Frank Ryan, the last quarterback to lead the Cleveland Browns to a championship, has died following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 87.
Ryan and the Browns won the NFL Championship — back before it was called the Super Bowl — in 1964. That title 60 years ago was the last for the franchise, as the Browns are one of the few remaining teams to not have played in the Super Bowl.
In the 1964 championship, Ryan threw three touchdown passes, each to Gary Collins, lifting the Browns past the heavily favored Baltimore Colts and QB Johnny Unitas by a 27-0 count.Ryan and wife Joan were married for 65 years. He donated his brain to the CTE center at Boston University.
Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com reports:
Ryan had an amazing career well beyond his 13 years in the NFL. He taught math at Rice University, Yale and Case Western University. When he was leading the Browns to the 1964 title, he also was working on his Ph.D. in math at Rice. Yes, playing football and doing high-level graduate math work at the same time.
Ryan was with the Browns from 1962-68. He had a 52-22 record as a Cleveland starter, throwing 134 TD passes compared to 88 interceptions. He made three Pro Bowls.
After Ryan retired from the NFL in 1970, he spent seven years working for the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the director of development for the first computer voting system in the U.S. Congress. Ryan later spent 10 years as athletic director at Yale.
He was very aware of the dangers of concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) disease from football. He believed that played a role in him developing Alzheimer’s.
