Life After Football...Otto Graham

He was a star tailback at Northwestern University, but he is best remembered as quarterback of the Cleveland Browns during a 10-year period (1946 – 55) in which they won 105 games, lost 17, and tied 5 in regular season play and won 7 of 10 championship games. Graham's career average yardage per pass (8.63) was still an NFL record at the beginning of the 21st century.

Following his retirement, Graham served as head coach of the College All-Stars in their 1958 clash against the defending NFL champions, leading the squad to a convincing 35-19 victory over the Detroit Lions. The following year, he accepted a full-time position as head football coach at the Coast Guard Academy, where he served for seven seasons, leading the team to an undefeated regular season campaign in 1963. In that same year he coached the College All Stars to a 20-17 upset victory over Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers.

Graham found time to return to professional football during the 1964 and 1965 seasons by moonlighting as a radio commentator for the American Football League's New York Jets.

Between 1966 and 1968, Graham coached the Washington Redskins, but whatever magic he had as an NFL player disappeared on the sidelines as the team recorded a mark of 17-22-3 during that time period.

After resigning the Redskins' post in favor of the legendary Vince Lombardi, Graham returned as athletic director of the Coast Guard Academy before retiring at the end of 1984.

Graham and Lombardi would be linked again when Graham underwent surgery for colorectal cancer in 1977, the disease that claimed Lombardi's life seven years earlier. Graham subsequently became a vocal supporter of early detection of the disease

Graham's 1963 CGA team was undefeated in the regular season but was trounced by a Western Kentucky team, 27-0 in the Tangerine Bowl.

Graham died of a heart aneurysm in Sarasota, Florida on December 17, 2003. At the funeral held days later, Graham's longtime friend, George Steinbrenner, fainted, leading to extensive media speculation that he was in ill health, but Steinbrenner lived another six years.