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Frank Ryan, who quarterbacked the Cleveland Browns to their last NFL championship in 1964, has died. He was 87.
He died from complications with Alzheimer’s disease at a Waterford, Connecticut nursing home on Monday, his son Frank “Pancho” Ryan Jr. told cleveland.com.
Ryan played college football at Rice University in Houston before he was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1958. He joined the Cleveland Browns in 1962, leading one of the best offenses in the NFL with star running back Jim Brown.
He spent seven seasons with Cleveland, compiling a 52-22-2 record as a starter, and made three Pro Bowls. The highlight of his time in Cleveland came in the 1964 NFL Championship Game where the Browns upset Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts 27-0. Ryan threw three touchdowns in the win. The league held the first Super Bowl two years later and the Browns remain one of four teams to never make the Super Bowl.
Cleveland as a city went without a championship for 52 years before the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA title.
He retired in 1970 after two seasons with Washington.
During his playing days, Ryan earned a Masters and then a doctorate in mathematics from Rice and he was an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland from 1967 to 1971. He later taught at Yale and Rice, too.
He also was the athletic director at Yale for 10 years.
Like numerous other retired professional football players, Ryan donated his brain to Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, which studies how concussions affect the brain.
With News Wire Services
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