The Cleveland Browns have had a ton of starting quarterbacks. But the majority of those are from when the franchise came back in 1999. That number is 42 different starting quarterbacks.
But it wasn’t always like that.
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From the maiden season of 1946 and until the final season of 1995, the quarterback position was mostly stable.
Otto Graham was the starter for 10 years. Frank Ryan for seven. Bill Nelsen took the reins for five. Brian Sipe was the starter for parts of 10 years. Bernie Kosar took charge for nine seasons. And Milt Plum took control for five seasons.
Cleveland Browns, Jim Brown, (32), and Bobby Mitchell, (49) and quarterback Milt Plum (Photo by UPI/Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)
Plum grew up in Westville, New Jersey, just 10 miles south of Philadelphia. His family grew up as diehard Phillies and Eagles fans. He attended Woodbury High School and was a hard-hitting standout catcher on the baseball team. He also played basketball and football. He had an opportunity to play professional baseball, but went to Penn State instead to play football, with a baseball career as a fallback.
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In football, he was named First Team All-State as a quarterback and kicker. He was also the team’s punter. He led an undefeated football team that won both the Colonial Conference and South Jersey Group III crowns. Plum was also part of baseball and basketball teams that won Colonial Conference titles.
Plum played for Penn State from 1954-1956, which ran the ball frequently. In his college career, he played in 27 games as the starter only in his final two seasons. He had 60 completions on 133 attempts for 961 yards, a 53.3% completion ratio, and tossed eight touchdowns with 16 picks. He also rushed 77 times for 174 yards and scored three times. He was the team’s punter and once had a 72-yard kick go out on the three-yard line. In 1956, he was named First Team All-Eastern.
Browns QB Otto Graham had retired after the 1954 season. In training camp in 1955, head coach Paul Brown was not satisfied with all of his signal-callers and talked Graham into coming back for one more season. The Browns had won the 1954 NFL Championship, and with Graham under center, they again won the league title for back-to-back championships. But that was it for Graham, who retired for good to concentrate on his multiple businesses.
The 1956 season was the first losing season for Paul Brown as a head coach at any level, as Cleveland finished 5-7-0. His quarterback room was a shuffle of musical chairs.
Syracuse’s All-American Jim Brown in the Cotton Bowl 1956 (Getty Images)
Going into the 1957 NFL draft, the Browns had the #6 pick. Coach Brown had his sights on QB John Brodie of Stanford or QB Len Dawson from Purdue. He had to have one or the other. But Brodie went #3 to the San Francisco 49ers, and Dawson was selected by Pittsburgh at #5. Coach Brown then “settled” on fullback Jim Brown out of Syracuse. In the second round, Coach Brown chose Plum.
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Plum played five seasons with Cleveland before being traded to the Detroit Lions. On March 29, 1962, Cleveland traded Plum, RB Tom Watkins, and LB Dave Lloyd to the Lions in exchange for QB Jim Ninowski (who returned to the Browns), DE Bill Glass, and RB Howard “Hopalong” Cassady. Now in Detroit, Plum started 52 games in seven seasons before finishing out with the Los Angeles Rams and New York Football Giants.
For his career, Plum played in 129 games with 103 starts, had 1,306 completions on 2,419 attempts for 17,536 yards, a 54.0 % completion ratio, tossed 122 touchdowns against 127 interceptions, was sacked 116 times, earned a 72.2 QB rating, and rushed 217 attempts for 531 yards with 13 additional scores.
Plum was named to two Pro Bowls, was selected Second Team All-Pro (1960), was the NFL Passer Rating Leader (1960), was a three-time NFL Completion Percentage Leader, and holds the Browns franchise record for the “All-Time Career Regular Season Passer Rating” at 89.9.
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After his NFL career was over, Plum worked in the wood products industry. After that retirement, he settled in Raleigh, North Carolina. Dawgs by Nature staff writer Barry Shuck was able to connect with Plum, age 91, to find out what Paul Brown was like, what NFL players think about playing on Thanksgiving, and why he was traded to Detroit after being named to consecutive Pro Bowls.
Shuck: At Woodbury High School, you were a star athlete in baseball, basketball, and football. You had a chance of playing minor league baseball, your best sport. Why did you choose football instead?
Plum: Well, my thinking was if I didn’t make it in football, I could go to baseball playing catcher. I talked to a couple of people, and with baseball you can linger for years in the minor leagues. With football, you either make it or don’t make it. They didn’t draft baseball players out of high school back then like they do now.
Penn State Quarterback Milt Plum (Credit: Nittany Anthology)
Shuck: You chose Penn State where your QB coach was Joe Paterno. What was he like?
Plum: All football. One offseason he had three of us quarterbacks and three centers in the gym taking snaps. We went from one center to another. Boring as hell. It was ridiculous. Well, that was illegal and the athletic director found out and told Joe, nope, you can’t do that. You could pick 20 days to have spring practice. If Joe had his way we would be practicing all year round.
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Shuck: You were one of the top quarterback prospects coming out of the 1956 class. Did it occur to you that you could be playing professional football, or did you have going into private business in mind instead?
Plum: I know a lot of athletes decided to skip going professional because going into the business world they could make more money. But the Man upstairs guided me and I said I’m going to try football and make it or not. I still had time to go back to baseball after I graduated from Penn State. I could have played for Penn State in baseball, but in my first year, I was told that players make the football team in spring practice and there were two other quarterbacks. So, I focused on playing football. I didn’t want to show up and then never play. But if I wasn’t drafted, or was drafted really low, I still had the opportunity to play professional baseball.
Shuck: Paul Brown went into the 1957 NFL draft needing a quarterback. After taking Jim Brown in Round 1, you were taken in Round 2. How did you find out that you had been drafted, and what did Cleveland pay you?
Plum: The draft back then was during the season. So, they had me and others come to New York. Lenny Dawson and John Brodie were considered the top quarterbacks. Most people thought that Pittsburgh was going to take me because I went to Penn State, but that didn’t happen. Back then nobody had an agent and I doubt Paul Brown would have dealt with any agents. My first contract was 14-2. That was $14,000 a year and a $2,000 signing bonus for a two-year deal.
(Original Caption) 12/27/1957- Cleveland, OH- The Cleveland Browns held their last practice here before they leave for Detroit to meet the Lions for the championship playoff game in the National Football League Sunday. From left are: Quarterback Milt Plum, Halfback Ray Renfro, Quarterback Lew Carpenter, Coach Paul Brown and Fullback Jim Brown. The group comprises the starting offensive backfield and only Brown knows who will be Quarterback.
Shuck: You and Jim Brown were drafted in the same class. What was Jim Brown like in a huddle?
Plum: Kind of like everybody else. He was quiet. I always had command of the huddle. It was a different ballgame then. One game I threw 14 passes because Jim Brown was having a real good day. We threw a pass to give him a rest.
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Shuck: What was your first training camp like?
Plum: Early on, Paul Brown came over and told me, “We don’t throw lillypups in this league.” So, he pulled me over to the sideline, and I practiced throwing harder. I was throwing with touch instead of speed. And I had the arm strength; that wasn’t the issue. Training camp was different, but not really hard. One time, Paul Brown had a sore throat. So, he drove his car right out on the field. And when you wanted a play, he would roll his window down and tell you the play. And getting any water was “frowned on.” One practice, there was a guy working on a telephone pole, working on the telephone lines. Paul Brown sent somebody there and got him to climb down and come back where we weren’t practicing because he thought he was spying on us.
Shuck: What type of coach was Paul Brown?
Plum: He was the boss. Nobody else was going to interfere. Defensive coordinator Howard Brinker was his right-hand man and was inseparable, so to speak. But I had nothing to compare him to. Was it an easy camp? Was it a stupid camp? I just knew not to do what I was told and to try not to upset the coach.
1960 Topps football card #22 Milt Plum Cleveland Browns (Topps Archives)
Shuck: Coach Brown was a former quarterback. Was he tough on quarterbacks or did he allow you to develop on your own?
Plum: Not at all. He was a very good teacher and had patience with the quarterbacks. In a way, he steered us in a direction, but he knew we all had different traits. Like, I threw too soft a ball when I first got to Cleveland, and he changed that. But I had good accuracy. And he never raised his voice. I can’t picture him ever chewing anybody out. We took every snap right under center, and now they have few snaps under center. You have to get the ball ready to throw once you get the snap. But I was used to calling my own plays, and Paul Brown sent the plays in himself instead. One time, the messenger guard came into the huddle with the play, and he didn’t say anything. I just looked at him. He forgot the play. I pretty much knew what the next few plays were going to be, so I called one.
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Shuck: Your first game action was in Week 3, when you tossed two passes against Philadelphia. You grew up a huge Eagles fan, and yet your first snap in the NFL was against your childhood team. Was that a conflict for you?
Plum: I remember that I knew more names on the Eagles team than I did my own. But once you put on that uniform, that is your favorite team. I had fond memories of the Eagles in my childhood, but I was now a Browns fan. My mom continued to be an Eagles fan.
Shuck: That year you had two really good offensive tackles with Lou Groza and Mike McCormack. What does it mean for a quarterback to have both tackles Pro Bowl caliber?
Plum: I roomed with Groza, and he smoked cigars. He would smoke in the room and make it stink. You had to be careful what you said around Mike. Whatever you said ended up in Paul Brown’s ear. But he was a good tackle. He worked for an insurance company in the offseason, and one year, he said he was going to focus on business. Paul Brown gave him a big raise, and he stayed. Both men were really good players.
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Shuck: In your rookie year, you split games with QB Tommy O’Connell. The Browns went to the NFL Championship Game. Tommy played the first half and tossed two interceptions. Then you came in the second half and tossed two interceptions. The Lions won handily. Why were the Lions so superior that day?
Plum: I don’t think we could ever have won that game no matter how many times we played it. Detroit was so keyed up. Tommy wasn’t playing well and then hurt his ankle. I came in, and we scored to get us back in the ballgame, and we thought we were doing something. On the kickoff, the Lions ran it all the way back for a touchdown. And at that moment, you could see the air go out of everybody. The Lions had a really good offense that year, and were hard to get them off the field when they had the ball. Back then, Detroit was one of the best teams in the league.
Editor’s note: The Lions won the 1957 NFL Championship Game 59-14.
Philadelphia Eagles defenders Don Burroughs and Chuck Weber track down Cleveland Browns quarterback Milt Plum (Getty Images)
Shuck: That year’s team was a heavy run team. As a throwing quarterback, are you satisfied with running the ball all the time, or are you waiting to throw the ball more?
Plum: That’s the way it was back then. Teams ran the ball. If we had the ball, you couldn’t score. A lot of times the ball was thrown on third down when the distance was too much. But a team that ran the ball also controlled the clock. Defenses back then would score once in a while, but it was mainly up to the offense. So, a good running game kept their offense off the field. And we had Jim Brown. What hurt a little bit was when they traded for Ernie Davis and traded away Bobby Mitchell. Ernie never played a down for us. But that would have been one of the greatest backfields to ever play the game.
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Shuck: The next year, you were named the starter. Did you improve that much in your second training camp?
Plum: My rookie year, I played behind Tommy O’Connell, and he did a good job. But he retired, and I came to training camp in good shape and worked, worked, worked, and became the coach’s pick. We had training camp at Hiram College, and I played well in the preseason. We tied the Giants and then lost the division playoff to see who would play in the championship game.
Shuck: 1960 was a banner year for you. You led the league in completion percentage and were named to the Pro Bowl. What are some of your memories from that season?
Plum: Jim Brown had a great running season. We very seldom threw on first down. And as I said earlier, if we keep the ball, they can’t score. And if we have a running back like Jim Brown, let’s use him. So, we used a lot of short to intermediate passes and then ran the ball. I had very few incompletions that year because of the short passing game. When we played at Washington that year, we were the network’s “Game of the Week.” The field looked great on television, but they had painted it green. Everything we owned had green on it somewhere. They had just come out with cleats that had aluminum tips, but if you walked on concrete, they would chip and become sharp. So, after the kickoff, Washington said we were wearing illegal cleats. We had to go back into the locker room and change our shoes. We took several five-yard penalties for delay of game.
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Shuck: What was it like having Jim Brown and Bobby Mitchell in the same backfield?
Plum: We could do anything we wanted. Mitchell had great hands and was a faster option than Jim Brown. He could play running back or receiver, and was a good blocker. Back then, most teams played two backs in the backfield, with one being a lot bigger. That was the way to go back then. I threw short passes more to Mitchell than I did to Jim Brown. Both had good hands, but we would use Jim Brown as a decoy a lot of times. I was really surprised they traded Mitchell.
Shuck: What kind of blocker was Jim Brown?
Plum: He would stand in there. But really, I didn’t use him as a blocker much. He was either running the ball, catching a short pass, or being a decoy. So, he was involved in almost every play. And if we kept him in to block, that freed up a defender to not be focused on him. If he was having a good game running, I didn’t have to throw much and didn’t need him for protection. If he stayed in to block, it was because he needed a rest.
Jim Brown (32) of Cleveland Browns is stopped at the goal line by flock of Philadelphia Eagles. With hammerlock on Brown is Bobby Jackson (28), being aided by Joe Robb (66), Ed Khayat (73) and Jess Richardson (72). In background; Brown’s Milt Plum (16). (Getty Images)
Shuck: Where did you live in the Cleveland area?
Plum: I first lived in the Westlake Hotel, and then I rented a house in Berea. Then I bought a house in Westlake.
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Shuck: Tell me something about the old Municipal Stadium.
Plum: On one end the flag blew one way, and on the other end the flag blew the other way. We had to play on the infield, and one year, they sodded it. And so, we had dark grass and light grass. But the sod never gripped because of the clay underneath. So, every time you tried to cut, the grass would slide away. In the offseason, I worked for a sign company. And we installed horns and smoke towers into the scoreboard. Every time the smoke was set off, it would run off the guys who were inside the scoreboard.
Shuck: So, you worked for a sign company?
Plum: It was called Brilliant Electric Sign Company. I was in sales every offseason I played in Cleveland, but I never pushed my name. The money from playing football was good for those few months, but it did not carry on for 12 months as it does for players today. Everyone had a second job.
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Shuck: You had some problems with Coach Brown in your two best seasons. Every quarterback in the league called their own plays during this time. Except you. Why was Coach Brown so set on running in plays via messenger guards and not allowing you to call or change plays at the line?
Plum: I was not allowed to call my own plays. Not really. Jim Ray Smith was one of the messenger guards, and later it was Gene Hickerson. Paul Brown was not happy if something happened or if I called a play. He didn’t yell, but he was firm about following his plays. With the other quarterback on the roster, Jim Ninowski, he and Paul Brown had a difficult relationship over not being able to call plays.
Shuck: You had another great year in 1961, then Coach Brown traded you to the Detroit Lions. You were playing great and were just named to the Pro Bowl for the second straight year. Why did he trade you?
Plum: I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that. I really don’t know for sure. All these years, and I don’t mention it. I am not positive. Paul Brown ran the team and never took me aside and told me why he was trading me. Whatever it was, it wasn’t my fault.
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Editor’s note: In an interview with former Browns QB Jim Ninowski, Paul Brown had traded him to the Lions a few seasons earlier, and then Nino became a solid quarterback. Paul Brown wanted him back and traded QB Milt Plum along with other players in a six-player swap. Ninowski was from the Detroit area, had all his family there, started a successful business, and was angry that he had to leave the Lions. Coach Brown had been quoted as saying that trading away Ninowski earlier was one of his biggest regrets.
LINK: QB JIM NINOWSKI INTERVIEW
Shuck: You started right away with the Lions. In your first year, the Lions went 11-3-0, yet did not make the playoffs. Thanksgiving games are a tradition in Detroit. What do players think about it?
Plum: It was a difficult game to prepare for because you didn’t have any time to practice and get ready for your opponent after playing on Sunday. If we won on Thursday, we had Monday off to make it a four-day weekend. What I liked about it was that if we won, I would fly home to New Jersey and spend some time in the middle of the schedule. One year, they hunted me down, and I appeared with Gail Cogill on the “Ed Sullivan Show” (November 25, 1962) at the Ed Sullivan Theater after we had beaten the Packers pretty good. Green Bay rarely came to Detroit on Thanksgiving because Coach Lombardi said he wanted somebody else to get the spotlight. That’s how he got out of it. You play Sunday, and then you play Thursday. They may be okay with it today, but back then you needed a week to recuperate. And then the travel.
Shuck: Out of all the Cleveland Browns quarterbacks that have come and gone, you still hold the team record for the “All-Time Career Regular Season Passer Rating” at 89.9. Hundreds of passers, and you are still ranked #1. Your thoughts?
Plum: Do I get any money for it? It’s nice to have, naturally, but I don’t think about it much. I guess my kids can gloat a little bit.
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Shuck: Other than money, how is the NFL different today than when you played?
Plum: I think they are better athletes. And so much bigger. We had a guy at Detroit who weighed 300 pounds, but most linemen on both sides were between 260 and 280 pounds. They train all year now. Of course, you go back to the money and work out all offseason and stay in the area so that you can be available and collect those workout bonuses. I ran all offseason, and if I could find somebody to throw the ball to, which was hard. I never watched my diet or was on a strict meal plan. I watched my weight and played at 205. Right now, my weight is full of ice cream.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Milt Plum drops back to pass (Getty Images)
Shuck: What is your fondest moment of being a Cleveland Brown?
Plum: When I came in as a rookie, everything was new. I was picked up from the airport by Bobby Freeman, and you don’t know what to expect. I was already thinking that if I didn’t make it, I was going to go back to baseball. And if that didn’t work, I could always go work with my dad at the dairy delivering milk. Yeah, I never had a problem with anybody or anything. I know the stadium held over 80,000, and I read that they didn’t sell many season tickets. But on game day, the line was all the way downtown for single-game tickets, and the stadium would be full. The fans were one of the bright moments of my time in Cleveland.
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