Otto Everett Graham Jr. was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference and National Football League. He also played basketball for the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League, winning the 1945–46 championship. In his college career, he won the Heisman Trophy and was named the conference’s Most Valuable Player, and finished third in the national voting for the Heisman. Graham also coached college teams in the College All-Star Game and became head football coach for the Coast Guard Bears at the United States Coast Guard Academy. Graham died in a car crash in 2007, leaving behind a wife and three children.
About Otto Graham in brief
Otto Everett Graham Jr. was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference and National Football League. Graham is regarded by critics as one of the most dominant players of his era, having taken the Browns to league championship games every year between 1946 and 1955. He also holds the record for the highest career winning percentage for an NFL starting quarterback, at 0.810. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. Graham also coached college teams in the College All-Star Game and became head football coach for the Coast Guard Bears at the United States Coast Guard Academy. In 1966, he was hired as head coach of the Washington Redskins, but after three unsuccessful years with them, he resigned and returned to the Coast Guards Academy, where he served as athletic director until his retirement in 1984. Graham was the first of only two people to have won championships in two of the four major North American sports. He played basketball for the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League, winning the 1945–46 championship. In his college career, he won the Heisman Trophy and was named the conference’s Most Valuable Player, and finished third in the national voting for the Heisman. Graham died in a car crash in 2007, leaving behind a wife and three children. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son, Michael Graham, who was a high school football coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He died of a heart attack in 2011 at the age of 83.
He had been diagnosed with multiple myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare form of cancer that affects the heart and lungs, and was in the hospital receiving treatment when he died. Graham’s son Michael was also a football player, playing for the Northwestern Wildcats during the 1940s and 1950s. He won the Big Ten Conference passing record, setting a single-season passing record for major college teams from the Midwestern United States. Graham played for the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II and was a member of the Navy’s Great Lakes Naval Station. He served in the Navy until the end of the war, and continued to play football for Northwestern after the war. Graham served as captain of the Northwestern football team during the 1950s and 1960s. His son Michael Graham is a professional football coach and a former NFL quarterback. Graham has been called “one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history” and “the greatest quarterback of all time” by George Steinbrenner. He has been inducted into the NFL Hall of Famer and the College Football Hall Of Fame. Graham had two children with his first wife, Barbara, and one with his second wife, Susan. He passed for more than 2,000 touchdowns in his college and professional football careers. Graham passed for two touchdowns in a game against the Ohio State Buckeyes, coached by Paul Brown, the Buckeyes’ only loss of the 1941 season. Graham won the 1946 NBL and AAFC titles in the NBL.
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