1960 Cleveland Browns season

1960 Cleveland Browns season
Head coach	Paul Brown
Home field	Cleveland Stadium
Local radio	WGAR
Results
Record	8–3–1
Division place	2nd NFL Eastern
Playoff finish	Lost NFL Playoff Bowl (vs. Lions) 16–17
Pro Bowlers	Ray Renfro, FL Bernie Parrish, CB Milt Plum, QB Bobby Mitchell, HB Mike McCormack, RT Jim Ray Smith, G Jim Brown, FB

The 1960 Cleveland Browns season was the team's 11th season with the National Football League. The 1960 Browns compiled an 8–3–1 record, and finished second in the NFL's Eastern Conference, behind the NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles. As runner-up, the Browns qualified for the inaugural third place Playoff Bowl in Miami, but lost 17–16 to the Detroit Lions on January 7.

Preseason

Game	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance	Sources
1	August 13	at Detroit Lions	W 28–14	1–0	Briggs Stadium	24,620
2	August 18	at Pittsburgh Steelers	W 27–24	2–0	Pitt Stadium	16,360
3	August 27	at Los Angeles Rams	L 17–22	2–1	L.A. Memorial Coliseum	48,175
4	September 3	vs. San Francisco 49ers	W 26–24	3–1	Multnomah Stadium (Portland, OR)	25,898
5	September 10	vs. Chicago Bears	W 16–10	4–1	Rubber Bowl (Akron, OH)	21,568
6	September 17	Detroit Lions	W 14–10	5–1	Cleveland Stadium	25,911

Regular season

Main article: 1960 NFL season

A bye week was necessary in 1960, as the league expanded to an odd-number (13) of teams (Dallas); one team was idle each week.

Schedule

Game	Date	Opponent	Time	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance	Recap
1	September 25	at Philadelphia Eagles	1:30 p.m. EDT	W 41–24	1–0	Franklin Field	56,303
2	October 2	Pittsburgh Steelers	2:00 p.m. EDT	W 28–20	2–0	Cleveland Stadium	67,692
—	Bye
3	October 16	at Dallas Cowboys	2:30 p.m. EST	W 48–7	3–0	Cotton Bowl	28,500
4	October 23	Philadelphia Eagles	2:00 p.m. EST	L 29–31	3–1	Cleveland Stadium	64,850
5	October 30	at Washington Redskins	2:00 p.m. EST	W 31–10	4–1	Griffith Stadium	32,086
6	November 6	New York Giants	2:00 p.m. EST	L 13–17	4–2	Cleveland Stadium	82,872
7	November 13	St. Louis Cardinals	2:00 p.m. EST	W 28–27	5–2	Cleveland Stadium	49,192
8	November 20	at Pittsburgh Steelers	2:00 p.m. EST	L 10–14	5–3	Forbes Field	35,215
9	November 27	at St. Louis Cardinals	2:00 p.m. EST	T 17–17	5–3–1	Busch Stadium I	26,146
10	December 4	Washington Redskins	2:00 p.m. EST	W 27–16	6–3–1	Cleveland Stadium	35,211
11	December 11	Chicago Bears	2:00 p.m. EST	W 42–0	7–3–1	Cleveland Stadium	38,155
12	December 18	at New York Giants	2:00 p.m. EST	W 48–34	8–3–1	Yankee Stadium	56,517
Note: Intra-conference opponents are in bold text.

Standings

NFL Eastern Conference
	W	L	T	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Philadelphia Eagles	10	2	0	.833	8–2	321	246	W1
Cleveland Browns	8	3	1	.727	6–3–1	362	217	W3
New York Giants	6	4	2	.600	5–4–1	271	261	L1
St. Louis Cardinals	6	5	1	.545	4–5–1	288	230	W1
Pittsburgh Steelers	5	6	1	.455	4–5–1	240	275	L1
Washington Redskins	1	9	2	.100	0–8–2	178	309	L8

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

NFL Western Conference
	W	L	T	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Green Bay Packers	8	4	0	.667	7–4	332	209	W3
Detroit Lions	7	5	0	.583	7–4	239	212	W4
San Francisco 49ers	7	5	0	.583	7–4	208	205	W1
Baltimore Colts	6	6	0	.500	5–6	288	234	L4
Chicago Bears	5	6	1	.455	5–5–1	194	299	L3
Los Angeles Rams	4	7	1	.364	4–6–1	265	297	L1
Dallas Cowboys	0	11	1	.000	0–6	177	369	L1

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Final statistics

Statistical comparison

	Cleveland Browns	Opponents
First downs	219	208
First downs rushing	107	92
First downs passing	96	102
First downs penalty	16	14
Total net yards	3974	3806
Avg. Per Game	331.2	317.2
Total Plays	647	724
Avg. Per Play	6.1	5.3
Net yards rushing	1930	1643
Avg. Per Game	160.8	136.9
Rushing attempts	383	405
Net yards passing	2044	2163
Avg. Per Game	170.3	180.3
Times sacked-total yards	37–299	26–209
Gross yards	2343	2370
Passing – Completions/attempts	160?264	163/319
Completion Pct.	60.6	51.1
Interceptions thrown	5	31
Punts-average yardage	55–42.0	46–45.0
Net Punting Avg.	55–38.7	46–40.5
Penalties-total yards	49–534	48–526
Fumbles-lost	20–12	27–14
Touchdowns	47	26
Touchdown rushing	18	10
Touchdown passing	22	15
Touchdown returns	7	1

Boxscore

Quarter-by-quarter
	1	2	3	4	T
Browns	59	150	58	95	362
Opponents	41	60	48	68	217

Postseason

Main article: Playoff Bowl

Round	Date	Opponent	Time	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance	Recap
Playoff Bowl	January 7, 1961	vs. Detroit Lions	2:00 p.m. EST	L 16–17	0–1	Orange Bowl	34,981

Personnel

Roster

1960 Cleveland Browns roster
Quarterbacks 16 Milt Plum 18 Len Dawson Running backs 32 Jim Brown FB 36 Jamie Caleb 40 Prentice Gautt 49 Bobby Mitchell WR/HB/KR 22 Tom Watkins HB Wide receivers 26 Ray Renfro 86 Gern Nagler WR/TE 85 A.D. Williams WR/FL/E 87 Fred Murphy 88 Rich Kreitling Tight ends 42 Bobby Crespino SE/TE 83 Johnny Brewer 81 Leon Clarke E/FL		Offensive linemen 56 John Morrow C 54 Bob Denton DE/T 60 John Wooten G 64 Jim Ray Smith G 66 Gene Hickerson G 74 Mike McCormack T 70 Errol Linden T 77 Dick Schafrath T 78 Gene Selawski T Defensive linemen 72 Floyd Peters DT 79 Bob Gain DT 84 Paul Wiggin DE 68 Larry Stephens DL 70 Jim Prestel DT 80 Jim Marshall DT		Linebackers 52 Dave Lloyd MLB 35 Galen Fiss OLB 50 Vince Costello MLB 34 Walt Michaels LLB 82 Jim Houston OLB/DE Defensive backs 20 Ross Fichtner S 24 Bobby Franklin S 30 Bernie Parrish CB 22 Rich Mostardi CB 44 Jim Shofner CB/PR Special teams 76 Lou Groza K 38 Sam Baker P 46 Don Fleming DB/LS rookies in italics

Staff/coaches

1960 Cleveland Browns staff
	Front office Majority owner/CEO & president – Dave R. Jones Minority owner/vice president – Ellis Ryan Minority owner/vice president – Homer Marshman Minority owner/vice president – Saul Silberman Coaches Head coach – Paul Brown Offensive coaches Quarterbacks/running backs – Howard Brinker Offensive guards – Fritz Heisler Offensive tackles – Ed Ulinski Offensive backfield and ends – Paul Bixler			Defensive coaches Defensive line – Dick Evans Linebackers – Ed Ulinski Strength & conditioning Athletic trainer – Leo Murphy Equipment manager – Morris Kono

Awards and records

• Jim Brown, NFL rushing leader, 1,257 yards
• Milt Plum, NFL leader, passing yards, (2,297)

Milestones

• Jim Brown, third consecutive 1,000 yard season
• Jim Brown, fourth consecutive rushing title

External links

• 1960 Cleveland Browns Statistics at jt-sw.com
• 1960 Cleveland Browns Schedule at jt-sw.com
• 1960 Cleveland Browns at DatabaseFootball.com