American football quarterback who played in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns (1946-1955), a decade considered the team’s Golden Age.
Graham was drafted in 1944 by the Detroit Lions. He signed with Cleveland Browns of AAFC in 1946, and led that team to 10 championship games in his 10 seasons with the team, winning seven. He retired at age 33, and was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame on 12 September 1965. In 1999, he was named one of the 100 top athletes of the millennium by ESPN and one of Sports Illustrated’s top six football players of all-time.
In 1959, after retiring from active play, he became the Athletic Director and football coach at the United States Coast Guard Academy and led the Bears to an undefeated season in 1963. He was also named to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness.From 1966-1968, he was head coach and general manager of the Washington Redskins and went on to coach the east team in the 1968 NFL Pro Bowl.
Graham set his first state record at birth, weighing in at 14 pounds, 12 ounces. His parents, music teachers, ensured that their four sons learned to play musical instruments, and Otto learned the piano, violin, cornet, and French horn. At age 16, he became Illinois French horn and basketball scoring champion. With a sterling sports record in high school, he accepted a full basketball scholarship to the Evanston campus of the University of Illinois, where he continued his illustrious record and won several awards. Named Big Ten football and basketball MVP in the same scholastic year, he also had one of the highest batting averages, and earned eight varsity letters before graduating early. Enrolling in the Navy’s V-5 carrier program after Pearl Harbor, he married his college sweetheart, Beverly Collinge in 1945; together they had three children and two foster daughters.
In 1977, he was diagnosed with rectal cancer and underwent a colostomy. After he won a golf tournament with Joe DiMaggio, he was named honorary national chairman of the National Cancer Society.
He died in Sarasota Florida of a heart aneurysm on 17 December 2003 at age 82.
Link to Wikipedia biography