and journalist Roy Firestone, who spent the night passing around the microphone on stage to hear testimonials from the players.
Some told stories of how they beat the Colts in the title game while others got choked up as they talked about teammates they hadn't seen in years.
Safety Bobby Franklin fought back tears as he remembered the final moments before the Browns took the field to play the Colts. When he finished, several of his teammates wiped their faces.
"We can play right now," hollered Houston.
Several of the current Browns including Kelly Holcomb, Ryan Tucker, Ross Verba, Jeff Faine and Gerard Warren were on hand as well as coach Butch Davis.
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