Otto Graham

Otto Graham

Graham in 1959
No. 60, 14
Position:	Quarterback
Personal information
Born:	(1921-12-06)December 6, 1921 Waukegan, Illinois, U.S.
Died:	December 17, 2003(2003-12-17) (aged 82) Sarasota, Florida, U.S.
Height:	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight:	196 lb (89 kg)
Career information
High school:	Waukegan
College:	Northwestern (1941–1943)
NFL draft:	1944 / Round: 1 / Pick: 4
Career history
As a player:
Cleveland Browns (1946–1955)
As a coach:
Coast Guard Bears (1959–1965) Head coach Washington Redskins (1966–1968) Head coach Coast Guard Bears (1974–1975) Head coach
As an executive:
Washington Redskins (1966–1968) General manager
Career highlights and awards
As a player 3× NFL champion (1950, 1954, 1955) 4× AAFC champion (1946–1949) 3× NFL Most Valuable Player (1951, 1953, 1955) 2× AAFC Most Valuable Player (1947, 1948) 4× First-team All-Pro (1951, 1953–1955) 3× First-team All-AAFC (1947–1949) 2× Second-team All-Pro (1950, 1952) Second-team All-AAFC (1946) 5× Pro Bowl (1950–1954) 2× NFL passing yards leader (1952, 1953) NFL passing touchdowns leader (1952) 2× NFL passer rating leader (1953, 1955) 3× NFL completion percentage leader (1953–1955) 3× AAFC passing yards leader (1947–1949) 2× AAFC passing touchdowns leader (1946, 1947) AAFC completion percentage leader (1947) NFL 1950s All-Decade Team NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team Cleveland Browns Ring of Honor Cleveland Browns No. 14 retired First-team All-American (1943) Third-team All-American (1942) Chicago Tribune Silver Football (1943) First-team All-Big Ten (1943) 2× Second-team All-Big Ten (1941, 1942) AAFC records Most passing yards in a season: 2,785 (1949) Highest completion percentage in a season: 60.6% (1947) Highest passer rating in a season: 112.1 (1946) NFL Records Most career yards per passing attempt (minimum 1500 passing attempts): 8.6
Career AAFC/NFL statistics
Passing attempts: 2,626 Passing completions: 1,464 Completion percentage: 55.8% TD–INT: 174–135 Passing yards: 23,584 Passer rating: 86.6 Rushing yards: 882 Rushing touchdowns: 44
Head coaching record
Career:	NFL: 17–22–3 (.440)
Player stats at NFL.com · PFR
Coaching stats at PFR
Executive profile at PFR
Pro Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame

Otto Everett Graham Jr. (December 6, 1921 – December 17, 2003) was an American professional football quarterback who played for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. Graham is regarded by critics as one of the most dominant players of his era and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, having taken the Browns to league championship games every year between 1946 and 1955, making ten championship appearances, and winning seven of them. With Graham at quarterback, the Browns posted a record of 105 wins, 17 losses, and 4 ties, including a 9–3 win–loss record in the AAFC and NFL playoffs. He holds the NFL record for career average yards gained per pass attempt, with 8.63. He also holds the record for the highest career winning percentage for an NFL starting quarterback, at 81.0%. Long-time New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, a friend of Graham's, once called him "as great of a quarterback as there ever was."^[1]

Graham grew up in Waukegan, Illinois, the son of music teachers. He entered Northwestern University in 1940 on a basketball scholarship, but football soon became his main sport. After a brief stint in the military at the end of World War II, Graham played for the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League (NBL), winning the 1945–46 championship. Paul Brown, Cleveland's coach, signed Graham to play for the Browns, where he thrived. Graham's 1946 NBL and AAFC titles made him the first of only two people to have won championships in two of the four major North American sports (the second was Gene Conley). After he retired from playing football in 1955, Graham coached college teams in the College All-Star Game and became head football coach for the Coast Guard Bears at the United States Coast Guard Academy. After seven years there, he was hired as head coach of the Washington Redskins in 1966. Following three unsuccessful years with them, he resigned and returned to the Coast Guard Academy, where he served as athletic director until his retirement in 1984. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965.