CLEVELAND, Ohio – More than 60 years ago, the Cleveland Browns played a game two days after one of the nation’s darkest moments.
On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. On Sunday, Nov. 24, the NFL went ahead with 10 games.
With a nation in mourning, the Cowboys came to town. And before the game, Browns owner Art Modell made an incredible request to his public-address announcer Johnny Holliday.
Here’s what happened:
Holliday, in the beginning of a long career that spanned multiple stations and games in several cities, had worked as a spotter at Browns games for opposing teams’ radio. Spotters work silently, usually in the booth, helping the play-by-play announcer identify players – who made the tackle, who the intended receiver was, who is down injured.
“Any time the other team would call me up and say, ‘I’ve got 25 bucks for you’ – I was only making $150 for WHK at the time,” he told cleveland.com this year.
Holliday had read that the Browns’ PA announcer had passed away in the offseason. On Nov. 27, 1962, Bob Smith was serving as master of ceremonies at a Massillon sportsmanship dinner. He had collapsed and died. He was 48.
“I called the Browns and asked for Mr. Modell, not expecting that I would get through to him,” Holliday recalled. “He picks up the phone.
“‘Hello Mr. Modell?”
“Yeah?” came the owner’s response.
“It’s Johnny Holliday,” the radio man said, not knowing what he was in for with Modell’s reception. But any doubts were immediately put to rest.
1976 Press Photo Pete Rozelle Art Modell
NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and Browns owner Art Modell in 1976. (Plain Dealer photo)Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Hi Johnny, how are you? I listen to you every afternoon going home,” Holliday said, feeling relieved his foot was in the door.”
He asked what Modell’s plans were about the PA job and was told the team’s spotter was going to get it. But then he asked: “Are you interested?”
“Tell you what,” Modell added, “we’ve got this doubleheader coming up. You do the first game, he can do the second game.”
Modell is remembered by many of recent generations for moving the Browns to Baltimore in the 1990s. But with his background in advertising and marketing he was not afraid to try things, including doubleheaders with four teams in one stadium in the 1960s.
So Holliday worked the game with the team spotter on the field, the two scurrying along the sidelines.
Modell was pleased. He called down and said he wanted Holliday to work the second game as well. Any guilt Holliday felt about horning in on the spotter’s chance to become a PA announcer quickly dissipated.
The spotter – whose name Holliday could not recall – told him: “I could have never done this. He (Modell) was just being kind, offering me the job, but I could never have done this.”
Months later came the fateful game with Dallas.
“Everyone was up in arms and unrest with what happened in Dallas,” Holliday said. “Mr. Modell says, ‘Johnny, I want you to do something for me and I know you can do it. I don’t want you to mention the word “Dallas” at all during the game.’”
“I said, ‘Ahhh … OK.”
“He said, ‘You can do anything you want to do, but do not use the word ‘Dallas’ on Sunday because the fans will erupt in boos and it will be very uncomfortable.
President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy are greeted by an enthusiastic crowd upon their arrival at Dallas Love Field, on Nov. 22, 1963. Hours later the president was assassinated while riding in an open-top limousine through the city.
President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy are greeted by an enthusiastic crowd upon their arrival at Dallas Love Field, on Nov. 22, 1963. A few hours later the president was assassinated while riding in an open-top limousine through the city.Associated Press
“So I did the entire game just calling them ‘Cowboys,’ ‘visitors,’ ‘the other team,’ ‘guys in gray and blue.’ I never mentioned the word ‘Dallas.’ It was really tough, because naturally you’re going to say ‘Second and five at the Daaaahhh’ – you catch yourself and it was probably the most difficult thing I have ever done in over 60 years.”
After the game Modell called him and said, “You earned your 35 dollars for this one.”
Holliday, now 88, is the longtime play-by-play voice for the University of Maryland. Years after the 1963 game that demanded Holliday’s linguistic gymnastics, Modell landed in Baltimore with the Ravens.
“I broadcast all the University of Maryland games. We had a game in Baltimore. I asked if Modell was there. He wasn’t. I had a napkin and I put on it, ‘Hey if you need a PA guy I’m available for 35 bucks a game.’ I gave it to an usher in the press box to give it to him the next day the Ravens were playing.
“I get a call from him the following Monday. Thirty-five bucks - is that what I paid you? You’re at least worth 40 now.’”
“He was the nicest man, I loved the guy,” Holliday said.
Holliday had a long career in radio but has fond memories of his time in Cleveland. When he worked at WHK the station had a pretty good basketball team, and they would play promotional games for charity. Once, they played members of the Browns and beat them.
“Jim Brown was a tremendous basketball player,” Holliday said of the great running back and multi-sport athlete. “We had a very good team.” The station had ringers that at times included Gene Michael, who would go on to play for and later manage the New York Yankees, as well as Gus Johnson, a future NBA player.
Years later Holliday ran into Brown.
“I said, ‘Jim, you don’t remember me? I was in Cleveland when you were in Cleveland,’” Holliday recalled. “Do you remember the game we played you guys?”
Brown did, in fact, remember the game.
“You know what I remember about that game?” Holliday remembers Brown saying. “You could shoot, you could score, you could distribute. You did everything. I could have flattened you with one shot. But I didn’t because I really liked you.”
Holliday laughed: “At 6-2, 225, thank you. I’m 5-8, 150 right?”
When he worked in Cleveland, Holliday lived near Warrensville Heights High School and used to pitch batting practice to the school team, which included future Major Leaguer Sal Bando.
“I still consider that city that jumpstart of my career,” Holliday said. “I was only there for five years, but I did my first television there, I did my first theater there, at Cain Park summer theater.”
He added he and famed comedian Tim Conway were the voices for Big Boy restaurants, “and the outtakes were better than the commercials. All I did was laugh at him. Great city for me, and the people were some of my all-time favorites.”
And to think an early start for Holliday came on a 35-degree day at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1963.
That day, Cleveland – a 7.5-point favorite - jumped to a first-quarter lead against Dallas and never looked back, winning, 27-17.
Frank Ryan was 13 of 26 for 162 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. His counterpart with the Cowboys, “Dandy” Don Meredith, had a miserable afternoon. He was 13 of 30 for 93 yards and four interceptions. He was sacked twice.
Cleveland’s run game punched at Dallas’ defense. Ernie Green rushed for 97 yards on seven attempts, including a 51-yard run. Jim Brown plowed his way through for 51 yards on 17 carries.
The game in Cleveland begs a what-if scenario: Would the league have canceled games if the game had been scheduled to be in Dallas and not Cleveland?
Commissioner Pete Rozelle had decided to go on with the games after consulting with his friend Pierre Salinger, Kennedy’s press secretary.
Decades later, Rozelle called playing the games the worst decision he made.
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