Frank Ryan, last Browns QB to win a championship, dies at 87
Frank Ryan, the last quarterback to lead the Cleveland Browns to an NFL championship, died Monday, the team announced. He was 87 years old.
Ryan reportedly died of Alzheimer's disease at a nursing home in Waterford, Connecticut.
In a statement provided by the Browns, Ryan's family said they believed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) played a role in the progression of his Alzheimer's and that he "emphatically warned those closest to him about the concussion and other injury risks associated with football." His brain will be donated to the Boston University CTE Center for further research.
Ryan was under center for the Browns when the team stunned the favored Baltimore Colts 27-0 in the 1964 NFL championship, the second-to-last season before the NFL began the Super Bowl era.
Facing Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas, Ryan went 11-for-18 for 206 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception, while Jim Brown — who died last year — posted 114 rushing yards and 37 receiving yards. Wide receiver Gary Collins was named MVP of the game after posting 130 receiving yards and catching all three of Ryan's touchdowns.
Ryan led the NFL in passing touchdowns that year with 25 and accrued a 52-22-2 record as a starter in seven seasons with Cleveland. He joined the team in 1962 after demanding a trade from the Los Angeles Rams, who drafted him in the fifth round out of Rice in 1958 and used him as a backup quarterback for four years.
Ryan ended his career with two seasons in Washington, retiring in 1971.
What's most remarkable about Ryan's football career, however, was what he did while moonlighting.
Ryan was a nuclear physics major at Rice and completed work on a doctorate in mathematics at the school during his offseason, per Rice. In 1967, when he was still playing in the NFL, Ryan became an assistant professor at Cleveland's Case Institute of Technology (now known as Case Western Reserve University), teaching advanced math electives.
He also learned computer programming while at Case and used those skills with Washington, compiling advanced statistics for the team.
After retiring, Ryan worked for the U.S. House of Representatives as director of information services, spearheading the creation of the chamber's first computerized voting system. He left in 1978 for Yale, where he worked as both athletic director and a lecturer in mathematics, then returned to Rice in 1990 to serve as vice president of external affairs and professor of computational and applied mathematics.
