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Blanton Collier
Blanton Long Collier (July 2, 1906 – March 22, 1983) was an American football head coach who coached at the University of Kentucky between 1954 and 1961 and for the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League (NFL) between 1963 and 1970. His 1964 Browns team won the NFL championship and remains the second-most recent Cleveland professional sports team to win a title.
Collier grew up in Paris, Kentucky, and attended Paris High School. After graduating from Georgetown College, he returned to his old high school to teach and coach sports for 16 years. Collier left the position to join the U.S. Navy in 1943 during World War II. At a naval base outside of Chicago, he met Paul Brown, who was coaching a service football team there. After the war, Brown hired Collier as an assistant coach for the Browns, a team under formation in the All-America Football Conference. After seven years as Brown's top aide, a span over which the Cleveland team won five league championships, Collier took a job as head football coach at Kentucky in 1954. His Kentucky Wildcats teams amassed a 41–36–3 win-loss-tie record over eight seasons.
Collier was fired after the 1961 season and Brown rehired him as an assistant. Art Modell, the owner of the Browns, then fired Brown in 1963 and promoted Collier to head coach. Under Collier, the Browns reached the NFL championship game four times and won once, in 1964. In eight seasons as a professional football coach with the Browns, they never had a losing season under Collier, who won 69% of his games, one of the highest winning percentages in NFL history for coaches with at least 100 games coached, which ranks among the top ten ahead of numerous head coaches. Struggling with hearing loss, Collier retired after the 1970 season, although he remained a scout and quarterbacks coach for several more years. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1976, and retired to Texas, where he died in 1983.
Collier was well-liked by players and renowned as a good sportsman and student of the game. The Kentucky chapter of the NFL Players Association in 2007 established the Blanton Collier Award in his honor. The Paris High School football field is named after him.
Born in Millersburg, Kentucky, to O.H. and Eva (née Long) Collier; the family moved to nearby Paris when Collier was age six. He attended from Paris High School, where he played football and basketball, and worked as a tobacco-picker in the summers during high school. After graduating, he enrolled at Kentucky's Georgetown College, playing on the football team and earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1927.
Collier went to work at Paris High School in 1928 as a mathematics teacher, and coached several of the school's sports teams. He got the nickname "George" when he was a teacher because he affectionately called most of his male students "George" and most of his female students "Martha". He married Mary Varder from Paris in 1930, and spent 16 years at the high school before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1943 during World War II. Collier's Paris football team had an overall record of 73–50–10. Collier was 37 years old when he joined the military; although he likely could have avoided enlisting because he was a teacher and had a family, he felt serving in the war was his duty.
Collier was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station north of Chicago, where he was a survival swimming instructor. In the Navy, Collier first had trouble with his hearing, a problem that bothered him later in life. He was once called to report to his ship over a loudspeaker, but did not hear it. Doctors thought his hearing may have been damaged by teaching swimming in a tidal pool or from practicing on the shooting range. "It never became an issue until the Navy, when they figured he had less than 40% of a normal person's hearing," his daughter Kay Collier-Slone said in 1997. To compensate for his hearing loss, Collier became an expert lip reader.
At Great Lakes, Collier went regularly to observe the practices of the station's service football team, the Great Lakes Bluejackets. There, he met Paul Brown, who had left a head-coaching job at Ohio State University to serve in the Navy and lead the Bluejackets team. Collier took notes and hoped to pick up some football knowledge he could use when he returned to Paris. Brown, however, noticed Collier's dedication, and brought him onto his staff as a volunteer assistant.
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Blanton Collier
Blanton Long Collier (July 2, 1906 – March 22, 1983) was an American football head coach who coached at the University of Kentucky between 1954 and 1961 and for the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League (NFL) between 1963 and 1970. His 1964 Browns team won the NFL championship and remains the second-most recent Cleveland professional sports team to win a title.
Collier grew up in Paris, Kentucky, and attended Paris High School. After graduating from Georgetown College, he returned to his old high school to teach and coach sports for 16 years. Collier left the position to join the U.S. Navy in 1943 during World War II. At a naval base outside of Chicago, he met Paul Brown, who was coaching a service football team there. After the war, Brown hired Collier as an assistant coach for the Browns, a team under formation in the All-America Football Conference. After seven years as Brown's top aide, a span over which the Cleveland team won five league championships, Collier took a job as head football coach at Kentucky in 1954. His Kentucky Wildcats teams amassed a 41–36–3 win-loss-tie record over eight seasons.
Collier was fired after the 1961 season and Brown rehired him as an assistant. Art Modell, the owner of the Browns, then fired Brown in 1963 and promoted Collier to head coach. Under Collier, the Browns reached the NFL championship game four times and won once, in 1964. In eight seasons as a professional football coach with the Browns, they never had a losing season under Collier, who won 69% of his games, one of the highest winning percentages in NFL history for coaches with at least 100 games coached, which ranks among the top ten ahead of numerous head coaches. Struggling with hearing loss, Collier retired after the 1970 season, although he remained a scout and quarterbacks coach for several more years. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1976, and retired to Texas, where he died in 1983.
Collier was well-liked by players and renowned as a good sportsman and student of the game. The Kentucky chapter of the NFL Players Association in 2007 established the Blanton Collier Award in his honor. The Paris High School football field is named after him.
Born in Millersburg, Kentucky, to O.H. and Eva (née Long) Collier; the family moved to nearby Paris when Collier was age six. He attended from Paris High School, where he played football and basketball, and worked as a tobacco-picker in the summers during high school. After graduating, he enrolled at Kentucky's Georgetown College, playing on the football team and earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1927.
Collier went to work at Paris High School in 1928 as a mathematics teacher, and coached several of the school's sports teams. He got the nickname "George" when he was a teacher because he affectionately called most of his male students "George" and most of his female students "Martha". He married Mary Varder from Paris in 1930, and spent 16 years at the high school before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1943 during World War II. Collier's Paris football team had an overall record of 73–50–10. Collier was 37 years old when he joined the military; although he likely could have avoided enlisting because he was a teacher and had a family, he felt serving in the war was his duty.
Collier was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station north of Chicago, where he was a survival swimming instructor. In the Navy, Collier first had trouble with his hearing, a problem that bothered him later in life. He was once called to report to his ship over a loudspeaker, but did not hear it. Doctors thought his hearing may have been damaged by teaching swimming in a tidal pool or from practicing on the shooting range. "It never became an issue until the Navy, when they figured he had less than 40% of a normal person's hearing," his daughter Kay Collier-Slone said in 1997. To compensate for his hearing loss, Collier became an expert lip reader.
At Great Lakes, Collier went regularly to observe the practices of the station's service football team, the Great Lakes Bluejackets. There, he met Paul Brown, who had left a head-coaching job at Ohio State University to serve in the Navy and lead the Bluejackets team. Collier took notes and hoped to pick up some football knowledge he could use when he returned to Paris. Brown, however, noticed Collier's dedication, and brought him onto his staff as a volunteer assistant.