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Paul Brown: The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Football's Most Innovative Coach
Paul Brown is a football legend, yet few fans know the story of this very private man. This book follows Brown’s life and career, from his childhood and college years through his domination as a coach on every major level — high school, collegiate, and pro — to his painful exile from a sport he essentially helped create. In relating the story of Paul Brown and his gridiron innovations, Andrew O’Toole tells the story of modern day football.
440 pages, Hardcover
First published July 28, 2008
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About the author
Andrew O'Toole
12 books6 followersAndrew OToole is the author of six books including Sweet William: the Life of Billy Conn, and Smiling Irish Eyes: Art Rooney and the Pittsburgh Steelers. A native of Pittsburgh, OToole today resides in Lebanon, Ohio with his wife, Mickie."
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 18, 2022
I have this book as five stars because it did what it was suppose to do - give a honest portrayal of Paul Brown’s life. It’s not The Brothers Karamazov, but it doesn’t have to be. It did its job.
Personally, I read this as part of my reading quest to chronicle the history of Ohio State football. It’s a bit of a stretch to include it as there are only about 50 pages (out of 420) actually dedicated to his time at Ohio State, but I think that it was important to include because in those 50 pages, OSU won its first national championship.
I’m also as big of a Cleveland Browns fan as I am an OSU one so it seemed like a no-brainer to read. Getting through and staying invested in the chapters dedicated to the Bengals was a challenge, though. However, it was fun to see a couple references to Cris Collingsworth.
Overall, I enjoyed reading about his five (if I remember correctly) consecutive state titles at Massillon, the college football landscape during WW2, and the various professional football league mergers and challenges in the decades that followed.
As Paul Brown’s career was very long, this book had a lot of ground to cover so there is very little game to game analysis. I also wished they talked about Jim Brown a little more.
Personally, I read this as part of my reading quest to chronicle the history of Ohio State football. It’s a bit of a stretch to include it as there are only about 50 pages (out of 420) actually dedicated to his time at Ohio State, but I think that it was important to include because in those 50 pages, OSU won its first national championship.
I’m also as big of a Cleveland Browns fan as I am an OSU one so it seemed like a no-brainer to read. Getting through and staying invested in the chapters dedicated to the Bengals was a challenge, though. However, it was fun to see a couple references to Cris Collingsworth.
Overall, I enjoyed reading about his five (if I remember correctly) consecutive state titles at Massillon, the college football landscape during WW2, and the various professional football league mergers and challenges in the decades that followed.
As Paul Brown’s career was very long, this book had a lot of ground to cover so there is very little game to game analysis. I also wished they talked about Jim Brown a little more.
April 2, 2018
Great book for the Brownie fan. Paul Brown helped to invent the NFL and modern football.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews