Playing for the awesome Cleveland Browns teams of 1947-1953 which produced seven players and a head coach now enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame, he was one of the very best. An All-American tackle at Ohio State, he became the first African-American player signed by an All-American Football Conference team when Paul Brown recruited […]
Joe left the comparative tranquility of rural Illinois in 1970 to accept an offer to come to Cleveland and become the radio play-by-play voice of the newly formed Cleveland Cavaliers. It turned out to be one of the best deals the Cavs ever made. Certainly none of their transactions have had a longer lasting impact […]
Warrensville Heights already boasted an enviable record as a small school which produced outstanding athletes when one of its future students began his adolescent growth spurt in the mid-70s. By the time he reached high school age, he was nearly seven feet tall, and while he was a bit on the spindly side, it was […]
Honors went hand-in-large-hand with the consistently solid basketball play of one Michael “Campy” Russell during a spectacular college and professional career. The Pontiac (MI) Central High product played just two varsity seasons with the University of Michigan, averaging 18.4 points as a sophomore, then 23.7 points and 11.1 rebounds as a junior in 1973-74. His […]
Joe Nossek spent 43 years in professional baseball, 37 of them in a major league uniform. No native Clevelander had ever matched those numbers when he hung up his Chicago White Sox uniform for the final time in the spring of 2004 to retire with his wife, Jean, to their home in Amherst. His lengthy […]
On a quiet news day in 1968, unsuspecting Greater Clevelanders were mildly surprised to learn that a little-known local attorney had purchased the Cleveland Arena and its prime tenant, the Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League. Little did they know they were reading the opening chapter of a local sports saga which in the […]
He came to Cleveland from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada in 1983 to play for pay for Cleveland’s professional indoor soccer team, the Cleveland Force. His rookie season left ample room for improvement, covering five games and producing one assist. His chance to redeem himself would be a long time coming. It would be six years, and […]
In a nine-year span, which began on the neighborhood fields of Cleveland St. Joseph’s High and culminated in the plush surroundings of the Louisiana Superdome, Desmond Howard assembled a collection of football honors matched just twice before in the history of the sport. The talented speedster earned high school All-American honors as a tailback at […]
Born and raised in a nickel mining town in northern Ontario, where you could play hockey outdoors form October until mid-April, Bob Whidden followed his heart and talents to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization in 1967 at age 21 after two years in the Ontario Junior League. After six minor league seasons, he signed with […]
The persuasive conviction of a high school coach and the willingness of a college recruiter to take a gamble on a 6’3″ 185 lb linebacker paid handsome dividends for this East Cleveland native. Limited by an injury to only three football games as a senior at Shaw High, after playing in just seven varsity contests […]