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Frank Ryan, the quarterback of the last Cleveland Browns team to win a league championship, died on Monday at the age of 87. His son, Frank “Pancho” Ryan Jr. announced that his father died while living in a nursing home in Connecticut.
Ryan played in the NFL for 13 seasons, making three Pro Bowls and amassing a 52-22 record as Cleveland’s starting quarterback.
Ryan was more than a standout quarterback, as evidenced during and long after his playing days. Several months after winning the NFL championship, Ryan received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Rice University, where he played college football. He actually taught while playing with the Browns, working as a professor of mathematics at what’s now Case Western University, and eventually taught at Yale and Rice after his football career ended.
In that regard, his story was a forerunner of sorts for plenty of other active NFL players who became just as accomplished in seemingly and equally complicated fields outside of football such as Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Dobbs and former Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel.
Although he played under legendary coach Paul Brown, Ryan didn’t truly flourish until Brown was replaced by Blanton Collier in 1963. Brown made every decision for his quarterback, but it was Collier who truly let him shine, leading to great success in central Ohio. As noted in the obituary from the New York Times, Ryan once said that Brown more or less said to put his whole self into football:
“I didn’t turn mathematics off during the season, but I turned it down,” Ryan told Sports Illustrated. “I remember Brown saying once, ‘Ryan, you sure better sharpen your pencil in football.’”
“Blanton Collier, who succeeded Brown as coach in 1963, allowed Ryan considerable input in game planning, and Ryan took the Browns to the playoffs four times in his seven seasons with them, emerging as one of the NFL’s most accurate passers while capable of unleashing long throws.”
In 1964, Ryan led the league in touchdown passes in with 25 and would do so again two seasons later with a career-best 29. He retired with 16,042 passing yards, 149 touchdowns and 111 interceptions. After retirement, Ryan worked for the U.S. House of Representatives for seven years, bringing computers into the lower chamber for the first time to improve the voting system. He also worked as Yale’s athletic director for a decade.
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